As you probably know, in addition to hosting this podcast and running the Daily Writer Club, my membership group for writers, I’m a ghostwriter. Today, I’m excited to share a conversation with an enormously successful and legendary celebrity ghostwriter, Glenn Plaskin.

Glenn Plaskin is the bestselling author of twenty-five books, including Horowitz: The Biography of Vladimir Horowitz; Turning Point: Pivotal Moments in the Lives of America’s Celebrities; and KATIE: Up and Down The Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family.

He is also a recognized collaborator and ghostwriter for CEO’s, entertainment personalities, high achievers, newsmakers, performing artists, and public speakers. He is known for his in-depth interviews and human development stories, landing exclusives with film stars, politicians, TV personalities, business executives, and media figures. He is ranked in the 2022 Publishers Weekly Book Publishing Almanac as the lead ghostwriter in the nation.

His profiles and syndicated columns have appeared in the New York Times, the Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Family Circle, US Weekly, Ladies Home Journal, and many more outlets.

His interview subjects have included such figures as Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Katharine Hepburn, Nancy Reagan, Bill Gates, Calvin Klein, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Paul Newman, Dolly Parton, and hundreds of others.

Glenn’s TV appearances include The Today Show, Oprah, Larry King, Joan Rivers, Sally Jessy Raphael, Geraldo, and Good Day New York. He will be appearing in two upcoming film documentaries in 2023, one on Katharine Hepburn (Netflix) and another on Leona Helmsley (HBO). He lives in New York City.

In this conversation, Glenn shares his journey into becoming a writer, some of his habits and routines, how to get started writing, and some thoughts on working with clients. You can find out more about Glenn at https://www.ghostwriteyourbook.com/.

The post Celebrity Ghostwriter Glenn Plaskin on Writing Habits, Getting Started, and Working with Clients appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Ghostwriting is essentially writing books for someone else. Sometimes, the client is highly involved in the project, almost like a co-author. Other times, they are not very involved, or not involved at all. Whatever the case, most of the time your name is not on the book. That’s why they call it ghostwriting: you are invisible.

Sometimes, however, you can negotiate to have your name listed on the book cover. They call this a “with” credit. I’ve been fortunate enough to negotiate for a “with” credit on a couple of books so far, including The Faith of Elvis, which I wrote with Billy Stanley, Elvis Presley’s stepbrother.

There are a few reasons why I like ghostwriting:

1. It’s fairly straightforward. Writing books is a pretty straightforward process once you understand how to plan, outline, and draft a book. I like being able to explain to people that I write books for people who don’t have the time or talent to do it themselves. It’s very easy for others to understand.
2. It can pay well. My projects have ranged from the low five figures to the high five figures per book. Because of this, it doesn’t take many projects per year to make a decent living.
3. You learn a lot with each project. Every book I write gives me more knowledge and experience that I can apply to other projects. I feel like I’m getting a master’s degree in a specific topic every time I write a book.

The big challenge with ghostwriting, just like any client-based work, is finding and signing clients. I’ve had periods where I’ve had an abundance of work, and also dry periods when I was a little worried about when the next client would sign. It’s definitely an adjustment if you’re used to getting a regular paycheck from an employer.

The one thing people ask me all the time is, “How do you get started as a ghostwriter?” I’ll give you three very specific things.

First, you need to write a book if you haven’t already. I suggest a short book that’s around 120 pages, about 30,000 words or so. This will give you automatic credibility as an author, and as someone who can write books.

Second, you need to enroll in Ghostwriter School, taught by my friend and mentor Nick Pavlidis. This is how I got started, and I recommend you do the same as well. You can access it at https://ghostwriterschool.com.

And third, you need to start telling people you’re building a ghostwriting business. Don’t tell them you’re doing five other things on the side. Just focus on ghostwriting. If you have a book out there, and you’re going through Nick’s training, and you’re consistently telling people you’re building a ghostwriting business, it’s only a matter of time before you find that first client.

