A Woman or an Alien From Another Planet: How a Ghostwriter Captures Any Voice

Richard Lowe, The Writing King, joined Doug Thompson for a live-streamed conversation that started with the basics, what a ghostwriter actually is, and worked its way toward the strangest part of the job: getting inside someone else’s head well enough to write in their voice, no matter how far that head is from your own.

Doug: What’s a ghostwriter?

Richard Lowe is The Writing King, a professional ghostwriter and author who has written more than 113 books under his own name and ghostwritten over 54 more for clients.

Before writing full time he spent 33 years in enterprise IT, including two decades as Director of Computer Operations at Trader Joe’s.

DISCUSS YOUR BOOK

Full transcript of the conversation follows.

What is a ghostwriter, and whose name is on it?

Doug: What’s a ghostwriter?

Richard: Someone who writes for you, a book, an article, a poem. Ghostwriters write Hallmark cards. Apparently they write rap music. You hire somebody to write for you, just like you hire a contractor to build your house. So far it’s published under the client’s name, not mine, though I have one in the pipeline where that changes.

Doug: Some people might have issues with someone else taking credit for their work.

Richard: My answer is money. They’re not really taking credit, they’re compensating me for my work, which is fine. About 70% of what I do is for CEOs, CFOs, and senior managers using the book as a marketing tool, not a product. The other 30% is individuals selling a book, usually fiction or a subject they feel strongly about.

Capturing a voice across cultures and genders

Doug: You’ve worked with CEOs across very different industries?

Richard: From dental offices to artificial intelligence. My 33 years in tech help, and if I need to, I’ll interview other experts; one project had me interviewing up to ten people. But what I’m really after is the person’s viewpoint. I listen to their accent, their cultural nuances. I’ve had many Indian clients building a career in the States with a book. My hardest project was my very first, an Afghan politician who spoke little English and had a deep, complex cultural, religious, and political background. Steep learning curve, but enlightening.

Doug: What about writing from a woman’s perspective?

Richard: There’s a story there. After my wife passed, I took up photography and ended up shooting models and dancers, 1,500 women over the years. While they did their makeup I’d sit and talk with them for an hour, two, three, and I learned an enormous amount about how women see things, and that there isn’t just one female viewpoint, there are many. I try to understand a person’s perspective before I even talk to them. I don’t care whether they’re a woman or an alien from another planet; I can interview them and find out their viewpoint.

Doug: So essentially, you’re the storyteller. Is that a skill your clients lack?

Richard: Usually it’s lack of time first, and the inability to write in an engaging way second. They can write, that’s how they reached their positions, but it isn’t necessarily interesting. The trick is the personal stories and anecdotes that give a book its character.

A different book every two hours

Doug: How do you shift mindset between projects?

Richard: In a single day I might write something on tech, then politics, then a children’s or young adult book, then a diet book. I block out the day, two hours here, two hours there, take a walk between them, and come back with a fresh head. That’s switching, not multitasking. Multitasking drives you nuts. It also means I had to cut myself off from most social media, except LinkedIn and Messenger for business, because you’ll lose half a day in a Twitter thread or on TikTok. I write across genres, even fiction and science fiction, and the only way it works is one focused block at a time.

The grandfather’s journal, and the leap

Doug: How did you get into this? You started in tech.

Richard: My first book was my grandfather’s journal, which I turned into a real book at seventeen. He survived the Bataan Death March and four years as a prisoner of war, thousands of captured soldiers forced to march, most of whom didn’t make it. His story stayed with me, and so did that first attempt at writing it. After that I wrote the odd textbook, because nobody in tech likes to write and I was the weirdo who did. In 2013 I was tired of working for someone else, so I jumped off the cliff with some savings and no real plan. I tried eBay and affiliate marketing, found my way to ghostwriting, and once I went out on my own the contracts came, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000. I learned it takes the same effort to land a $100 job as a $15,000 one, so I stopped chasing the small ones.

Turning down $200,000

Doug: Sometimes the cost of doing business is too high.

Richard: Early one year a potential client came in and the alarm bells in the back of my head went off hard. It was a $200,000 project. Every time I’ve ignored those bells, I’ve suffered, so I turned him down. It felt strange walking away from that much money, but it was right, and I could only do it because I keep seven or eight clients going at once. When you have many clients, losing one stings but doesn’t sink you. With one or two, you’re trapped, and you take the jerks.

Competence: the lesson from a strict first boss

Doug: What was your first job?

Richard: A liquor store at seventeen, and my boss was a former World War Two German U-boat commander, the Nazi part aside, an extremely strict man. I lasted two years and was the only one who did. I asked him why, and he said, “Because you’re competent.” Everyone else got fired or left. That stuck with me: you’d better be competent, especially as a freelancer. It doesn’t mean I never made mistakes, it means I was good at the work and I asked when I didn’t know something. The worst bosses I ever had were the ones who didn’t understand that failure is okay. You’re going to fail. I’m sure even Bill Gates has failed.

Three phases of a life

Doug: How do you view your life journey?

Richard: In three phases. The first was childhood, dumb as a brick. The middle was growing up in the tech field. And now I’m in the last part, and honestly it’s the best. I’m competent, I have most of the knowledge, I know what I want to do, and I’ve found a career that’s both my passion and my income, more than I made in tech. And I get to be a hermit without being laughed at. If you struggle with the talking-to-people part, by the way, join Toastmasters or pick up a camera, get out there and break the shell, because a freelancer who can’t talk to people won’t survive.

Doug: How do people get hold of you?

Richard: Go to thewritingking.com. There are a couple hundred articles, mostly on ghostwriting and writing. I do ghostwriting and writing coaching; if you’ve finished a manuscript and aren’t sure how good it is, I can coach you through it. Coaching is by the hour, ghostwriting by the word, and there’s a form to reach me or schedule a time.

Find Richard Lowe at TheWritingKing.com.

Quotable moments

Frequently asked questions

How does a ghostwriter capture someone’s voice across cultures and genders?

By listening for viewpoint, not just facts, the accent, the cultural nuance, the way a person sees the world. Richard credits years of photographing and talking with people very different from himself for the ability to hear and reproduce almost any perspective.

What was the hardest book he ever wrote?

His very first, for an Afghan politician who spoke little English and brought a deep cultural, religious, and political background. The steep learning curve is exactly what taught him to capture an unfamiliar voice.

Does a ghostwriter “take credit” for the client’s work?

No. The client supplies the expertise and gets the cover credit; the ghostwriter is simply compensated for the writing. It’s a paid service, not a theft of credit.

Who hires ghostwriters, and for what?

About 70% are CEOs, CFOs, and senior managers using a book as a marketing tool rather than something to sell. The other 30% are individuals focused on selling a book, usually fiction or a subject they care deeply about.