Everything I Get Wrong in My Own Books, I Stop Doing in Yours
A ghostwriter who never publishes under their own name never has to live with the consequences of a bad structural decision.
Category: Writing (Page 19)
GhostwritingWill You Ghostwrite My Book for Free? Why Royalty Splits and Exposure Deals Don’t Work
People ask me to ghostwrite for free more than you would believe, offering exposure, royalty splits, or a vague favor in exchange for a supposed bestseller. The answer is always no. Here is what the money actually buys, why cheap…
Artificial IntelligenceAI Writes About Feelings. It Does Not Write With Them.
Ask for a moving passage and you get the vocabulary of moving passages. Everything is named and nothing is at risk.
Behind the BookI 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.
GhostwritingCelebrity Ghostwriting: Capturing a Voice the Public Knows
Celebrity books are ghostwriting's most visible open secret. The craft is capturing a voice the public already knows.
GhostwritingWhat Happens Week by Week in a Ghostwriting Project?
A ghostwritten book usually takes four to eight months from the first interview. Here's the calendar view: the kickoff, the interview weeks, the outline, chapters arriving one at a time, the final read, and what slows a project down.
GhostwritingHow a Ghostwriter Gets the Slang Right: Capturing Dialect and Verbal Fingerprint
Everyone carries a verbal fingerprint: favorite words, repeated phrases, the slang that surfaces without thought. Those are the raw materials of voice, and getting them right is what makes readers believe the client wrote the book. Miss, and every page…
GhostwritingHow to Choose Your Book Topic: A Self-Test From a Ghostwriter
After 54+ books, I can tell you the topic is almost never the real problem. Most people who contact me already know what their book is about; they just do not trust the answer yet. The real question is whether…
Behind the BookI 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.
Artificial IntelligenceAI Cannot Give You the One Thing Only You Have
Ask for an illustrative example and you get a plausible composite. Plausible composites are exactly what readers stop believing.
Artificial IntelligenceAI Does Not Know You, and That Is the Whole Problem
A model knows what people in your field generally say. That is the one thing your book must not be.
GhostwritingWhy I Always Write the First Chapter Last
Before the full manuscript, I write one chapter, send it over, and ask a single question: does this sound like you? Not is it accurate, not is it well-written, does it sound like you. Voice is what makes a ghostwritten…