If you are a freelance writer doing a lot of little jobs for clients, I encourage you to consider ghostwriting. It generally pays more, and you can focus on a few higher-value clients than a bunch of smaller ones. Ghostwriting has been good to me and my family, and I know it can do the same for you.

Question: Have you ever considered ghostwriting? How could it impact your life and writing business?

The post Making Money as a Writer: Ghostwriting appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

What if you could sit down with someone who was very close to one of the biggest entertainers in American history? What questions would you ask them, and what insights might you come away with?

That’s the opportunity I had not only with today’s interview, but also with the whole process of writing The Faith of Elvis with Billy Stanley, Elvis Presley’s stepbrother. Billy and his two younger brothers moved into Graceland to live with Elvis and his family when Billy’s mother married Elvis’s father, Vernon.

The book recounts Elvis’s journey of faith, not only as a spiritual person himself, but also through the lens of his relationship to Billy and his brothers. Billy spent 17 years with Elvis, getting a firsthand glimpse into his life and faith.

Billy was a successful salesman and airplane mechanic. Now, he and his wife, Liz, live in Memphis, just a few miles from Graceland.

In our conversation, I talk to Billy about some of the themes in the book, how the book impacted me as a writer, and our process of creating it together.

The post Collaborating on “The Faith of Elvis” with Billy Stanley appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Establish a specific goal for your writing.

If you hang around other writers long enough, you’ll hear a lot of talk about habits. After all, you’re listening to this podcast about habits right now! However, the point of developing a writing habit is not the habit itself. The habit is just a mechanism to help you get the writing done.

But the question is: what are you writing? What is the end product this writing habit should be producing?

I encourage you to set some type of goal, since this is the point of doing all the writing work to begin with. Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art: Break Through the Creative Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles, said this:

This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.

There is real power in simply doing the work. My question is: what are you working toward? Is it a book? A weekly blog post? Podcast episodes you’re writing, like I’ve done with this one? Freelance or ghostwriting work?

No matter what it is, I think it’s vital to have something you’re working toward, some type of tangible goal that is important to you.

Question: What is a writing goal you are working toward right now?

The post Do You Have a Goal for Your Writing? appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

If you have followed my journey the last couple of years, you know that I have transitioned into being a full-time ghostwriter, while also leading our Daily Writer Community and helping writers with this podcast and other resources.

Today, I’m thrilled to feature a conversation with my friend and ghostwriting mentor Nick Pavlidis. Nick used to be an attorney, but a few years ago he began to build a ghostwriting business on the side. He eventually transitioned away from his law career, and now he does ghostwriting full-time, in addition to running Ghostwriter School.

Nick is the main reason I was able to learn about ghostwriting and transition away from my college job this past year. The interview you’re going to hear is from a couple of years ago, when I was just getting started in this line of work, so keep that in mind. But I wanted to re-run it because this coming week, Nick is opening the doors again to Ghostwriter School. This is a great opportunity for you to learn about ghostwriting if you want to build a business that can help support your family while also using your writing skills.

This episode is a real-world case study of some issues and questions I was having at the time, as I was building my ghostwriting business. I think you will find lots of great material here to inspire you as you consider your own writing business.

You can learn more about Ghostwriter School here.

You can connect with Nick on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Also, make sure you check out Nick’s amazing Ghostwriter Growth Facebook group.

The post Nick Pavlidis: The Power of Ghostwriting appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

They’ve asked me questions like:

• How do you make a full-time living as a ghostwriter?
• How long did it take you to build up your business?
• When did you find time to build your business?

Those who have been following me for a while knew this transition had been coming for a while. But to many others, this seemed like it came out of nowhere.

Just the other day, someone commented that “It must be awesome to be living your dream … I wish I could do that.” Yes, it’s awesome to be in charge of my own schedule and income. However, that person’s comment seemed to be a way to suggest that I basically got lucky.

As a result, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share the journey of how all this actually happened. It has definitely not been an “overnight success.” In fact, it’s been a long, long time in the making.

After I share my story, I’ll share a few practical tips if you’re on the same journey (WARNING: Long post ahead!).

