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Book SAMPLES: non-ghostwritten collaborations
You may be surprised to hear that at least 60 percent of bestsellers are ghostwritten. It never ceases to amaze me when respectable-appearing bloggers suggest that if you’re thinking about hiring a ghostwriter, ask to see a list of the books the ghostwriter has written. Even in an NPR interview, a "ghostwriter" rattles off the names of dozens of branded clients. Pardon me?
Since my first ghostwriting project in 1994, I’ve worked under the definition of ghostwriter as “one who writes for and in the name of another who is considered the author." My ghostwriting contracts put in place nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with authors who trust that, as a "ghost," I remain invisible.
For obvious reasons, It’s more expensive to hire a ghostwriter than a collaborative writer who is partially compensated with cover real estate. I’m proud of all the books on which I've been privileged to collaborate. Yet, I admit to wishing my name had appeared on the cover of every book I've ghosted. That choice, ultimately, is a factor of an author's mindset, personal needs, or professional strategy. Until a client/author dissolves or terminates an NDA, I honor it.
So, please, don’t ask me for a list of books I’ve ghosted. Instead, let's discover how artfully I can turn your idea into a book.
World-Class Rainforest Art
Hösig Di: The Making of a Masterpiece
weaving the scarlet macaw, chapter TWO
A collection—an accumulation of objects, marked by similarity among or with other members of the group, gathered for study, comparison, pleasure or exhibition—can be whimsical or archetypal, theoretical and even political. Among the most coveted of collectible ethnographic objects are baskets.
Contemporary weavers might agree that Webster lacked imagination when he defined baskets simply as “containers made of interwoven twigs, rushes, thin strips of wood or other flexible material.” Happily, weavers are highly creative and have experimented with any number of construction methods—plaited, coiled, wrapped, stitched, twined, embroidered, knotted and woven—with an array of organic and inorganic materials. Cane, rattan, sweet grass, cotton fabric, spun wool, silk, metal, coated and uncoated wire, plastic film and plastic tubing have been and will yet be manipulated and incorporated into a shape or design that ultimately we will intuitively recognize as “basket.”
WWII Biography
fire of a thousand suns
chapter one: no dry run
The sunrise such as the world had never seen began as a seed of reddish-purple light. In one-millionth of an eyeblink, the seed blossomed into a light not of this world, the light of a thousand suns in one.
When the eye-stabbing flash penetrated the goggles intended to shield him, the tail gunner thought he had been blinded. At the signal nearly two minutes earlier, Staff Sergeant George Robert Caron had lowered the dense Polaroids over his eyes and tested them. The bright morning sun had been reduced to an odd, faint purple blob. Nothing more.
Major Tom Ferebee spotted his aiming point, the Aioi Bridge, pressed the trigger’ of his Norden bomb sight and calmly, but deliberately, announced “bomb away.”
Art Historical Nonfiction
The Painted Prophecies of cornelis van haarlem,
da vinci of the dutch
writing under my nom de plume, lisette moss
SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED
The silversmith shifted his concentration from the documents beneath his hand to meet his wife’s eyes. Maria’s nod was almost imperceptible. Deftly, he orchestrated the swan quill, freshly inked and, in beautiful, elaborate flourishes, penned his attestation.
I, the undersigned, certify these aforesaid lots to be the art left by the late Master Cornelis van Haarlem and my own goods without anything being added by any one.
This Register ofte Lijste van de naergelaten Kunst van Mr Cornelis van Haerlem represented not only the paintings and drawings by Maria’s father, but also a collection of works by others whom the painter had admired and emulated. The silversmith added his date and signature: 2 March 1639, Pieter Jansz Beggijn (Bagijn)
“It is done,” Bagijn easily might have said. Relieved at having fulfilled his duty as executor of his father-in-law’s seventh will, Bagijn could little guess that his was now a responsibility of far-reaching proportions.