Special Guest Post By Laura Schaefer: How to Maximize Your Collaboration with a Ghostwriter

You’ve heard about the existence of ghostwriters for years, and now you are finally ready to take the leap and hire one of us to help you tell your story. Bravo! This is an exciting decision and one you’ll be glad you made. But you want to be careful, to do it right. I get it. Investment in a skilled ghostwriter can be significant, starting at $15k for a newbie ghost on up to mid-six figures for an experienced one. Writing your book is a big deal.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do at the beginning stages of your book project is to choose a ghost whose writing style you enjoy (read their website and social media content carefully and see whether it strikes your fancy). Next, you should select a ghostwriter whose personality is a fit for yours.

After all, the author-ghostwriter relationship is an intimate one. Sharing your hard-won wisdom and life events with your ghostwriter will feel like a cathartic—and hopefully, enjoyable—therapy session. Notice how you feel when you get off the phone with them. Are you energized? Enthusiastic? Filled with ideas? Good.

A skilled ghostwriter seeks to understand you, to see the world as you see it, to capture your voice. It’s an art, and those of us who’ve practiced this art for years tend to be highly empathetic and special individuals. (If I do say so myself. Ahem.)

With that in mind, here are five key tips to maximize your collaboration with a ghostwriter to create the best book possible.

1. Hire someone with experience, pay them well, and trust their suggestions. As a ghostwriter, I delight in the collaborative aspect of this work. It's not about me at all, it's about drawing the very best book out of YOU. But I do need you to trust me and follow my lead. I’ve got you—and every decision I make is in service of building the best book possible for your readers.

2. Get vulnerable and tell us your best stories. Don't hold back or save things for Book 2. Stories drive change in readers and have done so since the beginning of history. Before you even hire me or another ghost, reflect on your biggest moments of transformation. Your hardest-won wisdom. The risks you’ve taken. I want stories, even quiet ones…not lists of events. Your resume, no matter how robust, won’t help you here.

3. Share your process, and take the time to think about your clients' (or your own) biggest transformations. Yes, stories are key…but so are your tips, techniques, practical tactics, and action steps if you’re writing a business book or creating a guide to supplement your speaking engagements.

4. Share sensory details to help your ghostwriter create engaging prose. If you're trying to summarize years of your life in one or two sentences, stop. Think of the moments that really mattered. Paint us a picture. Put us *right there* as the plane is going down, so to speak. What do you see? What do you think? What do you smell?

5. Be responsive to your ghost's messages and set a regular meeting time for calls. We never, EVER want to waste your time, but we do want to get your book finished in a matter of months, not years. You hire a ghostwriter to keep things moving, so keep things moving. The best schedule is generally a once-per-week meeting or phone call of about 45 to 60 minutes in length. You can supplement this time by responding to questions over email, by supplying your ghost with existing materials you’ve created (such as blogs or speeches), and even by sending along short audio recordings as an important thought occurs to you.

I'd love to answer any additional questions you might have about the ghostwriting process or what to expect from a professional during a collaboration. Please ask in a comment or reach out to me at lauraschaeferwriter.com.

Laura Schaefer

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About the Author

Laura Schaefer is an author and ghostwriter of over fifteen titles, including The Teashop Girls, Littler Women: A Modern Retelling, Jab Till It Hurts, and I’ve Never Made Anyone Rich. She specializes in writing books for CEOs, associations, celebrities, executive coaches, life coaches, mentors, athletes, and keynote speakers. Find out more at Laura's website
www.lauraschaeferwriter.com  on LinkedIn and Twitter at @teashopgirl

Historical Fiction Spotlight: Transfer, by Apple Gidley

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Transfer traces the lives of those on Anna’s Fancy, the Clausen estate on Saint Croix in the Danish West Indies, handed down through three generations. An historical novel and the sequel to Fireburn (OC Publishing 2017), Transfer sees Niels Clausen, the illegitimate child of a Danish landowner and his black mistress who both died as a result of the 1878 worker revolt, leave his adoptive mother’s sugar plantation and sail to England to continue his education.

With the help of Toby, a British aristocrat, Ivy, a lady’s maid turned lady and her botanist husband, Timothy, Niels challenges the perceptions on the streets of London of a black man at the turn of the 20th century. His development as a writer and political protagonist continues as he travels to Denmark and France where he meets up with childhood friends, Javier and Fabiana Gomez, before returning to Saint Croix.