It Began with Blogging

My business journey began sometime around 2010 or 2011 when I started blogging. I had no idea what I was doing, other than having the impulse to write. I had always wanted to be a writer, but the only opportunities I knew about were submitting articles to magazines or trying to find a publisher for a book. Then when blogging came along, I saw it as an opportunity to sharpen my writing skills and maybe help a few people.

For a few years, I wrote on a semi-consistent basis about teaching, faith, family, spirituality, worship, and whatever else came to mind. There was no rhyme or reason other than just getting my thoughts out there.

Around the same time, I began to follow a few people who gave me a vision for what a writing-based business could look like. There were five specific people I followed: Dan Miller, Joanna Penn, Jeff Goins, Michael Hyatt, and Kimanzi Constable. They each emphasized different topics and had their own unique way of writing. But each one impacted me in a huge way.

As I studied these amazing writers, I noticed they all had several things in common:

• They all wrote books.
• They all sent email newsletters.
• They all had courses or memberships you could purchase (as well as other digital products).
• They all wrote blog posts.
• All but one had a podcast where they either shared great content, interviewed leaders in their field, or both.
• They all frequently collaborated with other writers through podcasting and blogging.

Bit by bit, I saw that it was possible to build a business around writing. And with each passing month and year, I got more and more hungry to build a business around my writing. I didn’t want my life or schedule to be dictated by anyone else.

My First Books & Podcast

In 2014, I had been blogging for a while but decided to take things to the next level. I was a big fan of the Evernote productivity app, and had been teaching it to my college students for a while. Encouraged by all the online courses I was seeing from others, I created my own course on Evernote and promoted it to a few dozen people I knew. (I even got official permission from the Evernote people so I wouldn’t be sued, ha.)

A few people bought it, and I remember being so ecstatic that people had given me $47 each for a course! Let me tell you, when you get those first payments for something you created, it’s a huge rush!

Soon afterward, I took my course material and wrote a book on Evernote for pastors. It was published with a small Christian publisher, and was only an ebook, not print. I think less than 25 people bought it.

However, I was proud that I had at last written a book, which gave me the confidence to write my second book, The Artist’s Suitcase: 26 Essentials for the Creative Journey.

That was 2015, and around the same time, I started a blog and a podcast by the same name, “The Artist’s Suitcase.” I loved podcasting but it was a lot of work. I gave up on my show after only 37 episodes, but I kept on writing and blogging.

Negotiating for a New Teaching Role

Around that same time, I had been teaching music/worship ministry at my college for about ten years. I was totally burned out and needed to either change jobs or teach something different. So I used the negotiation skills I was learning from my side jobs to gradually work my way into a new role at my college.

Over the next couple of years, I transitioned completely out of the music area and into a newly-created role for me: Professor of Communication Arts (yes, I made up that title but the college let me keep it).

The way I figured it, I might as well be doing similar things in my day job as my side hustle. The things I was learning in my side job were so valuable that I wanted to teach them to students. One of the advantages of teaching at a small college is that you can work your way into a new role if you play your cards right. I will always be thankful to the college for being open to my crazy ideas for classes such as Faith & Film, The Art of Storytelling, Communication Technology for Ministry, and Writing for Publication!

This development also irritated some of the other professors. One of them remarked to me, “Why do you get to teach all the fun classes?” I responded, “Because I asked. You don’t have to settle for what the Academic Dean gives you. Be proactive and negotiate for what you want.”

That didn’t seem to sit too well with the professor, but it was all true. I was done just accepting what others wanted to throw me.

Dipping My Toe into Client Work

Back to the side gig. In 2016, I struck up a friendship Rye Taylor, a podcast producer. We connected on a site called 48days.net, which was a networking community and an early version of Dan Miller’s Eagles Community. He needed someone to write show notes for a client podcast he was producing. I agreed, and we worked on the show together until just a few months ago, when I handed it off to another writer.

