I have kept most of my writings. Even stories I wrote over ten years ago. “Your Missal” (as in prayer book, not rocket ship) was special to me. It was a tribute to my late father and was accepted for an anthology entitled “Gifts of the Fathers.” But, at the last minute the editor made some cuts and “Your Missal” was discarded.
As a professional researcher and writer, I’ve been fascinated by the interplay of ideas and viewpoints that shape so much of modern writing. Op-eds, think pieces, political opinions and tracts, articles on current issues and controversies – the list is endless. A vast writer’s market exists for those who can research and write. As I […]
When my daughter, Stephanie, was 2 1/2, she started thinking about her future. One day, she told me she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up. The next day, it was a chef. Later, a ballerina. And I always said the same thing: “You can be anything you want to be.”
The previous article I wrote for WritersWeekly.com, The Good Life of Ghostwriting, brought a wave of email questions, most of which were from writers wanting to know how to market their services as a ghostwriter. Ah, the $64,000 question: where do I find clients? How do I let them know what I do? How do […]
First of all, I don’t spend a lot of time going to psychics; in fact I’ve only been to one once. Secondly, I’m not sure the psychic’s prediction was a deciding factor in my fate, but it’s always interested me nonetheless.
One of the primary reasons I first became a book ghost rather than a freelancer writer has to do with statistics. Book industry insiders estimate that 50% or more of all traditionally published books in today’s market are worked on by one or more ghost/book doctor/line editor. In the self-publishing world, the percentage is probably […]
A few weeks ago I was in a heated email discussion about promo items and the best way to use them to promote ebooks and print-on-demand books. The items of choice seemed to be pens, bookmarkers, t-shirts, mouse pads and fridge magnets with calendars — the list was endless. Unless you simply want some “home […]
“Everyone wants to write fiction,” author and speaker Ace Collins said to me during a phone conversation. “How is it that you get to so quickly in your writing career?”
When it comes to having a successful writing career, being in the right place at the right time has little to do with luck. It’s more about positioning yourself to be recognized when opportunity comes knocking. At least that’s how I explain the steps that led to two of my books getting published. In the […]
“When a man can observe himself suffering and is able, later, to describe what he’s gone through, it means he was born for literature.” A writer named Edouard Bourdet said that in 1927. Many years later, those words still speak to this writer’s soul.
