If you think ‘I’ve got a book in me!’,…

Do you REALLY have a book in you? As a ghostwriter, I get approached at least five times a week by potential clients, whom I’m always happy to hear from, so please do drop me a line! But very few queries turn into actual books, because the reality of writing a completed book is often different from what people imagine. People often say: ‘You should write a book!’ as a response to a set of life experiences. While everyone, whoever they are, definitely has stories to tell, it takes something unique to turn them into an actual book. So when someone

‘Narrative non-fiction’ – the rise of the non-celeb memoir…

Susan Feldstein is one half of literary agency The Feldstein Agency based out of Northern Ireland, which she runs with her husband Paul. In this week’s blog, Susan talks about the rise of the ‘narrative non-fiction’ market and how writers no longer need to have celeb status to get published. Paul, my partner in our boutique literary agency on the north-east coast of Ireland, has worked in publishing on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 40 years, and in that time has had ample opportunity to observe the many quirks of the industry. One of his many observations

Rewriting the Rewrites

When working with a publisher, what had been considered a pretty much completed manuscript can often be anything but. Instead of the occasional polish here and there, and perhaps slight rearrangement of text, there can be such a long list of demands that for the ghostwriter who wrote it – or author, if not employing the services of a ghost – it can feel like working on an entirely new manuscript. That’s undoubtedly overstating it – much of the originally submitted text will remain in some form, but the requested changes affect the flow and rhythm of language on the

Chaos Getting You Down? Time to Write Your Book

We’re living in chaotic, unpredictable and frustrating times. Major change is happening and no-one knows quite what lies on the other side of the extraordinary political upheaval going on around us. Most of us don’t find uncertainty – whether personal or social – easy to live with. We want to know what’s happening and where we stand. We want to be able to plan with a sense of predictability, to map out our lives for the future. But at the moment many of us are feeling increasingly at sea. We’re living through a period of huge political and social confusion,

Ask an Expert…

Liz Gough, publisher of Yellow Kite and lifestyle at Hodder & Stoughton, talks the latest trends in the self-help and wellness market, the non-fiction book that created the biggest buzz at the London Book Fair and what’s currently on her reading pile. Is the lifestyle market still growing?It’s booming! We launched in 2014 and in the past few years most of the major publishers have started their own non-fiction lifestyle imprints. Our strapline at Yellow Kite is ‘books that help you live a good life’ so we cover everything from wellbeing, healthy eating and exercise to mindfulness, work, parenting and