How will ghostwriting with me work?

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I.          Full Ghostwriting

 

            Our first step (after you’ve reached out through the contact me page) will be to set up a short conversation, where we’ll discover if we will work well together.  If you like my no-bull approach, and I feel that yours is a story I can help you with, we move forward to a series of lengthier conversations.

 

            During these, we trace your story back to its origin, then work forward again, fleshing out or adding details as required, until we have a (virtual) pile of point-form notes, sentence stubs, thought fragments, and names, dates, and places.

 

            As we make our way through these conversations, we’ll make sure we are clear on who your target audience is, and that this book has a clear, relevant, and unique theme.

 

            The next step is for me to produce the first, rough draft – what I like to call the diamond-in-the-rough.  During this process, I may be in touch with questions, or I may not be (depending on how thorough our conversations were).  Fear not, though – according to an agreed-upon schedule, you will be receiving chapter after chapter of your book from me, to review and provide feedback.

 

            Next is a series of re-drafts / re-writes / revisions, until our first version of your story has been transformed from that rough-cut diamond, into a progressively more and more polished gem.

 

            We’ll reach a point where we just can’t seem to get your book any more polished.  At this stage, we look to other sets of eyes (a.k.a. beta-readers) – friends, business colleagues, maybe spouses (but maybe not – we’re looking for frank, brutal feedback, and your closest loved-ones might not want to hurt us with their honesty!).

 

            With the beta-readers’ feedback, we make our final tweaks, and then pass the manuscript onto professional proofreaders, whose job it is to track down any last spelling or grammar errors.

 

            And there we have it: a finely cut & polished diamond; the manuscript of your book.

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II.        Re-writing

 

            Maybe you’ve already written your book, but are honest enough with yourself to know that the flow, or the prose, or the sequencing just isn’t there.

 

            That’s fine.

 

            We’ll pick up where you left off – I’ll read what you have, and get to know you through our conversations.  We’ll treat your book as the outline, or perhaps even the first draft, then work through the same process listed above, from whichever point we decide to begin.

 

            As we did above, we’ll follow a pre-planned schedule, with chapter-by-chapter deliveries by me, followed by extensive editing, beta-reading and proofreading thereafter.

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III.       Editing

 

            Or maybe you’ve got your manuscript in pretty good order, and are looking for practiced eyes to comb through it several times – to bring that polish up.

 

            That’s easily done as well.  I’ll read your story, share a conversation or two with you, then get right into the tweaking, tightening and shaping required to bring your manuscript up to publisher-ready status.

 

            Again, we’ll follow a well-planned out schedule, just as if I was conducting a full ghostwrite, although it should be a much more streamlined and efficient process.