I am a ghostwriter. That means I write books for other people, sometimes for little credit (hence the term “ghost”). It didn’t start out that way. I had 9-year-old visions of authorship as a girl and wrote my own children’s book complete with crayon illustrations. (Dad kept it and gave it back to me in my thirties and I wept at its innocence and creativity—not to mention the fact that he had cared enough to keep it in mint condition all those years.) As a new mother, I had a dream of a book I was “supposed” to write (and did), where I interviewed a bunch of other people about their dreams.
From there, it snowballed into a gig writing celebrity cover stories for a magazine, writing proposals for others, editing books, and then penning them on my computer, in partnership with people who didn’t have enough time or patience to do it themselves.
People ask me all the time if I mind being behind the scenes of a big book. If I mind that the other guy—namely the celebrated author whose name is on the cover—gets all the credit and much of the cash. Mind? Are you kidding me? What an honor it is to help someone birth his or her story. What a blessing it is to stay home all day with my dog at my feet (or in my lap) while I get paid (well) to learn, to have the chance to interview someone hour upon hour and be the recipient of all their hard-earned knowledge. Talk about a crash course in success (and sometimes its opposite—as in, “Don’t do as I’ve done!”). What a blast it is to delve that deeply into a person’s psyche and co-create their dream, and to celebrate with them when the “Are-you-sitting-down?” publishing call comes in about their book deal. The camaraderie experienced during collaboration is a deeply profound experience.
If I wanted to become famous, I’d spend more time writing my own stories (Lord knows, I’ve got a few), or jump on the opportunities I’ve had to work in TV. No thanks. I watched my buddy Leeza Gibbons tied to a studio for hours and hours and years and years as a talk show host. She had an enviable life, no doubt, and felt blessed to help so many people. But I saw all that dressing up and make up and answering to studio heads as anything but my bag, baby. We’re all wired for a different game, and my form of storytelling is in the midwife-the-stories-of-others genre.
You might be amazed to learn that ghostwriting is one of the fastest growing careers in this country. (I swear Inc. magazine said that a few years back, but forgive me, I can’t find it.) Maybe you’ve wanted to try your hand at writing a book for others. If so, I HIGHLY recommend it! Rumor has it that at least 50% of books are ghostwritten or worked on by an outside writer/editor. With the hundreds of thousands of books released each year, that creates a serious demand. Ghostwriter Claudia Suzanne estimates that there are as few as 50 professional ghostwriters earning a living at this craft (admitting that the number could be 10,000 if she’s wildly off), but if you do the numbers, that still makes for incredible job security!
To me, there’s no greater gift than knowing I’m helping shortcut someone else’s process. I was once in their shoes. I remember feeling like I was standing at the bottom of an enormous mountain in 100-degree weather with bare feet! Just this week, while I was blissfully collaborating with my new friends at our Carmel Writing Retreat, two of my clients were getting much closer to their publishing dreams. Past retreat participant, the enormously talented forgiveness expert Ana Holub, was signing with the famed agent Jeff Herman (love him) after he read her breathtaking proposal. Another (confidential for a few more weeks) got a call that the CEO & Founder of New World Library, Marc Allen, wanted to take a meeting based on his proposal. What goosebumpy messages to come home to! (Some fb photos of our retreat last week.)
To those who worry that hiring a ghostwriter will look like they didn’t do anything, I love what Claudia has to say about that… that it takes an entire lifetime to learn the lessons espoused in a person’s book. No one assumes that a ghostwriter originates the information (or at least all of it). It took an entire life for Colin Powell, for example, to have something to say that other people would want to read about. It can take a businessperson hundreds of deals, meetings, mistakes and triumphs to develop a system important enough to share with the world. It will take the writer a matter of months to put all that experience and expertise into readable manuscript form… The contribution is valuable, even damned valuable, and certainly laborious, and time-consuming. “Only one guy could claim to have started in vaudeville,” says Claudia, “with a seal; played straight man to Gracie Allen on stage, in movies and on TV; and still be a show-biz icon at 100: George Burns. No matter who helped him with the writing, he was the author of all his books.’” Bravo. Well said!
Whether you’re writing books for yourself or others, it’s always a good reminder to stay clear of those soul-sucking filler words. Even those of us who write for a living need that reminder from time to time.
Until next time, happy writing!
Linda
