1. Handling conflicts

What are some of the more common types of conflicts or problems that you encounter as a ghostwriter, and how do you handle them?

When the client micro-manages every aspect of the project, doesn’t honor the contract in terms of actions or finances, is not able to provide the information I need, or is rude—I try to talk out any problems. I also include a section in my contract that permits either one of us to terminate the relationship if things are not going well between us.

2. Echoing the author’s voice

How do you balance your own writing style against the need to create a unique “voice” for your client?

My writing style is fairly distinctive, so I have to work at this. If I talk to the author, I can usually pick up his or her rhythm and cadence. Some subject matter lends itself to a conversational style, which is easier for me; but I have written technical, business, and scientific subjects and can adapt. My biggest problem is when a client writes in passive language and I have to turn the sentences inside out to “translate” their meaning.

3. Style and grammar

How much autonomy does a ghostwriter have in issues of style and grammar?  Can the client “overrule” the ghostwriter on stylistic and grammatical issues?

I have had a great deal of autonomy on those issues. People hire a ghostwriter for many reasons, but one of them is that they don’t have confidence in their own writing. On the other hand, I have had clients who wanted to control everything, including grammar and punctuation. While I recognize that this person is the author, incorrect grammar is incorrect grammar. I look it up in the Chicago Manual of Style and read the rule out loud. Often, that does the trick.

4. Protecting yourself

What are some protections a ghostwriter needs to consider when arranging a job or contract?

1. Be sure you understand what the client wants and that the client understands what you will do.
2. Spell out what you and the client have agreed to in terms of tasks and payment of fees.
3. Include an indemnification paragraph in the contract.
4. Have your attorney read the contract, and incorporate his or her suggestions.
5. Send a draft of the agreement, and let the client know it can be edited before it is signed.
6. Send two final copies to the client; sign one of them.

5. Determining publishability

How do you deal with a client whose project is unpublishable? (Do clients tend to blame the ghostwriter if they can’t get published?)

I start with a client questionnaire that gives both the client and me a fairly clear ides of whether this is a viable book project. I ask the kind of questions about the book, the author, and the process that would be included in a standard book proposal. If I determine that the book has little chance of being published by a conventional publisher, I say so. However, if the client wants to self-publish, I spell out what is involved in doing so correctly. In that case, no book is truly “unpublishable.”

6. Research and fact checking

Is a ghostwriter at all responsible for conducting research or verifying a client’s facts?

I try to provide what the client wants, and every author has different needs. I do research and check facts if we agree on those requirements ahead of time. Copy editors also check facts, which is a nice back-up position. My approach is tailored to the person; if he or she wants research, I am more than willing to do it. In fact, I really enjoy conducting research.

7. People skills

What sort of “people skills” do you need to become an effective ghostwriter?

These are the same skills any writer needs but perhaps accentuated by this special relationship, which sometimes lasts for years. A ghostwriter should have a special knack for crawling inside people’s heads and understanding what they really want to say. This requires empathy and compassion, listening skills, and the ability to read nonverbal cues.

8. Pros and cons of the job

What do you consider the best part of being a ghostwriter? What’s the worst part?

The best part is knowing I played a part in making an author’s book come to life. The tangible evidence of that is receiving my signed copy, which goes in a place of honor in my bookcase. The worst part is when I finish the book, and the author drops the project and walks away. I’m not talking about the money. Even if I have been paid, having a book abandoned when it’s ready to publish is heartbreaking. I never understand why someone would do that.

Ghostwriting is a partnership between the writer and the author. Both parties share the same goal: to write and produce the best possible book.

Dear Friends and Fellow Writers,

There are two perspectives on ghostwriting: the ghostwriter’s and the author’s. A few months ago, I was interviewed for an article about both sides of the ghostwriting equation. The interview questions made me think about what I do in a whole new way. Here is what the author/client wants to know.

1. To hire or not to hire

Should I hire a ghostwriter? Why or why not?  What should I think about before taking that step?

You know your subject; you can explain it, present it, and analyze it. But you may not have the time, talent, or inclination to write. If any of these statements apply to you, you should consider hiring a professional ghostwriter. If none of the above fits your situation, you might need a book-writing coach or an editor, both of whom are less expensive than a ghostwriter.

2. What to share

What sort of information or material would I be expected to provide when working with a ghostwriter?  How much material would I need to provide?

Furnish in written or spoken form whatever is to be included in the book. If you have already written the book, send the manuscript; if not, send whatever research you have done. All of this depends on your agreement, which will be unique to you and your project. I don’t use a boilerplate agreement or process; it varies with every client.

