Updated May 2026 to reflect current data. Original recording: 2025.

Richard Lowe (The Writing King) joins Angelia Malbrew on Let’s Talk, The Elevated Brand Podcast to talk about what actually makes a book elevate a brand, and how to choose the right person to write it. He explains why the working relationship matters more than the price, why he starts every project with the reader rather than the author, how he finds the common thread that turns scattered material into a single story, and where AI genuinely helps and where it can’t. He also shares the client outcomes that show what a book can do, from a CEO’s foreword to venture capital to a TED Talk.

Let’s Talk, The Elevated Brand Podcast is hosted by Angelia Malbrew, a luxury brand expert, strategist, and photographer.

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Interview

Angelia Malbrew: Welcome back to Let’s Talk, The Elevated Brand Podcast. I’m your host, Angelia Malbrew, luxury brand expert, strategist, business elevator. Today we have the Richard Lowe, the Writing King. I’ll give him a moment to introduce himself.

Richard: Happy to be here. I’m Richard Lowe, the Writing King, and my job is to write books for people to help them elevate their brand and do better in their business. I write all kinds of books.

Angelia: When we met, we talked about your history, from working at Trader Joe’s to now being this amazing Writing King. What was the biggest inspiration for such a bold career shift?

From Trader Joe’s to the Writing King

Richard: A couple of things. My first book was at 17, written for my grandfather, who I barely knew. I interviewed him and discovered he was a World War Two hero almost nobody knew about. We never published it, but I had a fascinating time learning someone else’s story and came away with deep respect for him. That stayed with me through my technical career. Near the end of it, I was tired of working for big corporations and decided to try the freelancer route. I probably did it all wrong, there’s no blueprint, jumped off the cliff with no parachute. Fortunately I had a little money in the bank, and I started as a writer, then went into ghostwriting right away. It took a while to get going, like all businesses do, but it became a very nice journey.

Angelia: So you’ve been an author how many years?

Richard: Thirteen years, not including that book for my grandfather, which was way back.

Angelia: Did you realize at 17 you were onto something, or was it more of a passion project?

Richard: A passion project. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing at 17. I was dumb as a brick, like most 17-year-olds. So you’ve written how many books to date?

Richard: I’ve written over 113 under my own name, a few more under pen names, and ghostwritten 54+ for clients.

Angelia: Some people don’t get past the first chapter before they quit. What would you tell someone in the middle of writing a book who needs inspiration?

Discipline Over Distraction

Richard: You have to get some discipline in your life. Get rid of the distractions, eat right, set aside time, keep going. Ignore the people who belittle you, because that happens when you’re creative. And write in short spurts, a steady daily stint on each book, switching between the four to six I keep going at once. The spurt is short enough that I don’t get stuck in writer’s block and long enough that I get stuff done. And I make sure I’m walking and eating right. I don’t drink and I don’t smoke, those things can all interfere with writing.

Angelia: What would you tell someone who has a story in their heart and wants to step outside the norm and become an author?

Knock Off the Excuses

Richard: I’d ask, why aren’t you doing it? You’re going to have excuses, me included in the early days: I don’t have the money, the time, I don’t know how to write. Knock it off. If it’s important, make it happen. No money? Get a second job. No time? Find what you’re doing that isn’t in pursuit of your goals. Don’t know how to write? Learn, or hire a ghostwriter. If you keep putting it off, you’ll never do it. I have a goal to visit the ICE Hotel in Sweden, and I’ve put it off for decades with all kinds of excuses, I don’t want to leave the country, it’s going to be cold. We come up with a million and one excuses when we should just take action.

Work With Your Rhythm

Richard: I work best in the morning and the evening, not the middle of the day, because I’m in Florida and it gets hot midday. So I use the middle of the day for hobbies and napping, and work early and late. It would drive a lot of people bonkers, but it’s what I thrive on. If your goal is to be a coach who actually makes it instead of struggling, look at the successful ones. A lot of them have a book, and they’re disciplined enough to get it written, nine times out of ten by hiring a ghostwriter. I help people who have a goal: one wanted to be noticed by the CEO of a Fortune 50 company, another wanted venture capital. I helped them write a book that built their credibility, and they got what they wanted. And a few just wanted a book as a lifelong goal, and finally achieved it. That’s quite a feeling.

Doris and Gators in the Soup

Richard: One of my favorites is a woman in her seventies who had written down her dreams across an entire lifetime and hired me to turn them into a novel. We did, it’s on Amazon as Gators in the Soup, and seeing what it meant to her is one of the reasons I do this work.

Angelia: What would you tell someone looking at possibly hiring a ghostwriter?

