Before 2014 I Spent a Thousand Hours a Year Watching Other People’s Work
They say they are too busy to exercise, too tired to cook, too overwhelmed to read, and too stressed to see friends. Then they watch Netflix for four hours.
Category: Advice
Practical guidance drawn from decades of professional experience in ghostwriting, IT leadership, and fiction writing. These articles address real challenges writers and professionals face, with specific strategies rather than generic tips.
AdviceI Climbed Out of That Canyon at Eight at Night
Breathless at the top of a canyon at eight at night, explaining to a fireman named Kurt what had happened and where my father was.
AdviceI Spent Thirty-Three Years in a Box and Called It a Career
Never went looking for better, never went back to school, never reached past the edge of what I had. Comfortable is the wall people mistake for a career.
AdviceYou’re Renting, Not Owning: What the Anthropic Shutdown Teaches Writers
The U.S. government switched off Anthropic's most powerful AI models overnight, proving in a single stroke that nobody who uses AI actually owns it. If your business runs on a rented tool, whoever controls it can change the deal or…
AdviceI Decided in Thirty Seconds Whether Your Resume Was Worth Reading
Twenty years on the hiring side of the table. I know what hiring managers are thinking because I was one, and the first thirty seconds decides more than anybody admits.
AdviceI Asked for a Weekend Off. My Boss Said Fifteen Minutes or You Are Fired.
Not asking permission, just telling him I would be out of range for a weekend. He said if I did not call back within fifteen minutes of a page, I was fired.
AdviceIt Took a Camera to Make Me Comfortable Around Women
I went looking for a method and found several. None of them made me comfortable in a room with a woman in it. A camera did that, years later, entirely by accident.
AdviceWhat I Actually Tell Clients About AI
Six real questions clients ask me about AI, and exactly how I answer each, not hot takes, but the answers I have refined across hundreds of conversations with people about to spend a year and real money on a book.…
AdviceHow Can You Write My Book If You Don’t Know My Field?
How can you write my book if you don't know my field? Because writing a book and knowing a subject are two different jobs, and almost nobody is good at both. You bring the expertise through interviews; I bring the…
AdviceThe Revenge Memoir: Who Shouldn’t Write One
A revenge memoir is a bad idea for the writer and a worse one for the ghostwriter. I once turned down a former mob informant who wanted to name names and settle scores, then promised to keep my role secret,…
AdviceShould You Translate Your Book?
I have forty-six translations of my books across six languages, and never paid a dollar up front, they cost only a slice of royalties. For most authors the honest answer is yes, translate, because the barrier to trying is almost…
AdviceWhy a Paid Book Feasibility Intensive Beats a Free Consult
A free consult and a paid Book Feasibility Intensive do two different jobs. The free call tells you whether you might want to work together; the Intensive proves whether the book will actually happen, because you leave with a real…