3. Not in the job description

What are some of the things a ghostwriter WON’T do for me?

• A ghostwriter is not an agent and won’t get your book published, though she might help you through the necessary steps to find one.
• A ghostwriter is not a publicist and won’t promote your book, though he might work with you to develop a marketing plan if that is part of the contract.
• A ghostwriter is not a graphic designer and will not design your book for you or get it ready for the printer.
• A ghostwriter is not a copy editor or proofreader and will not take responsibility for the final product.
• A ghostwriter is not a website designer or technical expert.

About Bobbi Linkemer
Bobbi Linkemer is a book coach, ghostwriter, editor, and the author of 16 books. She has been a professional writer for more than 40 years, a magazine editor, and a book-writing teacher. Visit her Website at: http://www.WriteANonfictionBook.com

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What is POV?

Point of View refers to the person (character speaking) speaking in stories.

There are many POVs, but Third Person Limited is the commonly POV used by authors.

The following Web page lists the First, Second, and Third Person POVs writers may use depending on the individual writer and how they want to tell the story to the reader.

Writing from a Point of View (POV)

http://creative-writing-course.thecraftywriter.com/writing-from-a-point-of-view-pov/

There is also the Limited and Omniscient POVs; you will find good examples of these POVs an article by author Robert J. Sawyer, ON Writing found at the URL http://www.sfwriter.com/ow07.htm.

It would take me too long to explain in detail everything about POV in a blog post. I offer you the following URLs for more information by people I consider well versed in the subject of POV with well-written articles.

Point of View in Literature

http://www.novel-writing-help.com/point-of-view-in-literature.html

Free Stuff For Writers from Black Velvet Seductions

http://www.blackvelvetseductions.com/writers_stuff.html

Deep POV Workshop by Laurie Sanders (PDF)

http://www.blackvelvetseductions.com/Deep%20POV%20Workshop%20-%20revised.pdf

As I have found, Deep POV is what all writers should strive for to make their books more engaging for the reader.

POV is a priority for authors to use to create believable characters that readers have empathy or can create a love or hate relationship with within the pages of an author’s creativity. This is what will keep the reader reading and unable to set the book done in fear that they will miss what happens next if they set it down for the evening.

Through a good story and Deep POV the author creates a world and people living in that world that readers care about. How do you accomplish this? The answer is, the author must care about caring what they are creating.

As E.L. Doctorow said, “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader–not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”  This is Deep POV.

***********************************************************************

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer/Editor/Reviewer/Marketer

Robert J Medak Writing & More

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There are two tenses used in writing, present and past. When writing, the author chooses one and stays consistent within the text.

When using the present tense, the verbs used reflect actions happening now.

When using the past tense, the verbs used reflect actions that have happened.

When using the future tense, the verbs used reflect actions that will occur.

Rarely will writers use the future tense in writing fiction or non-fiction.

Caveat: This series of posts is by no means a course on writing but only some basic information to help anyone wishing to write better.

To learn about tense, you will have to do some reading and research. A good source to begin with is the Purdue Online Writing Lab – Purdue University.

Aside from making sure that there is verb subject agreement, there is also the tense of the verb to take into consideration in your writing.

Most writing is done in the past tense, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the only one used. It is up to each writer to determine what tense that they wish to use in their story or paper they are writing.

There are no hard fast rules when writing. Writers have to know the rules before they can do what they want in a story that makes sense to the reader.

Choose your tense well and stay consistent; or you will bore your reader of any type of writing from résumé to report.

The last part in this series is POV (Point of View)

Robert Medak

Freelance writer/editor/reviewer

Robert J Medak Writing & More

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What is Tone in writing?

You will probably get as many different answers as the number of writers you ask.

Tone in writing changes with the writing.

• Tone can be conversational, meaning as though you are talking to a friend or loved one.
• Tone can be informative.
• Tone can be educational.
• Tone can be a narrative.

Your choice of tone depends on what you wish to convey as you work on a specific project, just as style and word choice will alter if you are writing a report opposed to a story.

Tone becomes more about attitude and experience when writing for an audience. If you attend church, is your attitude the same in church as it is outside of church? I think not.

In the normal usage of language most people use contractions, (i.e. can’t, isn’t…etc.), meaning less formal language. Dialogue in stories should reflect the language used by the characters. In a period piece, the language might be more formal.

Tone also applies to the audience you’re writing for. You would not use the same tone for clergy as you would business writing.

There are many types of tone. I have listed some above but there are also humorous, envious, pessimistic, and optimistic. It is up to the writer to choice tone and the audience they are writing for. The audience does play a part in the tone chosen by the writer.

The main thing a writer needs to do is check their ego at the door and write more for themselves.