Hiring a Ghostwriter: The Relationship Comes First

Richard: I do a free one-hour consultation. Sometimes we talk and a book isn’t the right fit, or the relationship won’t work. Writing a book is a long-term thing, it takes months unless it’s very small, so it’s a relationship. I’m going to be talking to you a lot. So the first thing to look at when hiring a ghostwriter is whether the relationship will work. That should come before price. You’ll learn it on the first interview. If you’re not talking directly to the ghostwriter, you’re talking to a salesperson, and you won’t get a real sense of how you’ll work together. One advantage of working with me is you’re talking to the person who’s actually going to write your book. If the relationship is good with me, it’ll be good through the whole process.

Angelia: With technology evolving, is AI playing a larger role in content creation as it relates to ghostwriting?

AI Is an Assistant, Not the Author

Richard: AI is definitely a disruptor, affecting everything from videos to books. I find it useful as a digital assistant, which means it isn’t writing for me. It helps with research, proofreading, and formatting. I can ask: does this make logical sense, did I repeat anything, are there better words, have I used words too big for my audience? All of that makes the book better. But the writing needs to be with the person, because the person has the heart and the AI doesn’t. If you want a book as plain and vanilla as every other book out there, use AI. If you want one that’s uniquely you with your soul in it, hire me, we’ll do interviews and I’ll take your essence and put it in the book. And by the way, I can tell an AI-written book in under five seconds just by looking at it.

The Reader Comes First

Richard: After we sign the contract, we spend several weeks on analysis where I interview the client. The first thing I’m trying to find out is the reader. Who is the reader? “Everybody,” is the usual answer. Of course it isn’t. So we narrow it down: the reader is a security person, great, narrow it more. What does this reader want, what’s their goal, why do they want it? Then we talk about the client: what do you want, what are your goals? And we match them up, along with the client’s stories, livelihood, and expertise, all the things that make them them.

Before all that gets merged, we have to find the common thread, because you can’t write about everything. We find the thread and build a cohesive story, whether it’s a book about blockchain or a fantasy. It can’t be everything plus the kitchen sink, it has to be a story. Even a nonfiction book about coaching needs a story. That’s what a lot of books miss, and those are the boring ones. The books that make coaches and presidents and celebrities real are the ones with the stories and the heart in them. Without the heart, it’s not a great book.

Angelia: How should writers coming up now look to adapt?

Adapting as a New Writer

Richard: The problem with adapting is that it’s changing very rapidly, new engines and tools every day, because everybody thinks there’s money in it. So just follow your heart. If you’ve got a great idea for a science fiction novel, write it. Find someone to collaborate with, or do it yourself. One service I offer is brainstorming sessions, usually about ten hours together, pounding the idea out on the whiteboard, for people who have an idea but don’t quite know what they want to write.

Angelia: One meaningful project was the book you created for Miss Doris before she passed. How did that experience shape you?

Fulfilling Dreams

Richard: It totally changed my viewpoint. I got to see the joy and love firsthand, her lifelong dream brought to life. I had another with a VP at a big Fortune 50 company who wanted to get noticed by the CEO. By the time we finished, the CEO wrote the foreword, the VP was featured in libraries, got on the speaking circuit doing $10,000 engagements, and then raised several million dollars in venture capital to start his own company, all based on the book as a foundation. Another author of mine got a TED Talk, his lifelong dream. Books help people fulfill their dreams.

Angelia: If there’s one piece of advice for someone writing a book who feels overwhelmed, what would you say?

Just Do It

Richard: Just do it. If that means finding someone like me, you probably want to start with a writing coach: a few hours to bang out the idea and figure out why you have writer’s block and how to proceed. Or hire a ghostwriter, or a book coach where I write the book with you. Move forward, because you can sit on it all day and then at 95 in a hospital bed think, I should have written that book. That’s the last place you want to be thinking that. We’re not here forever, so achieve your goal. The blocks in the way are just blocks, get them out of the way.

I’ve tried to market my services for years, and I finally realized I’m not a marketer. So I hired a marketing company. Not only did it come off my plate, I can focus on writing great books. They even tell me sometimes, stop doing that, we’re doing that for you now.

Angelia: How can people contact you and get more information?

How to Get Started

Richard: Visit thewritingking.com and the contact forms will let you set up an appointment. It generally runs thirty to sixty minutes, and we’ll go through what you’re trying to solve and come up with solutions, anything from a course, to a short brainstorming session, to book coaching where you write and I help, to a full ghostwriting project, depending on your goals and budget. I’ll be honest with you, and we’ll work out a plan from where you are through publishing. I don’t do it all, I have people to refer you to, but I manage the process. I won’t publish your book or design the cover, I’m not an artist, but I’ll find a book cover artist and put all the pieces in place, including marketing, so you can decide which to use.

Angelia: Is there anything they should bring to the first appointment?

Richard: That’s one of the blocks people run into: oh, I need to get my idea ready. No. Just make the appointment, we’ll figure it out. Don’t bother preparing anything. The worst that happens is I help you with your idea and never see you again, and that’s fine, because I’m helping somebody.

Find Richard Lowe at TheWritingKing.com.

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