Soon after getting the hang of writing podcast show notes, I started doing the same thing for a few other clients, and my business started to slowly grow over the next couple of years. I will always be grateful to Rye for giving me my first shot at client work! He was such a pleasure to work with that he forever set the standard of how I should treat anyone who works for me.

Then in 2017, I started podcasting again. At the time, I was focusing on the topic of creativity, so I started the “Born to Create” podcast. I was working on a book of the same title. I’m embarrassed to admit this now, but I worked on that book for 2-3 years and never finished it. I created 150 pages of raw material, ideas, character sketches and backstory, and outlines … but never actually wrote the book.

Yep, it’s easy to get stuck. Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.

Around the same time, I started writing for The Good Men Project, a website with several million visitors per month. Then after a short time, I became a lead editor. This meant I was not only recruiting new writers, but also editing and posting their material. The pay was abysmal, but the experience and connections were invaluable.

Despite some successes, the summer of 2019 was one giant frustration. I applied for several jobs with companies that needed writers or content consultants. A couple of those companies required extensive pre-interview work. I spent about 25 hours doing required work for one of them, made it to the top 50 out of 2,000 candidates, but didn’t get any further.

Later that summer, I connected with a potential client who was very interested in me helping her company implement a training program. The possibilities were huge–so huge, in fact, that if they accepted my proposal, I would be able to quit my teaching job and focus on that for the next year.

She asked for a detailed proposal, so I spent about 60 hours over the next two weeks putting together an amazing proposal. I did a bunch of research on her industry and put together an incredible proposal that included podcast production, a book, consulting, assessments, the whole shebang.

It was rejected immediately. Over text, no less.

To say I was discouraged and defeated is a huge understatement. Truth is, I was angry. And I stayed that way for two months.

I was still a college professor in my day job, so I started that school year in a very bad mood. I couldn’t get over the fact that 60 hours of proposal work had been flushed the drain.

Or was it really down the drain? Turns out, it wasn’t.

The Big 5: Deciding What I Really Wanted

That anger, that desire to succeed, is what fueled me to sit down one day in the Fall of 2019 to figure out what I really wanted. If I were going to design a business that was perfect for me, what would it look like?

I whittled it down to several criteria–what I called “The Big 5.” Whatever direction I went with a business, it had to include these 5 things:

• The ability to work from anywhere.
• The ability to set my own schedule.
• A focus on writing, which is my main marketable skill.
• The opportunity to make as much income as I wanted, not limited by someone else.
• The opportunity to spend time around highly successful business people and creative thinkers.

Around that same time, I enrolled in Ghostwriter School, a course created by Nick Pavlidis. Aha! Now I had found the business model that met all my criteria! Ghostwriting would allow me to set my own schedule, be geographically independent, earn as much as I wanted (over time), be writing-focused, and put me in touch with successful people.

So it really wasn’t until last year, 2020, when things finally started to coalesce into something that I knew could be a viable business. Once I got my first ghostwriting client, I knew it was going to work if I continued to work the system.

However, I had a conundrum: I did not want to focus exclusively on ghostwriting. I still wanted to create my own stuff and teach writing. So I decided that my business would have two parts: Inkwell Ghostwriting (which does client work), and The Daily Writer (which creates resources for writers). The Daily Writer includes books (three of my own coming within the next year), a membership community, and a podcast.

These are two distinct sides of my business, but there is a lot of overlap. What I learn in my client work, I then teach via The Daily Writer. And all the material I develop for The Daily Writer, I can then share with my clients as added bonuses if it fits with their project.

The 90% You Don’t See

When you see someone who has a successful business on some level, you may think you know their story. But a business is like an iceberg: what you see is only the top 10%. There is a whole lot of stuff, and a whole journey, that lies under the surface, unseen by most people.

When people see me from the outside, here is what they see:

• A guy who has a full-time business doing things he loves.

