FAQs

What is the process for working with you?

When we work together, we work together collaboratively which means we work through a process to ensure the project is a great fit for us both! Once you contact me, we schedule an introductory video meeting. (I find it’s great to meet in person, even on video!) Next, we focus on your goals. Why are you interested in a book? What are your goals for publishing? We also discuss timing and brainstorm ideas! We talk about publishing, your needs and how I can help. Once we have our introductory meeting, I create an assessment and proposal for you detailing your goals and how I can help. In the proposal, I also discuss process, timing, and pricing. Once we have a starting point, we can finalize how we want to work together and get started! I find this process helps us all ensure we’re committed to the project and moving in the same direction.

What are your rates?

Rates are determined based on your goals and what we need to do to achieve them. For ghostwriting and larger projects, we meet, assess your project and see if we want to work together. For organizational projects such as planning or strategy, pricing may be based on a per project or daily basis. For in-office consultations, day rates apply. If you’re interested in working together, I will prepare an assessment on your project based on your goals. The assessment will include the scope of work, some options, rates, and a proposed schedule.

Most publishers reach out to me directly and we can proceed based on project, rates, and schedule.

How do publishers usually make a decision to publish a book?

Typically, publishing houses have complex and detailed processes for making publishing decisions.  Authors, agents, and acquiring editors prepare proposals, conduct research, analyze markets, evaluate similar titles, and, of course, assess the content, writing, style, and tone of the manuscript or sample chapters submitted. Acquiring editors also work to determine the author’s goals, platform, contacts, and ability or willingness to promote or market the book. Editors compile all this information along with category and market research focusing on the opportunity and present their recommendations to members of a publishing board (or editorial board). At a publishing board meeting, everyone uses their professional expertise to help identify the market opportunity and create a plan for the book with the research, recommendations and author’s goals driving the book’s content, focus, packaging, and marketing plan. Most authors are never privy to any of this research or information. They wait at home by the phone or computer to hear what decision editors and publishers have made about proceeding. However, when it comes to selling your non-fiction manuscript to a publisher, your agent or acquiring editor will ask if you have a proposal, typically a large document with specific elements, sort of like a business plan for your book. Daunted by creating a proposal? Contact me. I can help.

What books have you done that I can see?

As a ghost-editor and book doctor, many books that I personally touch aren’t books you’d know or can find. Some I can’t reveal, and some have never even been published. However, over the years, I’ve worked with authors like Peter Coffee, Ron White, Sally Edwards, Daniel Boulud, Ellen Brown, Joe Nameth, Amy Zavatto, Kendall Livingston, Chris Algieri, Mary Berry, and others. For more books I’ve had a hand in, see my Bylines page.

What is trade quality?

Trade quality is the level of quality found in the best books for sale in retail bookstores; it indicates a book that meets the highest publishing standards. Trade-quality books are unique, well-written, appropriate for their markets, and free from errors. They have effective, eye-catching covers, crisp photographs and illustrations, and are printed on quality paper. I work with each author to ensure his or her book meets this high quality standard—we find that it is usually something that our authors demand also.

How do you ensure that my book won’t lose my voice in this editing process?

As a writer, I know firsthand what it is like to have my own work edited. We know that your unique voice and style are integral to your book’s success. As an editor, I respect your material: My role is to offer expert advice throughout the publishing process. After each stage of editing,  we look at your manuscript together with my recommendations and edits highlighted, to facilitate discussion and to make it easy for you to approve or reject my work. This means you retain control of your manuscript throughout the entire process.

Can I use AI? AI has a lot of book related uses. It can be helpful in reviewing, clarifying complex points, and even generating ideas. However, it’s not a cut-and-paste process. Text generated by AI engines require rewriting, vetting, and a critical eye. AI engines use tell-tale construction that need to be scrubbed — and frankly, they produce flat, dull writing. So, want to preserve your unique voice and produce snappy writing? Use it carefully. It can’t write your book for you.

Why is branding so important to a book’s success?

Browse any section of a bookstore and you’ll see branding on almost every major book cover: Look how a fiction author’s name is treated on all his books, or the way a fitness author is pictured on her cover. The treatment of your name, the book’s title, the artwork, and the cover text should work together to create a strong brand that conveys a specific message to the consumer. Are you hoping to expand your book’s success to your business or future books? We believe that creating a strong brand for you, your book, and your concept increases your book’s success and enables you to capitalize on that success (whether in your business or your next book). Better yet, are your a business consultant and want a branded book for your seminars, workbooks, online training, presentations, and back-of-the-room book sales? We look at book branding to make sure it all works together.

What are your favorite resources?

• The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition
• A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 9E, Kate L. Turabian
• The Elements of Style, Strunk and White
• The Food Substitutions Bible, 3E, David Joachim (2022)
• The Recipe Writer’s Handbook, Revised Edition (2001) Barbara Gibbs Ostmann

Have another question?  Want to know more?  Contact me and ask!