I’m Richard Lowe, and I write books for people who have something worth saying and not enough hours to say it. I work out of Clearwater, Florida — just down the road from Palm Harbor, a town I’m in often — and unlike most of the “local” ghostwriters you’ll find online, I’m not an out-of-state agency with your city pasted into a template. I actually live here.
Why Palm Harbor
Palm Harbor is one of the prettiest towns in north Pinellas, and it’s close enough to me that I’m there regularly. Historic Downtown Palm Harbor packs more food, brew, and good company into a few blocks than almost anywhere in the county — the microbreweries like Stilt House and de Bine sit right off the Pinellas Trail, which runs more than thirty miles up the coast. I know the area well, and not just as a visitor passing through.
The Palm Harbor library is part of my routine. I go there regularly for book-critique meetings, sitting around a table working through other people’s manuscripts — which, if you think about it, is exactly the muscle a ghostwriter uses every day. Years ago, not long after I moved to Florida around 2014, I even gave a talk there on cybersecurity. Two people showed up. I think they felt a little sorry for me, but they asked good questions, and I had a fine time. You take the room you’re given. If you want the full picture, here are my ghostwriting services.
I’m a photographer as well as a writer, and the Gulf Coast around Palm Harbor gives me plenty to point a camera at — the trail, the water, the light. The same eye that frames a photograph frames a story: knowing what to leave in, what to cut, and where the reader’s attention should land. Palm Harbor has the kind of relaxed, settled rhythm that good writing needs. Books don’t get written in chaos. They get written in the long, undisturbed stretches of focus this part of the coast makes possible.
A Local Worth Remembering: Deanna Bennett
Palm Harbor was home to author Deanna J. Bennett (1945–2023), and I knew her through the East Lake Writers’ Workshop, the critique group she founded in 2004 and ran for years. She wrote the Anna Immigration Trilogy — Anna: Going to America, Anna: American Journey, and Anna: American Dream — historical fiction following a fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl through Ellis Island and into American life in 1914, inspired by her own grandmother. She also hosted a long-running author talk series at the East Lake Community Library, giving other writers a room and an audience. I serve clients throughout Pinellas County. Sitting around a table with Deanna and the rest of the group, working line by line through each other’s manuscripts, is exactly the kind of work that makes a writer better. She’s missed, and her books are worth reading. Her family’s memorial is at Curlew Hills.
What I Actually Do
I take your ideas, your expertise, your story — and turn them into a finished book that reads as if you wrote it on your best day. That’s the whole job. You stay the author. Your name’s on the cover. My job is to disappear into your voice.
I’ve written more than 113+ books under my own name, including the Kindle bestseller Focus on LinkedIn, and ghostwritten over 54+ for other people. Some of those clients have been right here in north Pinellas — and being close enough to meet in person, when a client wants to, is part of what makes local work easy.
How I Work
Every book starts with a conversation. I do an initial interview to draw out the shape of the book and build a working outline. From there we go deep — sometimes twenty interviews, sometimes as many as forty, depending on the size and complexity of the book. Those interviews are where your real voice and knowledge come out, and they’re the raw material everything else is built from.
I use AI tools to help structure the overview outline, which you then approve before any writing begins. Then we work chapter by chapter. For each chapter I build an outline first, write the chapter myself, and send it to you. You approve it or ask for changes, I revise, and we go back and forth until that chapter is right — usually about a week per chapter. You get revisions as we go, and one full revision pass at the end once the whole manuscript is drafted. Nothing gets locked in without your sign-off.
How long the whole thing takes depends on length. A 30,000-word book generally runs about four months through the writing; an 80,000-word book is more like seven to eight. I’d rather give you an honest timeline than a flattering one.
Local Clients Welcome
Most of my work is done remotely — the interview-and-draft process works just as well over a call as in person. But I genuinely enjoy working with local clients, and when someone’s nearby, we’ll meet up. Palm Harbor is a short drive from Safety Harbor, where I usually meet clients at the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa. There’s something about starting a book over a good meal, face to face, that a phone call can’t quite match.
The Technical Difference
Here’s what most ghostwriters can’t offer: before I wrote books, I spent decades in information technology — data centers, systems, the hard technical side of the business world. That background means I can write the books most ghostwriters quietly turn down. I also write for authors in Safety Harbor. Artificial intelligence. Digital transformation. Cybersecurity. Machine learning. The Internet of Things. If your book lives in a technical or business space, you won’t spend the first month teaching your ghostwriter what you do. I already speak the language. The cybersecurity talk I gave up at the Palm Harbor library wasn’t an accident — that’s genuinely my background.
That’s rare. Most ghostwriters are generalists who’ll happily write your memoir and then struggle the moment the subject turns technical. I’m the opposite — a writer who came out of the technical world, not one trying to fake his way into it.
Common Questions
Do I keep the rights to my book?
Yes. You keep all rights and all credit. It’s your book and your name on it. I’m rarely listed on the cover — usually just acknowledged on the copyright page or in the back, if at all.
Is the book written by AI?
No. I use AI to help structure outlines, but I write every chapter myself, and you approve each one. The thinking, the writing, and the back-and-forth that makes a book sound like you is human work.
How long will my book take?
It depends on length. Roughly four months for a 30,000-word book and seven to eight months for an 80,000-word book, including the interviews, the chapter-by-chapter writing, and the final revision pass.
Do you work with clients in person or remotely?
Both. Most of my work is remote, but local Palm Harbor and Pinellas County clients are welcome to meet in person — usually in nearby Safety Harbor.
Who was Deanna Bennett?
Deanna J. Bennett (1945–2023) was a Palm Harbor author and the founder of the East Lake Writers’ Workshop, a local critique group she started in 2004. She wrote the Anna Immigration Trilogy, historical fiction about a young Lithuanian immigrant in 1914 inspired by her own grandmother, and hosted an author talk series at the East Lake Community Library. I knew her through the workshop. Her Anna books remain in print, and her family’s memorial is at Curlew Hills. I also write for authors in Clearwater.
Nearby and related
I work across north Pinellas and beyond. You might also be looking at Safety Harbor, just south, Clearwater nearby, and the wider Pinellas County area.
Let’s Talk
If you’re in Palm Harbor, anywhere in Pinellas County, or the wider Tampa Bay area, and you’ve got a book in you that isn’t getting written, let’s have a conversation. The first consultation is free and there’s no pressure. You tell me about your book; I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right person to write it.
Set up a free consultation, and let’s get your book started.
Related: across Florida