Writers may at any time get called on to write anything from social media posts to instructions to research reports. The more versatile you are, the more valuable you are. I’ll illustrate this with examples from my own career. While it included a lot more than writing, you could easily describe many of my jobs…
As a ghostwriter, you appear to work for your author client. Even so, generally speaking, you should manage the book project. Here’s why and how. Why ghostwriters should manage book projects Consider your own skills and abilities. You’ve most likely completed book projects before, so you know what’s involved. You know how to plan and…
Newsletter 26: Incumbent vs. incumbent, writing better than machines, Amazon under fire, three people to follow, three books to read, and the gathering of the ghosts. The easiest election choice ever We are about to enter the extended, loud, contentious, and tedious US presidential election season. In some election years this is a difficult choice….
In the nine years I’ve been freelancing, I’ve chosen not to work with a number of potential clients. There were also a few I probably shouldn’t have worked with. I thought you might benefit from seeing why I say no to business. To be clear, these are a small percentage of the opportunities I see….
I’m disciplined and strategic about meetings. Reflecting on that, I’ve realized just how much it improves the quality of my client relationships and the work I do. For context, I’m a freelance writer and editor. But these principles may be helpful to you as a creative worker, regardless of what you create. Your meeting strategy…
If you are writing a nonfiction book in a corporate setting, it’s likely you’ll have multiple reviewers for everything you write. This applies regardless of whether you’re the author or a ghost writer. And if it’s not managed carefully, this situation has the potential to significantly multiply the workload, reduce your final quality, and blow…
I’ll share the methodical and efficient process I use to construct a nonfiction book chapter, whether for a book I’m writing for myself or one I’m ghostwriting for others. By the way, if you think eight drafts per chapter is a lot, you’re either a brilliantly intuitive writer — or you’ve never experienced what it’s…
If you’re going to hire me (or anyone else) to help you writing or editing your book, I’m going to ask a bunch of seemingly invasive questions. There are good reasons for those uncomfortable questions. In fact, I’ll go further: if you’re working with a writer, editor, or coach who doesn’t ask these sorts of…
Whether you’re writing in a corporate setting or as a freelancer, you’re likely to face this common issue: multiple “client” individuals that you must satisfy before the project is complete. How can a writer serve more than one master? In my experience, this is both extremely common and very tricky. In the business writer survey…