How will the world look different after you publish your book?

Here’s the third installment in my ‘How to Work with a Ghostwriter’ series.  These articles will give you the lowdown on what you need to know and do – before you hire a ghostwriter. If you missed “How to work with a ghostwriter Part 1 or Part 2, just click the links.

Okay, so by now you know that these articles are designed to help you write a remarkable, entertaining and truly memorable book – by walking you through the planning and organizing steps you need to take before you start working with a ghostwriter.  The more you do at this stage of the process, the better your book will be, and the smoother the writing process will go.

On any given topic, there is already a dominant story that exists. So it’s important that you look at, and understand that story. In other words, who else has written books on your subject? You need to know as much about the competition as possible – but you’re not here to judge, or negate someone else’s work.  Instead, you want to look for these three things:

1. The history. The story you’re going to tell (and again, it doesn’t matter if your book is fiction or non-fiction) has to connect the dots for your reader. Your  book needs to provide a clear and contextual beginning, middle and end – so that your reader feels connected and like they’re a part of what’s going on.  Without this, your reader will feel an emotional disconnect – and you’ll lose them.
2. The larger meaning. Just like explorers of old, you need to discover what information in your topic is out there, what your reader expects to find in your book and then figure out how you can deconstruct it, recombine it, reinvent it – so your reader learns something new, and sees the new, bigger meaning in what you have to say and share. Information alone has lost it’s value, because there’s so much of it and it’s so readily available. Your goal is to write a book that has real meaning and relevance to your reader – and because of that opens them to the possibilities of what could be.
3. Where your thoughts, ideas and message fits. Every society – every culture has its own rules and customs. From the time we were children, we were taught to look at things as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘black’ or ‘white’. We also instinctively look for those invisible connections – how one thing connects to another, in a logical sequence of events, so that they ‘fit’ together. Your readers expect this, and for your book to be accepted, trusted, enjoyed and shared – you have to show how and where your book fits in the grand scheme of things.

Get clear on who you're writing for

So in my last post, How to work with a ghostwriter part 1 (click the link if you haven’t read it and want to), we started talking about some things that were necessary for you to get ready to work with a ghostwriter… and you might have been surprised to learn that I wasn’t talking about things like writing samples, fee agreements and project scopes.

As your ghostwriter, it’s my job to help you write a kick-ass book that stands out from the crowd and catches the heart and mind of your readers.

And in my experience, the best way to do that is to help you prepare for writing that book from the very start – before we even meet, in fact.

In the last post, I told you that one of the first things you need to get really clear on is your reader – the person you’re writing your book for.  And that may actually be one of the secrets to why I’m one of the ‘in-demand’ ghostwriters for doctors.  Because I help my clients create a kind of ‘persona’ that they’re writing the book for – and we keep that person in mind all through the writing process.

Let me tell you a little story to illustrate why this is so powerful.

I was working with a copywriting client of mine last spring – he charters yachts around the Greek islands.  And as part of his marketing plan, we created a downloadable special report for potential clients – it had several previously written how-to articles and tips for people who wanted to charter a yacht.  Anyway, one of the things I did was edit and update that report.  At the same time, I happened to talk to my sister, who was going to celebrate her 30th wedding anniversary, and her husband was in the process of planning a trip for them – he was doing it all – choosing where they were going to go and what they were going to do, and making all the reservations – everything.

So of course we talked about them chartering a yacht, too.  So, when I re-wrote that report, I wrote it with my sister and brother-in-law in mind – someone who had never been to Greece and had never sailed around the Greek islands.  The report converted like gangbusters.

What does that have to do with you and your book?

Everything.

Because human beings are not plain, vanilla people.  We may be tied down with responsibilities – car payments, mortgage payments, kids to put through college,  and we may not always be leading the life we thought we’d be living, or doing all the things we wanted to do when we were young, or getting out there saving the world and making a difference… but that doesn’t mean we don’t dream about it.

People aren’t rational, logical, analytical creatures.  Each one of us harbors secret dreams and hopes and fantasies – and we’re all searching for experiences that lift us out of our every-day, ordinary lives – experiences that warm our hearts, kindle our spirits and spark our imaginations!

Which means that if you want people to read – and buy – your book, it can’t be a ‘me too’ clone with all the same information that’s in all the books written on the same topic! Your book has to be that spark that fires up your reader’s imagination… it has to give them hope or inspire them… And it doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a murder mystery or a romance novel, or a self-help book about health and well-being.

You want your book to lift your reader out of the mundane, to get them thinking and to see things in a whole new way…

Did you know that according to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), there are 172,000 books published every year in the United States alone?  For the first time since 2001, the United Kingdom is publishing more than in the U.S. with 206,000, and Canada put out 19,000?