If you don’t write for yourself first, then whom are you writing for? I mean, if you enjoy science fiction, would you write a romance novel. This is writing for yourself is about, writing what you like. If your writing is well conceived; and well written your audience will find you.

Think about what you write, and why you’re writing it.

Part 5 will be about Tense.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer/Editor/Reviewer

Robert J Medak Writing & More

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If only writing were as easy as many people think.

Part 3 is about voice.

What is voice in writing?

Writing voice is more than just setting down words; it is the verbs chosen, punctuation, grammar, and much more. A good place to begin is with The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

Reading is also an integral part of developing your voice. Reading is not something to think about, it is a requirement to becoming a writer.

Choose an author to read, or read many different authors. See how they write. Choose one and begin writing by emulating them.

A caveat: Never plagiarize.

I only write original copy, but people have mentioned that they can tell whom my favorite author is by the way I write. When writing facts that may be on the Internet somewhere, I run my copy through Copyscape looking for zero percent found, and no websites listed. There are many plagiarism checkers available for writers to verify they haven’t copied any work.

It is a poor writer that must copy or resort to PLR  in my opinion. Write it in your own words.

Your writing voice should be as unique and individual as you are.

Writers should always use the active voice in their writing.

An example of an active sentence:

^{Subject    Action}

James wrote a novel.

An example of a passive sentence:

^{Subject             Action}

The novel was written by James.

The active voice, the subject (James) performs the action. In the passive voice, the subject (the novel) is being acted upon (was written) by James.

Aside from writing in active voice, writers need to use language to their advantage to engage, motivate,  educate, inform, or whatever the purpose of why they are writing what they are; albeit blog post, story, report, or even a letter to a friend.

Any chance to write is a chance to develop your voice further.

Writing is not the only thing needed to develop your writing voice. Holly Lisle has a good article about Ten Steps to Finding Your Writing Voice.

May you find your true writing voice.

In the next part of this series I will talk about tone.

Robert Medak

Freelance writer/Editor/Reviewer

Robert J Medak Writing & More

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If only writing were as easy as many people think it is.

In this post, let’s talk about style. There are many styles of writing used for specific purposes.

A few of the styles writers use:

AP – Associated Press

AP style writing isn’t an actual style, but is a set of guidelines created by the Associated Press for its journalists.

Freelance writers use the AP guidelines business as well as journalists. The AP style is a formal type of writing found in newspapers, and deals with the rules for using terminology, phrasing, and punctuation.

APA – American Psychological Association

Scientists and psychologists developed the APA style in 1929 to make reading of papers easier: by the way headings, tone, tables, and more. The sciences use APA style in the writing of scientific and psychological papers. The citations are different from other styles.

Chicago – Chicago or Turabian

The Chicago or Turabian style of writing is the standard many writers use for writing from the Web to stories, although it is a less formal style of writing.

The Chicago Manual of Style contains the guidelines for citation, capitalization, punctuation and more. For my blogs, I tend to follow the Chicago Style.

MLA – Modern Language Association

Research papers in the humanities use the MLA Style of writing, and uses parenthetical citations in the text, which refers you to another place such as a bibliography or other sections of a paper.

Widely used by instructors, academic departments, and schools for more than fifty years, the MLA style is also found in many countries from around the world, and found in many commercial and university presses, as well as newsletters.

Style, tone, and voice are components of effective writing.

As Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.”

Writing is hard work to make it readable. There are many components writing.

In the next post, I will talk about voice.

Robert Medak

Writer/Editor/Reviewer

Robert J Medak Writing & More

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Most people believe that writing is easy. This is a myth. Writing isn’t that easy. True that anyone with a computer and a word processing program can put words together and create sentences, but what about the right word and punctuation?

You can’t rely on the grammar and spelling part of any word processing program to be correct. There is personal style, also publishing house style not to mention AP, APA, Chicago, MLA, and more depending on the project written.

As a freelance writer or a writer in general, there are many considerations to take into account such as word subject agreement, the correct verb, spelling of people like composers and others correctly.

As Mark Twain said, “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” It is about knowing the subject and using the right words to convey your thoughts so the reader will understand your meaning. Many a meaning is lost from thought to paper then to the reader because of poor word choice or the wrong word, as I have seen in some books I have read for review.

In addition, take into consideration if your sentences are active or passive, the preferred is active. If you are not sure of the difference, learn and always try to write in the active.

Many people must write for business. Writing business letters and e-mails each hold their own challenges. When writing for business you usually are trying to convey some aspect of the business to another person. You need to get your point across in a short e-mail or letter that states the purpose and action required from the person receiving the e-mail or letter. Short and to the point to convey meaning and action required without putting the person receiving it on the defensive.