The Danish West Indies face an uncertain future as the declining sugar industry lessens Denmark’s interest in their colonial outpost. Niels becomes increasingly involved in the future of the islands as war looms and concerns grow that Germany might covet a presence in the Caribbean. Will the islands’ security be guaranteed by the transfer of power to America?

The highs and lows of Niels’ life are punctuated by the crossing of oceans and cultures as well as the political manoeuvrings of a turbulent time in Europe, the United States and the Caribbean.

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About the Author

Apple Gidley, an Anglo-Australian author, whose life has been spent absorbing countries and cultures, considers herself a global nomad. When not on St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, she can be found in Houston, Texas. She has moved 26 times, and has called twelve countries home (Nigeria, England, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Papua New Guinea, The Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Scotland, USA, Equatorial Guinea), and her experiences are described in her first book, Expat Life Slice by Slice (Summertime 2012). Her roles have been varied - from magazine editor to intercultural trainer, from interior designer to Her Britannic Majesty's Honorary Consul. Now writing full time, Apple evocatively portrays peoples and places with empathy and humour, whether writing travel articles, blogs, short stories or full-length fiction. She now shares her writing space with Bonnie, a stray cat who spreads across her keyboard, and Clyde who warms her feet in the Caribbean!   Find out more at Apple’s Blog and find her on Facebook and Twitter @expatapple.

Historical Fiction Spotlight: The Silken Rose: Beware the She-Wolf from Provence (The Rose Trilogy) by Carol McGrath

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

They called her the She-Wolf From Provence. 
She'd shape the destiny of England ...

1236. Ailenor of Provence, cultured and intelligent, is only thirteen when she meets her new husband, Henry III of England. A foreign and friendless princess in a strange land she is determined to please him. And she knows that when the times comes she must provide an heir, to secure the throne against those who would snatch it away.

Rosalind, a commoner skilled in the arts of needlework and embroidery, catches the young queen's attention and a friendship blossoms. But she is unprepared for the dangerous ramifications of winning the queen's favour ...

As closeness, and soon love, develops between Ailenor and Henry, so too does her influence on her husband and her power at court. As France and Wales provide constant threat, and England's barons increasingly resent her influence, Ailenor must learn to be ruthless. Who should she encourage her husband to favour? Who can she trust?

Caught in a web of treachery and deceit, her choices will define the fate of England. To protect her close friends, and her beloved children, Ailenor, the She-Wolf from Provence, would do, and endure, anything ...

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About the Author

Based in England, Carol McGrath writes Historical Fiction. She studied History at Queens University Belfast, has an MA in Creative Writing from the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast and an English MPhil from Royal Holloway, University of London. The Handfasted Wife is her debut novel, first in a trilogy titled The Daughters of Hastings. The second and third novels The Swan-Daughter and The Betrothed Sister have followed and are now available on amazon and in bookshops. Carol is an historian specialised in The Medieval Era. Her first love, however, is writing. She is an avid reader and reviewer. Find out more at her website www.carolcmcgrath.co.uk and follow Carol on Twitter @carolmcgrath

Special Guest Interview with Mary Ann Bernal, Author of Crusader’s Path

Available from 

Amazon UK and Amazon US

I'm pleased to welcome author Mary Ann Bernal to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book

Crusader’s Path is set during the First Crusade (1096-1099). Etienne d’Argences and his overlord, Duke Robert of Normandy, embark on a quest for redemption, joining Pope Urban’s Soldiers for Christ, and freeing the Holy Land from Muslim rule. Urban proclaimed that anyone dying during the arduous journey or on the battlefield were absolved of their sins.

Avielle of Cologne, a healer, ministering to the city’s ostracized lepers, needs to reconcile herself with God after committing a grave sin known only to herself and the Lord. Not daring to reveal her shameful secret in the confessional, absolution is unattainable until she hears Peter of Amiens preaching in the market square. Now, salvation is within reach. Avielle joins Peter’s Army and travels with the holy monk through the Rhine Valley, en route to the Byzantine Empire.

