Ghostwriting

Writing a book will look different for different people. That’s a given. It’s a creative act, and therefore individual to the project itself as well as the author’s goals, working style, and other factors.

That said, there is a standard process to writing a book. It looks roughly like this:

First Phase (first 1—2 weeks)

  • Launch call: This is where we establish the basics: the purpose/goals of your book, its intended audience, a word count, tone, style, voice, and so forth.

  • Second call: This is where we establish a rough outline for the book, and map out any research needed for the book. This may be interviews, general research on topics, image research, and so forth.

  • Third call: This is where we’ll finalize our plan. Based on the second call, I’ll come up with a plan for the project that we can discuss and finalize during this call. We’ll also set up a schedule for regular meetings and reviews of drafts of chapters.


Second Phase (3—6 months)

  • Regular meetings and reviews: For the next 3–6 months, we’ll cycle through drafting and reviews. I’ll draft the material, send to you for review, and at our regularly scheduled meetings, we’ll discuss your comments and feedback, which I’ll incorporate after our calls.

Third Phase (1 month)

  • Finalizing the draft: During this phase, a full manuscript should be complete. You’ll review the completed manuscript and submit any final feedback or comments. I’ll then conduct 2 rounds of revisions to finalize the draft.

Please be advised that formatting, typesetting, and other surface-level revisions to prepare the manuscript for publication is a separate phase and will usually be done according to your chosen publisher’s guidelines. We can discuss this further.

 

For shorter content:

The process is similar to the above, but on a faster time-frame. Some examples of shorter-form content are:

  • high-impact blogs for your business

  • email marketing and/or educational campaigns

  • articles (from general reader to research-heavy)

  • newsletters

  • social media video scripts

Book Coaching

If you’re committed to writing your book on your own, but want a guide to help keep you accountable, to brainstorm ideas, to use as a sounding board, and to ask questions about the writing and publication process in general, you’ll want book coaching.

As with my other services, we’ll work collaboratively—i.e., we generate a plan that works for you, together. We come up with an overall plan for the length of time you’ll need coaching, a rough schedule for your writing, and a set of regular 1:1 meetings to help keep you on track.

Editing

In general, there are three tiers to editing:

  • Developmental/Line Editing: This is the most substantive type of editing. This is the style of editing where the editor looks at the structure and organization of the writing to make sure it makes sense; looks for consistency and any gaps in content (e.g., missing information), and overall clarity and logic.

  • Copyediting: This is the type of editing where an editor looks at the mechanics of the writing—grammar, style, and tone.

  • Proofreading: This is the most surface-level type of editing. This is where the editor looks for any typos, formatting errors, and so forth.

I am happy to provide any of these services. Note that proofreading will largely be done by your publisher since they’ll be responsible for formatting your book according to their guidelines for publication.

For all content, I can provide guidance through the publication process.

Short Guide to Standard Word Counts

Standard word counts in traditional publishing aren’t arbitrary—they’re a result of readers’ expectations, publisher constraints and decisions, and trends over time. They’re always changing. That said, here are some general guidelines.

Nonfiction

  • Nonfiction: 50,000–100,000 words

  • Short nonfiction (e-books, guides): 20,000–40,000 words

  • Self-Help & How-To: 20,000–40,000 words

  • Business & Finance: 40,000–80,000 words

  • Memoir: 60,000–90,000 words

  • Biography: 80,000–110,000 words
     

Fiction

  • Fiction: anything over 50,000 words

  • Short fiction (short stories, novellas): 10,000–40,000 words


General Content

  • Blogs: anything over 300 words

  • Articles: 1000–8000 words

  • Newsletters: 200–1000 words

  • Email campaigns: 200–500 words (per email)