Memoir and self-disclosure

In her excellent blog post of just a few weeks ago (28 September 2019), my United Ghostwriters colleague, Caro Handley, wrote about the value of telling ‘the whole truth’ in your memoir – i.e. including in your account of your life the stories of the times when you made mistakes, hurt others or made decisions you later regretted. Caro is a vastly experienced ghostwriter with more than 50 bestselling books under her belt and has worked with a number of very high-profile clients from all walks of life, and her point about honesty being the best way, not only to

10 Tips for Writing Your First Novel

As I have recently discovered, writing a novel is not for the fainthearted. For starters, there’s the exhausting process of living and breathing your characters, plots and storylines, only to realise how unfeasible everything looks when it stares back at you on the page in unforgiving black and white. Writing fiction is never going to be easy, but the following 10 tips might just help you hang on to your sanity. Don’t squirrel yourself away Tempting though it may be to hide yourself away from the world with just your keyboard for company, too much time focused on your novel

A Different Way of Skinning the Cat

Working with a ghostwriter, while a sound investment, isn’t something that everybody can afford. But while the cost of a fully ghostwritten book will be prohibitive to some, this doesn’t mean that aspiring authors can’t get their proposed book to market – far from it. At a time when the self-publishing industry presents real options for writers – as do the increasingly prevalent ‘author partnerships’, or joint contribution schemes, whereby publisher and writer share the costs associated with publishing – the options available are widening. The difficulty in submitting manuscripts to more traditional publishers, and the ostensible snobbery of many,

The Courage to be Honest

Client: Can we leave him out of it? We really don’t get on and I’d rather tell the story without him. Me: But, er, you were married to him for 15 years. I think it might be difficult to write your autobiography without mentioning him. Client: Surely you can just focus on other areas. What about my awards and my TV series? Me: Well those are great, but they’re only a part of your past and the idea is for the reader to get to know you through your story. So we need to include your ex. Client: Well he

How do you write?

It all started with a tweet. I was idly scrolling through Twitter, as I often do when I have a pressing work deadline, when I saw the tweet from an experienced and well-respected ghostwriter. Hoping to smash my 20K word target today. As I read it, I almost dropped my Americano in shock. I’m sixteen books into this ghostwriting business and I don’t think I’ve ever achieved that sort of word count in one day. However, it did get me thinking. Perhaps it’s just me but I’m fascinated by the mechanics of other people’s writing and I wondered how my