(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Hi Anne,
I wonder how you demonstrate that you can write well, when everything you write is “authored” by someone else?
I am updating my resume after a year of ghost-writing for a medical communications company, but I can’t figure out how I can showcase my work without stepping on the “author’s” toes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
MW
Hello MW,
It can be a puzzle can’t it? A couple of things come to mind.
First, how did you demonstrate to this client that you could write? Sounds like you might have some credits you can claim before you started ghosting.
Next, I ask …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
I came close to firing a client yesterday. It’s been a rocky relationship from the beginning, which was back in the beginning of February.
I’ve been ghostwriting for a number of years, and I have a rough process I’ve found usually works. It goes more or less like this:

First we do a Visioning which I do on an individual basis for ghostwriting clients.
Next I help the client create a 10 Word Purpose for their book.
We follow this with a Working Table of contents.

Once these three elements are in place, the ghostwriting usually goes fairly well. I should have stopped when the …read more

Arghhh… it’s happened again… spend most of the last two hours taking pictures and posting to a web page… http://annewayman.com/kittens.htm if you’re curious. And if you’re near or in San Diego and want a kitten…
Taking a deep breath, making another cup of coffee and I’m back to work, really… I promise.
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision – for those who want to get a book written.
Image from http://www.sxc.hu

Japanese Park, Buenos Aires, Argentina by gmarcelo from http://www.sxc.hu
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision – for those who want to get a book written.

Ye gods… we humans do for get pain, don’t we. I mean I’ve long forgotten the pain of giving birth to babies, and I’ve forgotten the pain of giving birth to a book enough to begin another one. It’s been at least year, maybe more since my back “went out.”
Wow! Small wonder I’ve been pretty good about working my abs! And that’s helped; I don’t hurt as much as I did last time, which makes me wonder how I survived the last time. I’d also forgotten how tired pain makes me.
Plus, it turns out that today, probably, is the …read more

How are you doing on the goals or the vision you set for yourself this year? You did set some, I assume, becuase most of us seem to. I actually believe in Visioning and goal work; I wrote about it at the end of last year in a post called: Sneaking Up on 2008 – Goals for Freelance Writers
For reasons that are totally obscure for me, I didn’t share my goals with you. I just dug them up, and, with some editing, here they are:
• Stay quit from nicotine
• Lose a pound a week which would put at around 120, yes …read more

I’ve got a ghostwriting contract for a self-help book by a professional. We’re projecting 12 chapters, and our agreement calls for payment in four chunks. The next payment is due, and was promised, when the call came in. It turns out the author has a partnership arrangement on the book and the partner, who was to pay for half of it, is flaking out. Yesterday, when we talked, neither the author nor I were sure what to do and agreed to talk more. Now that the shock is wearing off, I’m wondering how to approach all this. Here’s what …read more

Arghhhhhh!
Last week I drafted another sample chapter for a client who is having trouble deciding exactly what they want in the book I’m ghosting. At least I’m 99% sure I did, but somehow I didn’t save it. I ended up emailing the original sample of that style, which she and her adviser had seen before. They wondered why I sent it and I wondered why I hadn’t heard anything one way or the other.
Makes me slightly crazy, or think I am. And yes, I know it happens to everyone once in a while, and yes, it hasn’t happened to me …read more

A few days ago told you about a ghostwriting client who broke several telephone appointments and then requested a Saturday appointment even though I normally don’t work weekends. I asked you what you would do.
Most who responded felt there was no need to meet the client on the weekend, although one said they would if it was a well paying client and another felt I should be willing to make a Saturday appointment.
Here’s what I actually did and the result:

I sent a brief email saying, nicely, that I don’t work weekends and that I’d lost track of her schedule, …read more

Hi Anne,
I started reading your fantastic blog and have a question for you – how do you recommend people, who are trying to transition into the freelance writing field from another field begin their freelance writing career? I don’t have any copy writing or blogging experience and am wondering how
people usually enter this field.
I do have a blog of my own, which I am trying to update more, but I’ve never been published and don’t know what kinds of gigs or resources are out there for me!
Thanks!
Victoria
Hi Victoria,
Thanks so much for the complements. You don’t say …read more