Etienne and Avielle meet in Constantinople, and together, they withstand the hardships of the grueling campaign, enduring privation for the Lord’s sake, to save their souls. But promises made to God are cast aside when they succumb to the temptation of the flesh, forsaking their vows of living a religious life for worldly pursuits.

With each successful siege as the Princes’ Army approaches Jerusalem, Etienne and Avielle struggle to realize spiritual purity over earthly desire.

What is your preferred writing routine?

My routines have varied over the years because of daily commitments. I have burned the midnight oil, arisen at the crack of dawn, and started writing the moment I came home from work. Now, whatever the hour, my goal is to write a few hours while not paying attention to a daily word count. It is less stressful if you set a reasonable goal. I always achieve my minimum word count of two hundred fifty words, but of course, I do not stop until what I want to say has been written.

What advice do you have for new writers?

My advice is to learn as much as you can about the craft. Enroll in creative writing courses and workshops and write a little every day. Two hundred fifty words a day is a novel in a year. Also, forget the naysayers and never give up.

What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?

Social media is perfect for author visibility. In addition to my webpage, I showcase my work on my blog and Pinterest. I also have a Twitter account where I share not only my work and the work of other authors but also topics that interest me.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research

Crusader’s Path follows Duke Robert of Normandy’s participation in the Crusade. He joined the campaign late and spent the winter in Italy before heading out for Constantinople. He also left the siege of Antioch during the winter months, returning in the spring only after being threatened by excommunication.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

Death scenes are always tricky because I do love my characters; we share a bond; after all, I created them! The Crusades was a violent time, and people die. I won’t go into greater detail other than to say, “No Spoilers.”

What are you planning to write next?

I am planning on a novel set in Ancient Rome. As my readers know, I have a fascination with the Roman Empire. I’m always referencing the old Roman ruins in my novels. But which Emperor to follow? The jury’s still out.

Mary Ann Bernal

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About the Author

Mary Ann Bernal attended Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, where she received a degree in Business Administration. Her literary aspirations were ultimately realized when the first book of The Briton and the Dane novels was published in 2009. In addition to writing historical fiction, Mary Ann has also authored a collection of contemporary short stories in the Scribbler Tales series and a science fiction/fantasy novel entitled Planetary Wars Rise of an Empire. Mary Ann is a passionate supporter of the United States military, having been involved with letter-writing campaigns and other support programs since Operation Desert Storm. She has appeared on The Morning Blend television show hosted by KMTV, the CBS television affiliate in Omaha, and was interviewed by the Omaha World-Herald for her volunteer work. She has been a featured author on various reader blogs and promotional sites. Mary Ann currently resides in Elkhorn, Nebraska. Find out more at her website http://www.maryannbernal.com/ and find her on Twitter @BritonandDane

Special Guest Interview with Drema Drudge, Author of Victorine

Available From Amazon UK and Amazon US

I'm pleased to welcome author Drema Drudge to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book

My debut novel features Victorine Meurent, a forgotten, accomplished painter who posed nude for Edouard Manet’s most famous, controversial paintings such as Olympia and The Picnic in Paris, paintings heralded as the beginning of modern art. History has forgotten (until now) her paintings, despite the fact that she showed her work at the prestigious Paris Salon multiple times, even one year when her mentor, Manet’s, work was refused. 

Her persistent desire in the novel is not to be a model anymore but to be a painter herself, despite being taken advantage of by those in the art world, something which causes her to turn, for a time, to every vice in the Paris underworld, leading her even into the catacombs. 

In order to live authentically, she eventually finds the strength to flout the expectations of her parents, bourgeois society, and the dominant male artists (whom she knows personally) while never losing her capacity for affection, kindness, and loyalty. Possessing both the incisive mind of a critic and the intuitive and unconventional impulses of an artist, Victorine and her survival instincts are tested in 1870, when the Prussian army lays siege to Paris and rat becomes a culinary delicacy, and further tested when she inches towards art school while financial setbacks push her away from it. The same can be said when it comes to her and love, which becomes substituted, eventually, by art. 

What is your preferred writing routine?

I like to get up early, work out, eat breakfast, and start writing by nine. Then I write until one or two before taking care of the rest of life’s tedious but necessary tasks. Because I get up early, I don’t tend to write in the evening, because I’m too tired and can’t do my best work. When I can, I write at least four days a week. 

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Revise, revise, revise. Repeat. It’s just that simple; it’s just that difficult. 

