All ghostwriters are good writers. That’s what clients imagine they are paying for. The challenge, of course, is that good writers — even great writers — are as common as robins in the spring. What gets ghostwriters work, of course, is referrals. And what gets referrals are the skills they have other than writing. These…
All book projects are team efforts. But if you’re on a team, it helps to know your team members’ motivations. Here’s what everyone on your team really wants: Only the author truly knows their objectives All of these partners are out to help you and your book to be successful. With appropriate communication, you can…
If it’s your ambition to ghostwrite books, what do you need to know, and what do you need to do? To start, here’s an inventory of the skills you need for nonfiction ghostwriting (with some notes about fiction at the end of this post): Whew! That’s a lot to know. But you also need a…
Since I published my book, people are coming out of the woodwork asking me to ghostwrite for them. Ghostwriters are expensive and are often unavailable. So you should think carefully if you really need one, or if you need a developmental editor. Here’s a table of tasks that developmental editors and ghostwriters for nonfiction books…
“Seeking a ghostwriter or coauthor,” the email subject line read. Make up your mind, I thought. Because those are two very different roles. A coauthor works with you, while a ghostwriter works for you. How to decide if you want a coauthor or a ghostwriter I get it. You think you need writing help. But…
“What’s your process for ghostwriting a book?” This is a simple question with 31 million possible answers. It all depends on how the author (client) and the ghost writer plan to work together. Here’s a set of questions that the writer and the author/client should agree on before you get started. These apply to nonfiction…
Ghostwriting is full of potential pitfalls. Asking two questions can help you avoid them and get your pricing and process right. What you will read in this post is based on my own experience ghostwriting two nonfiction books and many proposals, and from war stories from other ghostwriters. The two questions you must answer before…
A friend and fellow author recently asked me to be his coauthor on a topic close to his heart. I said no. Quickly. It has nothing to do with him. It has to do with the nature of coauthoring. What a coauthor is, and why I won’t be yours I’ve coauthored three books. Here’s the…
Tomorrow you will get to read my first ever horror story — and it’s a paid gig. Here’s how that happened and why it probably was inevitable. My ghostwriting agency, Gotham Ghostwriters, regularly sends out emails with specific ghostwriting needs. I’m very selective about which ones I pitch, because my value is in writing tech-focused…