But here are the things most people didn’t see the last ten years:

• The late nights, early mornings, and weekends writing, recording, and editing podcast interviews and episodes.
• The hundreds of podcast show notes I wrote for clients in my spare time.
• The frustrations, dead ends, and discouragement that cropped up on a regular basis.
• All the courses I took, books and articles I read, and audiobooks and podcasts I have listened to in order to learn new skills and make myself more valuable (Not to mention the many thousands of dollars I spent doing those things.).
• All the weird, random, low-paying writing jobs I did for clients. Those jobs were not exciting, but I was grateful for the income, and they taught me valuable skills.
• All the times I have gone for hour-long walks, dictating content for articles, newsletters, or podcasts.
• Hundreds of phone calls and Zoom calls connecting with people.

When you talk about people who have a similar journey as mine, those things are not unusual. It takes a few years to get some skills under your belt and figure out your direction.

A Few Lessons

I’d love to close out this email with three observations if you’d like to turn your writing into a business.

FIRST: It is critical to get around the right people. You must spend time around those who have a similar vision for their life. These people need to be positive, encouraging, and helpful. The Daily Writer Community is a great place to find those people.

SECOND: You must keep learning and moving forward. Even when it feels like you’re not making a lot of progress. Keep trying new things, keep putting out content, keep creating. The moment you stand still and say, “I’m done learning,” is the day you might as well quit.

THIRD: I highly recommend starting a podcast. A podcast, for me, has been essential for meeting new people and creating opportunities. When you have conversations with awesome people, magic happens. I guarantee I would not have a full-time business today if I hadn’t been podcasting.

I know this has been a super-long episode, but I hope it has been helpful. I have made a lot of mistakes in my journey, but I honestly wouldn’t change anything because I have learned from each mistake–probably more so than from the successes.

The post How to Be a 10-Year “Overnight Success” appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Welcome again to my monthly business update. As usual, I will focus on three areas: ghostwriting, The Daily Writer, and personal updates.

Ghostwriting

Here are three important lessons I’m learning:

1. You probably need to raise your prices.
2. Clients are not mainly concerned about your writing ability.
3. Having the right connections makes a huge difference.

The Daily Writer

Let me highlight a few important things happening:

1. DW is getting more active on Instagram with quotes, writing prompts, and other content coming soon.
2. The Daily Writer Community is growing, with courses coming in November. The first course is “How to Build a Writing Habit.”
3. This podcast continues to grow in listenership and provide a source of content to repurpose into other forms.
4. I have started to offer one-on-one coaching to authors to help them get their books written and self-published. (Reach out if interested. Spots are very limited.)
5. I’m working steadily on three books of my own: The Daily Writer, How to Build a Writing Habit (lead magnet), and a secret project!

Personal Update

1. I just completed a half-marathon.
2. I’m considering transitioning to a co-working space.
3. I’m loving The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz.

The post October 2021, Business Update appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

On this episode, I share some updates about current ghostwriting projects, what’s happening in the Daily Writer Community, a new group coaching program I’m considering, and what’s going on in my personal life.

The post August 2021, Business Update appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Today’s post is my second business update. About a month ago, I released my very first business update post. If you read that one, I hope you enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to put together and I intend on doing a business update post the first Sunday of each month.

I hope these updates give you some insight into my business, as well as some ideas and motivation for your own writing and business. In addition, I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and failures along the way, which I will freely share with you as much as I can.

Let’s dive in and start with the biggest chunk of my writing business, which is ghostwriting.

Ghostwriting

Not a lot has changed since my last update, except for adding another ghostwriting client. That, of course, is always a welcome addition to my business. I also have several possible books that can happen in the next few months, but we will see.

For the moment, I’m getting close to my capacity as a ghostwriter. I could probably handle one additional book over the next three months, but that’s it.

Now that I have several projects going, one of the challenges that I am learning how to deal with is keeping clients enthusiastic throughout the process. Now you might think, why would clients get tired in this process since you are doing all the work for them?

Well, that is not quite true. Typically, the client is involved in a bunch of calls, especially in the early 2-3 months of the process. They are also reading drafts of the work and are highly involved.