If you are writing to your mother, father, sister, brother, or best friend you should always try to write your best, for it is true that practice makes perfect. The more you work at writing correctly, the more it will become natural. Writing naturally doesn’t mean that you can become lazy or sloppy.

With each piece of writing, strive to improve every facet of your writing.

I will discuss various aspects of writing in the subsequent parts.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer/Editor/Reviewer

Robert J Medak Writing & More

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You can join numerous social media sites beside Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter. There are sites on Ning.com, Spruz, Scribd, Digg, and StumbleUpon to name just a few.

The question is, “Is quantity better than quality?”

The point should be to follow, also followed by individuals or businesses relevant to your business, and keep things professional. If you want something personal, get a second account and keep it for things about family and friends.

What Not to Post on Social Media Sites

If you have a personal non-business account, you also need to be aware of what you posted to your personal account.

In business, you are the brand and possible clients or HR people look online to check people out more than ever before. Imagine what someone sees when they look up your name or business online and see you with a beer in your hand, or talking negatively about a passed boss or some client.

If there are negative posts, and pictures that you would not want a prospective employer to see, don’t post them.

What Quality Brings that Quantity Doesn’t

As an entrepreneur, relevant quality followers are much better than following and followed by people who may never be clients because they don’t need my services. It is much better to connect with individuals and businesses that do need my services, or are in my niche.

As an entrepreneur, I would rather have 500 quality connections than 2,000 connections that means, I’m connected but my connections bring nothing to the business table.

The point of social media is to connect and market without being salesy. No one likes a pushy salesperson online at social media sites. The point is to be visible, let them check out what you have to offer, if you are running a special, have a freebie, running a contest, or have a limited time offer.

Social media is about entrepreneurs building relationships and trust for their business, also to let people know you exist. Only when a prospective client comes to you can you talk with them building trust can you make a sale at some time in the future.

The truth is most visitors to your site may make more than one contact before they decide to purchase your product or service. Take the time to build a relationship. Relationships sell, and so do referrals from people you’ve taken the time to build relationships with them.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer/Blogger/Editor/Reviewer

What’s your opinion?

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Editing your own writing can be a huge mistake. You know what you meant to say; but did you say what you mean?

As Mark Twain said, “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.”

Think about this quote for a few minutes or longer until it sinks in.

This is a quote I have on my outgoing e-mails. To me it means that I must let my writing percolate for a period before submitting it. If possible, have a second person read it also, someone I trust to make sure that my meaning is clear and they get the message.

If you don’t have anybody, find someone you trust to be honest and tell you what is wrong with your article, essay, story, or whatever you’ve written. I ask my wife to read my writing to see if she can get the point, I’m trying to make. I know she will be honest with me.

Never take criticism personally, look at it as an opportunity to improve your craft. Always look for opportunities for improving what you do no matter what it is. The old adage, practice makes perfect is true. The more you write the better writer you become; the same holds true for editing. The more you edit, the best editor you will become.

As with anything you do, the more you do it the more proficient you should become. All it takes is work, desire, and due diligence to improve your skills. I can attest to this from personal experience.

If or when, courses online or offline come along that meet with your schedule and pocketbook related to writing, editing, or some other part of being an entrepreneur, take it.

All it takes is to put your butt in the chair and keep it there.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer/Editor/Reviewer

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How many other business people; writers are in business; would be willing to do the same when they write copy or in the way they run their business?

Is there a place for being ethical about what you write? Do you pass on writing academic papers because someone is looking for a writer to write a dissertation or a paper they will possibly turn in as their own work? I do it all the time.

Would you be considered a “writing whore”, as posted in the newsletter from Remarkablogger?

A “writing whore” is someone willing to write anything just for the money. For this I ask, are you as a writer willing to write even for low pay just to make money?

When writers write for low pay, they diminish the status of all writers. There seems to be a myth that writing is easy and therefore not worth pay for quality of work.

Realizing that there are many job sites when one can find freelance work, choosing to work for low wages is up to the individual, but ask yourself, are you making what your time is worth, and is the work ethical?

Is all of your work the best it can be? This also falls under the ethics umbrella. If you are a writer, you owe it to yourself and clients to do the best work you are capable of at all times, and trying to improve with each new piece. Do you?

I consider myself a writer always ready to learn the next part of the craft of writing. Always learn, grow, practice, and write something every day. This is what being a writer is. Think of writing as a business that you are in control of, because you are.

Waiting to hear your thoughts about this post.

Robert Medak

Freelance writer/editor/blogger/reviewer