What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?

Since my novel is about art, when I post paintings of Victorine and explain she was not just a model but a painter as well, people are often intrigued, because there’s this great visual hook followed by this piece of history previously forgotten. (Or, forgive me, herstory.) It’s what interested me in her in the first place, the paintings, so I understand the attraction for others they have. 

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research

As if I wasn’t excited enough to be researching Victorine Meurent, after believing for a few years into the process that only one painting of Victorine’s survived, I (and a quiet part of the art world) found out that isn’t true. (More coming soon on that!) 

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

It was difficult writing the death of an important character I won’t mention to avoid spoilers. I didn’t want him to go, and yet I knew it was necessary for the story, for my main character’s growth. So I gritted my teeth and wrote a death I thought made sense for him. 

What are you planning to write next?

I’m nearly finished with my second novel, Briscoe Chambers’ Southern Fried Woolf. It’s about a woman, Briscoe, who is married to a country music star who cheats on her with his idol, an older country singer from a legendary musical family. Even after Briscoe discovers the affair, due to a contractual obligation, he must record an album with the woman or be sued. 

Briscoe is also writing a thesis on Virginia Woolf, someone whose scholarship her mother has devoted her life to, in the middle of managing her husband’s career, something she’s put more than a little of herself into. Briscoe finds her thesis echoing her life, or is it vice versa? 

I am writing this novel because I adore Virginia Woolf’s writing, and I wanted to find a fresh way to write about her opposite something that seemed the antithesis of what people associate with her. It seemed to me this might be a way to make her work more accessible, clothing it in this fast-paced story. It’s been a challenge, but I’ve enjoyed the process and I look forward to finishing the revision process. 

Drema Drudge

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About the Author

Drēma Drudge attended Spalding University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program where she learned to transform that intensity into fiction. Drēma has been writing in one capacity or another since she was nine, starting with terrible poems and graduating to melodramatic stories in junior high that her classmates passed around literature class. She and her husband, musician and writer Barry Drudge, live in Indiana where they record their biweekly podcast, Writing All the Things, when not traveling. Her first novel, Victorine, was literally written in five countries while she and her husband wandered the globe. The pair has two grown children. In addition to writing fiction, Drema has served as a writing coach, freelance writer, and educator.  Find out more at Drema's Website and find her on Twitter @dremadrudge

Historical Fiction Spotlight: The King's Justice, by Susan Elia MacNeal

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Can a stolen violin lead secret agent and spy Maggie Hope to the latest serial killer terrorizing London during World War II? Maggie Hope started out as Mr. Churchill's secretary, but now she's a secret agent--and the only one who can figure out how the missing instrument ties into the murders.

London. December, 1942. As the Russian army repels German forces from Stalingrad, Maggie Hope takes a much-needed break from spying to defuse bombs in London. But Maggie herself is an explosion waiting to happen. Traumatized by her past, she finds herself living dangerously--taking huge risks, smoking, drinking, and speeding through the city streets on a motorcycle. The last thing she wants is to get entangled in another crime.

But when she's called upon to look into a stolen Stradivarius, one of the finest violins ever made, Maggie can't resist. Meanwhile, there's a serial killer on the loose in London, targeting Conscientious Objectors. Little does she know that investigating this dangerous predator will pit her against a new evil--and old enemies. Only Maggie can uncover the connection between the robbery, the murders, and a link to her past.

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About the Author

Susan Elia MacNeal is the author of The New York Times, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly and USA Today-bestselling Maggie Hope mystery series Susan graduated from Nardin Academy in Buffalo New York, and also cum laude and with honors in English from Wellesley College. She cross-registered for courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course at Harvard University. Susan is married and lives with her husband, Noel MacNeal, a television performer, writer and director, and their son in Park Slope, Brooklyn. You can find our more at Susan's website www.susaneliamacneal.com/ and find her on Facebook and Twitter @susanmacneal

Special Guest Interview with Karen Heenan, Author of Songbird: a novel of the Tudor Court

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

I'm pleased to welcome author Karen Heenan to The Writing Desk:

Tell us about your latest book

My latest book is also my first published novel. Songbird is set during the early years of the reign of Henry VIII, but Henry and his queens only feature as peripheral characters. I've adored the Tudor period since I was a child, but I wanted to see it from a different angle. 