My clients are generally business professionals and entrepreneurs, so they are quite busy and often traveling. For example, recently, a client had to reschedule our call four times because of travel. That kind of thing does not usually happen to such a large extent, but it is not unusual at all to reschedule calls because of their busy lives.

The way that I try to handle this is by keeping the vision of the book in front of them. Writing a book, even if you were the client, takes about six months from start to finish, at least. Part of my job is keeping the enthusiasm going.

As time goes on, I’m learning more and more how to run an efficient business. There are a lot of moving parts to a ghostwriting business. So, whatever kind of business you’re in, I encourage you to keep plugging away and continually learning.

The Daily Writer

As I’ve mentioned before, there are several parts to the Daily Writer: the community, the podcast, and products. The community continues to go well, and I’m having a blast seeing our group grow and take action toward their writing goals. If you haven’t yet considered joining the group, you can check it out here.

Of course, I’m plugging away with this podcast. Many people have asked how I keep up with a daily podcast like this. Well, the truth is that it’s indeed a lot of work, but I also create it in batches. For example, I typically write and record a week’s worth of episodes at one time. So, there are ways to make it a lot more efficient than doing the work every single day.

One of the things I’m very excited about, looking toward the long term, is developing some products for the Daily Writer. I’ve been talking to a couple of manufacturers who could help with some different products like card decks, journals, planners, and other things. This area is totally new for me, so we’ll see where that goes. This research into products initially started with a couple of ideas for client books, but as often happens, I learn from clients and what they want to do, and I can apply those lessons to my own books and business, and vice-versa.

On the writing front, I’m continuing work on two books. The first is Kickstart Your Creativity, which will come out in October. The second is The Daily Writer, which will come out next October. A couple of weeks ago, I took one full day and categorized all the daily podcast episodes into sections I’m using for the Daily Writer book. If you weren’t aware of it before now, what I’m doing in the weekday podcast episodes is writing the daily meditations for the Daily Writer book as I go along. So, those short little episodes are actually serving two purposes—the first is for the podcast itself, and the second is for book material.

I was surprised this week when I discovered that I had written 170 of these daily episodes since November, when I started this daily podcast. I’m almost halfway there to my goal of 366 daily meditations for writers. It’s pretty cool what you can accomplish when you work on something consistently week to week.

Personal Update

I always want to include some personal updates within these business updates, because I’m not just some robot doing this podcast. I’m a real live person who’s behind the mic, and you are as well. One advantage, I think, of the past year with the pandemic is that we are all more willing to accept the humanity of other people we’re doing business with. We’re all people, you know, and there are stories and names behind every business transaction.

I want to briefly touch on three things in my personal life from the last few weeks.

The first is that I ran a 5k with my brother. Now, I understand that a 5k is not big in the running world. In fact, it’s probably the most common type of race, and only a little over 3 miles, so it’s not even that far. I’ve run a couple of 5k’s before, as well as a 10k, so this wasn’t necessarily a new thing.

However, one thing to remember is that 99% of people never even run a race. Actually, I don’t know the exact number, but you get my point. Just by being at the race, you’re already part of an elite group, so to speak. Running this 5k has made me want to do more of these and get in better shape.

The second thing is that my wife, Melanie, and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on June 15. Now there are all kinds of wonderful things I could say about her, but the one thing I want to focus on here is how important it is to have a supportive partner in your life. Now for those of you who are single, I’m not saying you’re deficient in any way, or anything of that nature. Not at all. I’m just saying that if you’re married, or thinking about getting married, it’s critical for your partner to be supportive of what you do as a writer.

My wife has always been my biggest supporter, hands down. It has made a massive difference in my confidence and ability to focus and build my business. It really has.

The final thing I want to throw out there as far as a personal update is that I’m thinking about renting a co-working space here in town. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m wondering if I would be more productive than I am at home. This is a new thing I’m wrestling with and thinking about.

Well, friends, that’s pretty much it for my July 2021 business update. I hope you find these helpful and that you are taking away one or two things you can apply to your writing or business.

The post July 2021, Business Update appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.