Is That Even Allowed? Ghostwriting Demystified on the Radio

Richard Lowe (The Writing King) joins Doug Kelly and Kelly Kelly on The Kelly Kelly Show, broadcasting from Tan Talk Radio in Clearwater, for a lively conversation that runs from the grief that put a camera in his hands to more than 980,000 photographs, a Kindle bestseller, the realities of ghostwriting, and a rapid-fire round of favorites.

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.

Grief, a camera, and the national parks

Doug: Our guest today is Richard Lowe, a professional ghostwriter, and no, he doesn’t write about haunted houses. He’s written 113+ books of his own and ghostwritten 54+ more. Richard, tell us about your experiences with national parks and your later work photographing performers at Renaissance festivals and Civil War reenactments.

Richard: It started in grief, and how to avoid grief. I decided to get out. I tend to be introverted, so it’s easy to fall into depression, so I picked up my camera and went to the national parks. I started with local ones, then before long I was at the Grand Canyon and all the others, then the state parks, then local parks, then Renaissance faires and reenactment festivals like Civil War reenactments. Then I ran into some dancers at a Renaissance faire who became best friends and introduced me to the whole dance community in Southern California, and I became pretty much the Southern California belly dance and dance photographer.

Doug: You mentioned you snapped hundreds of thousands of images over the years.

Richard: Over 980,000 images and 1,500 videos.

From computer security to a BookBub bestseller

Doug: You inevitably progressed to writing and became a bestselling author. Mention some of your book topics and accomplishments.

Richard: The first book I wrote was on computer security, since I’m a computer person, and it sold exactly 12 copies, which is pretty normal for a first book. Then I wrote one on LinkedIn and really pushed it using all the technology available to promote books. I got 1,200 people to read it and almost 80 reviews, and got sales up to almost a thousand. Once you hit a thousand sales you can buy a BookBub ad, so I did, and in three days it sold almost 5,000 copies, which pushed it to the top of the Kindle list for three days as a Kindle bestseller. Then I just kept writing.

What a ghostwriter does, from intense to light

Doug: You’ve written 113+ books and ghostwritten 54+. Can you explain the role of a ghostwriter?

Richard: A ghostwriter is hired by somebody who wants to write a book but doesn’t have the time or the ability; it’s a complex process to create a book, so they hire someone like me. I’m the mid-range ghostwriter, not the ones you find on the cheap freelance sites and not the ones doing celebrities, though I’d like to. I interview the client, get their notes, and work with them to write the book. Sometimes it’s very intense: I have one client I’m online with an hour a day, every weekday, and we’ve been doing that almost a year. Another client gave me a two-hour interview and said, you’re done, go write the book, which is scary, because at the end you hand it over and hope it’s right.

The future of print

Doug: Besides books, you’ve written over a thousand articles. What’s your opinion of the future of print journalism in this age of the internet?

Richard: Print journalism has to find a way to survive. People still like it because there’s a tangible element, holding a book, magazine, or newspaper. Books are on the rise, paperbacks and hardcovers, actually rising faster than e-books, which have flattened out because some people like them and some don’t. I like a nice book in my hand, but I also like an e-book on an airplane where I have 400 books in my library. It’s certainly put a major hit on newspapers, because they can’t deliver today’s news the way the internet, television, or radio can. Honestly, I don’t know why newspapers still exist. Even ad-generated news websites are starting to fall, because the advertising model isn’t working well anymore.

The goal: 24 books this year

Doug: What projects or goals are you working on now?

Richard: I’ve set a goal this year to get two new books a month, to ghostwrite 24 books this year. I’ve calculated the hours and I can do it; I just need the clients to come in, and I’ve been working very hard on generating clients.

Doug: If somebody wanted to hire you as a ghostwriter, how would they contact you?

Richard: They’d go to thewritingking.com, with the V in front of the writing, and use the contact form, or fictionmasterclass.com, which also has a contact form.

Books over photography, and California to Clearwater

Doug: You have podcasts, blogs, and photography. What’s your favorite, book writing?

Richard: I enjoyed the photography, mostly because I focused on photographing women, since I wanted to get out and become an extrovert. But my main target now is books. I’ve done 300 LinkedIn profiles, I can do blogs, I can do a lot of things, but I really like doing books, so that’s the kind of client I’m trying to attract, and it’s working pretty well.

Doug: You moved from California to Clearwater in 2013. How do you like it?

Richard: I like it a lot better than California. I was near L.A., grew up in San Bernardino, and I don’t miss the earthquakes at all, zero percent.

Favorite places: a belly dance cruise and the Grand Canyon

Doug: What’s your favorite place to visit in the world?

Richard: I’d have to give two. Number one was Ensenada, not because of Ensenada itself but because I went there four times as the photographer on a belly dance cruise with 400 belly dancers. I was one of the few men there and had to photograph all the dancers, which was rough. I never even got off the ship or saw Ensenada; they were all performing and taking classes, so I was photographing and having a great time. The other is the Grand Canyon, which is magnificent.

Role model, and the rapid-fire game

Doug: Who’s your role model in life?

Richard: Martin Luther King. He had the right ideas and the right concepts, especially at a very tough time. We need to know the Martin Luther King now, peaceful demonstrations. He was absolutely an icon in our history.

Doug: Now our make-a-choice game: two items, pick your favorite. Summer or winter Olympics?

Richard: Winter. I grew up in the mountains in the snow. A mountain stream over the sea, for the same reason. Nonfiction over fiction; I love biographies. Ancient history over modern, especially Rome. And for social media, my third choice: I live on LinkedIn, it’s B2B, that’s how you reached me.

Doug: Reading or writing?

Richard: Writing, it’s a creative release, though my fondness for writing came from being a dedicated reader, about 60/40. I started reading at three and read every day.

A reader made in a POW camp, and integrity over money

Richard: My dad was never a reader until World War II, when he was a prisoner of war. He was a pilot, and there’s nothing to do in a POW camp except read old, tattered books. After he got back, forever after he was a reader. Once you get into it and realize how it stimulates your mind, you become hooked.

Doug: You mentioned before the show that you’ll ghostwrite just about any subject except ones you disagree with philosophically. You’re very anti-drug, and you’re to be commended, because for some people money counts first and integrity second.

Richard: It’s funny: when your integrity goes out, your money goes down over time, along with your self-esteem and everything else. Something I really believe in is human rights, and the UN Declaration of Human Rights is pretty much the basis of what I believe.

Quotable moments

Frequently asked questions

How did photography lead to a writing career?

It began as a deliberate response to grief and introversion, a reason to get out of the house with a camera. That grew from local parks to every national park in the West, then to Renaissance faires and the Southern California dance community, ultimately more than 980,000 images. The habit of observing, framing, and documenting fed directly into the writing career that followed.

How closely does a ghostwriter work with the client?

It varies widely by project. Some clients meet with the ghostwriter for an hour every weekday over the better part of a year; others sit for a single long interview and hand the rest over entirely. The intensity depends on how much the client wants to be involved and how much material the writer needs to capture the book accurately.

Is a book still worth writing when e-books and the internet dominate?

Yes. Print books, both paperback and hardcover, have held up and in some periods risen faster than e-books, because readers value the tangible object. The medium under real pressure is the newspaper, which can’t deliver the day’s news as fast as the internet, television, or radio. A book remains a durable credibility and authority tool regardless of format trends.

Will a ghostwriter take any project for the money?

Not necessarily. Richard turns down subjects that conflict with his principles, including anything promoting drug use. His reasoning is practical as much as ethical: when integrity goes, money and self-esteem tend to follow it down over time. Choosing clients whose work you can stand behind is part of sustaining the business.