Bess, the protagonist, is my creation, but she’s based on fact. We know Henry was a music lover, but I read in a biography that he once heard a child sing in a street pageant and bought him to sing in his chapel choir. 

The choir was male, so that child would have been a boy, but it can be assumed if Henry bought one child, he could well have done it again. I wanted to explore what it would be like for a child to go from dire poverty into unimaginable luxury, from being punished for singing to being praised, the only cost being the loss of her family.

What is your preferred writing routine?

I try to write every day, but writing doesn’t necessarily mean fingers to keyboard. It also can be research, working out snarls in my plot, and talking to myself as I walk around my neighborhood.

I've started doing a lot of dictation, because I can combine writing with a fitness routine. I don't have a fancy setup—I simply dictate into a notepad app on my phone and paste it into my Scrivener document when I get home. Dictating makes for a leaner first draft. I generally have to add, rather than subtract.

After that, I try not to edit until the whole book is finished, because it's hard to get back into the flow if I've stopped to tinker with it too much.

What advice do you have for new writers?

Take writing seriously, but not too seriously. Take it seriously in the sense of devoting time to it—if you don’t see it as worth doing, neither will the people who have claims on your time—but go a bit easier on yourself in terms of the writing itself. It’s never going to be that shiny idea you had in your head, but you’ll get closer if you write it down, no matter how clumsily the words come, and then look at it from all sides, shining and rearranging. You can’t fix the words you’re afraid to write.

What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?

I’m still working on this one! I think all authors are. Twitter has been very helpful, both in finding readers and in supporting and being supported by other writers. I found my publisher through Twitter, and most of my marketing opportunities. I enjoy the solitary aspect of writing, having spent 30 years in an office cubicle, but even I like to discuss a good plot hole, and the people in my “real life” will read later drafts or finished books, but they don’t get down in the mud of the craft.

Also: talk to people. I also never go anywhere without a copy of my book and a handful of bookmarks, which have all my website/Facebook/Twitter information. I’ve hand sold books at my bank, at restaurants—wherever you can get into a conversation with someone who is genuinely interested.

Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research.

For my current project, I did a lot of research about the dissolution of the monasteries. I the dissolution, but I’d never looked into the details, and it surprised me just how embedded the monastic system was in the lives of everyday people. Most lived within an hour's walk of some sort of religious house—a convent, a priory, a monastery.

While it’s obvious how the changes affected the nuns, monks, and priests who were displaced, regular people were affected just as much. They worked on monastery lands, and their homes may have been on monastic property. They were servants. Their sons were educated by monks, and their sick were healed by them. They ate food grown on monastery farms, and fisherman made a living supplying monasteries for the many meatless days in their calendars

All this vanished in four years. It’s astonishing that something which took hundreds of years to build could be dismantled so quickly.

What was the hardest scene you remember writing?

There was a scene toward the end of Songbird which was very difficult, because until I wrote it, I wasn’t certain if one of the characters lived or died. I’m not quite as much of a pantser now. Most of the time I know whether or not my people make it to the end of the story.

What are you planning to write next?

I've just completed the first draft of my next book. It’s a follow-up—not a sequel—to Songbird, involving Robin Lewis, a secondary character. I thought I was done with the Tudor era, but it wasn’t done with me. 

Robin starts out as a chorister, but when his voice changes, he’s sent to Oxford as a reward for his service. A lover of books and learning, Robin wants a wider world and he’ll get his wish.  He grew up in the monastery system, but he goes on to get a job with Cromwell, and so is involved in destroying the very thing that raised him.  

I’ve also got a completed draft of a Great Depression story which was derailed by the second Tudor book. It seemed more logical to stay with a period, and also, I couldn’t get Robin to shut up. In the end, we’re all just servants of our characters. 

Karen Heenan

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About the Author

Karen Heenan was born and raised in Philadelphia. She fell in love with books and stories before she could read, and has wanted to write for nearly as long. After far too many years in a cubicle, she set herself free to follow her dreams -- which which include gardening, sewing, traveling and, of course, lots of writing. She lives in Lansdowne, PA, with two cats and a very patient husband, and is currently hard at work on her next book. Find out more at Karen's website http://www.karenheenan.com/ and find her on Twitter @karen_heenan