Writing Your First Book: D.I.Y. or Get Outside Help?
(Editor, Co-Author or Ghostwriter)
Start with a Sports Analogy
You are the author. You are the star pitcher, in command of the game, the franchise player leading the league.
You know how to throw heat and sometimes you are absolutely un-hittable, mystifying batters and dazzling the crowd with your stuff. But every once in a while, you’re going to get in a jam and face a batter you’ve never seen before or a nemesis who knows you all to well. You get behind in the count and are not sure what pitch to throw next.
I am the editor, the manager who calls time-out, and walks calmly out to the mound to tell you “You got this, Bud. Throw him something chest-high that makes him swing big but pop-up.”
Sometimes I am your teammate, the catcher who gives you some unique insight because I am crouched below and behind the batter. I have a point of view you don’t have from the pitcher’s mound. I can see where a batter is vulnerable in a way you cannot.
Or maybe I am the right-hander in the bull-pen, warmed up and ready. I can come into the game and take over for you in relief.
Whatever my role, editorial coach, writing partner or ghostwriter, I’m here to get you out of the jam, or out of the inning, and put a win in the books.
I’ve been developing business book titles for about a decade now. I’ve worked on roughly 16 book projects, and not every one of them has made it to the finish line. Some of my clients lost interest in the project or did not see the value of a book. One client did not like how he came across in the first draft (based on a day of audiotape interviews), and he paid me a “kill fee” to halt the project.
I’ve spoken with at least ten “tire kickers” who have been investigating the book-making process and are still on the fence. Most claim to be too busy but say they really need to have a book professionally. What are the odds they will ever complete a manuscript and publish a book?
Rapid Production Cycles
My first contracted book was a guide to the human immune system. The main author was a prominent Ph.D. immunologist who had also founded a nutraceutical product start-up based on a pinecone extract. He wanted a paperback book as a premium offering for customers who purchased large online orders, or to place in a kiosk in a GNC store alongside his product. He gave me access to three immunologist colleges around the country as well as an Eastern medicine practitioner.
John Miller pitched the original book idea to the entrepreneur-immunologist while watching a Super Bowl game at a neighbor’s house, and in ten months we had the book done in time for the peak holiday and flu season, when most everyone’s immune system is compromised.
The Mike Lingo cloud book took about seven months from pitch to finished print run, and I’d say the process can be done (blank page idea) to Amazon store in three to five months. Mike and I worked on a shorter follow-up book in 2016 (“Analog”); it only took us a month.
Keno Vigil and I recently developed the bulk of his debut book “Acquired — Now What” in a Februrary-to-June five-month sprint, starting with just an idea and a blank page. And Keno is a frequent traveler, given his job at WebMD. We worked from a shared Google Word document and found monthly working dinners at a Cary, NC mediterranean deli the best cadence.
This is yet the another reason to consider outside help with a first book: it will be done in under a year. It won’t take two or five years to get to the finish line. The client-contractor contractual relationship and exchange of money for editorial services creates a healthy sense of urgency. Everyone is motivated.
Most everyone has access to the tools needed to write a book (pen, paper, laptop, Word software). Everyone has time after dinner, time after breakfast, or weekends to work on a book. What if you said aside half your normal vacation allocation and spent an entire week on your book? Some professionals are even eligible for taking sabbaticals, which would give you a six-month block to devote to a book project.
Nothing is stopping you.
But most prospective authors barely get out of the blocks for the race. Many are stuck with a box full of written notes, with little shape or editorial focus to it. And for those disciplined enough to actually finish a manuscript, they don’t know what to do next.
Role With It.
There are three main ways you can get help producing your first book, from least expensive/intrusive to most expensive option:
Developmental Editor/Coach
In this scenario, you’re the main author will do 80–95% of the writing and my role as editor is to help you shape your prose into a coherent narrative, what I would term “editorial production values.” I’ll help you think through all the book elements: Guest Forward, Introduction, Table of Contents, Index and Appendix assets, as well as all the legal elements like basic copyright and ISBN registration.
It’s your book and I don’t mind at all blending into the background, as long as your check clears! M
This is the least expensive option, but I’m also wary that I will end up doing more of the heavy lifting (writing) based on your reduced fee.
Co-Author
In this scenario, we are equal partners. We will have both our names on the cover and I may even write 70% of it, even though the main ideas and intellectual property are yours.
I’m willing to reduce my fee or I may be willing to share in the profits if I really think we have a winner on our hands (I’ve never done this ever).
As Co-Author I may have something invested in the subject. If the book topic is entrepreneurship, economic development, financial services, nanotechnology, medical devices, the arts, entertainment, non-profits, spirituality or surfing (topics I know deeply), then we can quickly develop a book with a shared expertise. Heck, I may even know more than you do or know esoteric sub topics to a greater degree.
I’m also more willing to take on a project is the topic interests me. I recently helped two Bay Area companies develop the first draft of business books on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is in the news just about every day and I wanted to have a much deeper understanding. One of the AI books focused on the topic of the software development cycle, which has made me infinitely more qualified to work on a new book on Agile transformation.
Ghostwriter
There’s not a thing wrong with hiring a ghostwriter. It’s done all the time. They’re your ideas and experiences and guidance, and you are merely asking someone to help put those ideas into an organized intellectual product. I’m no different from an outfitter who helps you climb Half Dome in Yosemite or K2 in the Himalayas. I’m going to arrange all the travel, the food, the base camp and climbing equipment, and will hire all the Sherpa porters. I may even make the ascent with you because I know the trail and the traverses and all the small-detail handholds. But you are Sir Edmund Hillary and you get all the credit.
My ego drive is low. In one client, book I was listed as “project manager” even though I organized all of it and wrote most of it.
As a ghostwriter, I walk in eyes wide open, expecting to do 100% of the work, the writing, the research and the organizing. And the higher fee reflects it.
I also realize many of my clients are individuals, who are paying for my help out of their personal savings. My rates are much higher when it’s a large corporation with deep pockets and the book is being paid for out of a marketing budget.
Bonus Round: Beyond Book #1
I will be very interested in working with you if the book is part of a series. You’ll have to pay full fare for the first book, but I might discount my fee for the second and third books. Once we’ve done one book together, we will have a trust and work cadence and the next books will develop much faster.
What other ancillary writing projects can we do together? Hank Brigman had me help him with a presentation deck based on his Touchpoint Power! book, and I was paid to give two of the 26 speeches Hank had arranged with a trade association.
A technology client hired me to write their corporate blogs, press releases and web content, and help with media strategy. That went well because I already knew the subject from the book writing we had already done.
If you’re using the book to establish a consultancy or speaking business, and that business takes off, you’re going to need an operations and marketing executive. I can handle both roles.
Following completion of the Mike Lingo Cloud book in late 2010, the Astadia CMO asked me to help the company as a part-time proofreader of marketing content. Within two months, I was named Astadia’s full-time Marketing Director, reporting to the CMO on marketing projects and the CEO on internal communications, and serving as the company liaison with Forrester Research.
You never know where a book will take you.
Author Note: This post is a chapter excerpt from the forthcoming “Creating Your First Business Book” (copyright Tomol Press 2018).
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