And that’s not counting e-books, self-published or books for e-readers such as Kindle.

And it also doesn’t take into account how many manuscripts are written – and not published for whatever reason.

The point is, before you even start writing it, your book is up against a lot of competition – just to get it written and submitted.  And then, if you make the cut and your book is published, you’ve got even more competition to make it stand out from the crowd and get it noticed.

And here’s what you need to do, before you start working with a ghostwriter – whether it’s me or someone else…

Get clear on who you’re writing to…

Create a picture in your mind of one person – it doesn’t have to be a real person – although sometimes that helps.  It could be your spouse, your mother or a patient.  Or an old friend from medical school.  Or your neighbor who lives down the street.  But use that person as your guide when you’re putting together your topic, and doing your research, or writing your book’s outline… It will help you to create a book that’s remarkable, that will be remembered – a legacy that remains long after you’re gone.

How to work with a ghostwriter

Warning: ‘How to work with a ghostwriter’ isn’t going to be the ‘typical’ article that talks to you about asking a potential ghost for writing samples, explains why creating an outline is important or gives you a checklist of what you need to know about project scopes, milestones and fee agreements.

While those things are important, there are some other things you need to know first about how to work with a ghostwriter – things that will determine the ultimate success – or dismal failure – of your book.

Let’s start at the beginning – with your book idea.

It doesn’t matter if you’re planning on writing a fiction or non-fiction book – if one of your main goals is to get other people to see what you see – to write something that inspires and influences and makes your reader believe, care and even take action – then you need to start with the basics.

You need the  ability to tell a story – your story – in a way that grabs the readers attention and makes them want to keep reading – and makes them want to share your story with the people they know – is what’s going to make your book wildly successful.

It probably won’t surprise you to know that this is one of the main reasons many authors want to work with a ghostwriter.  (Industry statistics show that almost 40% of traditionally published books are written with the assistance of a ghost.) Because while they’ve got a great idea for a book, many authors aren’t sure how to develop their idea into a commercially viable manuscript that has the potential to go viral – and to end up with a book that attracts hundreds – if not thousands – of buyers and readers.

Working with a professional ghostwriter can help you make that happen.

Finding Relevance, Meaning and the Right Mindset

When someone goes to a bookstore looking for a book, chances are they want more than just something to read.  They’re looking for an experience, something that sparks their imagination, grabs their attention, and validates their beliefs, experiences and  viewpoints.  In other words, your book has to be relevant to your reader.  Seth Godin (author of Tribes: We need you to lead us) said, “Great stories agree with our world view. The best stories don’t teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded of how smart they were in the first place.”

What publishers want

Most publishers will tell you they’re not looking for a brand new story that’s never been told before. They want a story that people know – but they want it told in a new and different way. So if you want a commercially successful book, this means don’t write a book about change, write a book about continuity that picks up where the old story left off, and shows what to do next.

Why your book idea needs to be relevant to your intended audience

If you want to write a successful book – one that is acclaimed and enjoyed and shared – you absolutely have to know who your audience is – before you start working with a ghostwriter.  Because in order to get people to read your book, you have to meet them where they’re at right now.   Here’s why:

In the last 10 years, ‘we’ve come a long way baby‘… and we’re no longer living in the ‘information age’. We, as a society, have moved beyond the place where all we want is information.  Today all the information is at your fingertips and readily available to almost anyone with a computer and an internet connection.  Not only is it readily available, most of the time, there’s too much of it, and not all of it is good, or truthful, or helpful or relevant.

In fact, once ‘information overload’ became an accepted condition in business and in our daily lives, we moved into another era. Today we’re living in the recommendation era.  As consumers we don’t trust ‘information’ any more, unless it comes from a source we recognize and trust.  People are ten times more likely to believe something if a friend, family member or colleague – someone they know and trust – recommends it to them.  Which is why social networks like FaceBook and twitter and LinkedIn have taken off like wildfire!

So as an author who is about to write a book, you can’t act – or write – as if it were ten years ago.  Society has changed, people have changed – and the way we do business has changed.  One of the best examples of this has to do with raw information. People don’t want information any more.  They want something more.  They want to find someone they trust, someone who is willing to take the time to go through all the information about a subject, and filter it -through their own experiences, their beliefs, their values – and distill it down, to its essence and then share it.

One of the biggest problems we, as a society have – is finding someone we can trust.

But we still, as a society, tend to trust authors.  If your name is on your own book, it sets you apart from the crowd.  People will sit up and take notice of you.  And more than that, they will trust that what you have to say matters.

So before you start working with a ghostwriter, you need to understand what you’re writing about and why and who you want to reach.

And we’ll go a little deeper into how to work with a ghostwriter in part 2.