Writing with Jennifer

Much of my paid work has been ghostwriting. It's something I enjoy, especially when it comes to children's books. But it does present some challenges you don't encounter when writing a book of your own.  Ghostwriting articles or short pieces tends to be easy because in most cases you are dealing with clients who don't really care about writing. They want the articles to make sense, of course, and usually to have the right SEO content to collect all the clicks. But they aren't going to argue with you about creative choices.  Book authors are different. These are people who have nurtured an idea for a long time and have a strong connection to the process and the result. Children's book authors in need of ghostwriters are often artists who have done their own illustrations and know the story they want to tell but don't have the writing skills to make it happen in a way that can put the book on the shelf next to professionally written titles.  Occasionally, peop...

Writing is the kind of activity that sometimes requires outside motivation. Writers need a partner, but this can be hard to find. You've got to have somebody in your corner who  1. understands writing 2. understands the writing brain Some writers have successfully filled this gap by hiring a writing coach.  The job of being a writing coach doesn't have a specific definition. There are lots of different ways of coaching writers. The project and the person determine the needs. To further complicate the situation, some people will do some kinds of coaching and not others.  So what can you expect from a writing coach?  Motivation This is in the form of contacts through texts, emails, or phone calls where the coach asks how it's going and reminds you to write. It's something like an accountability partner in exercise. Your coach is the person who is going to ask you how many words you wrote today, and you want to be able to report that you wrote a lot. I suppose you could...

You've written a book. Maybe it's a great book. But no one is going to bother reading it if it doesn't have an engaging cover.  It's a harsh reality, yes, but important if you want to sell books. And why create a book and then not give it the best chance possible to sell?  Covers matter a lot when it comes to  getting your book into a bookstore convincing readers to buy your book sending the message that your book is professionally created In fact, the whole graphic design of a physical book is very important. I talk about it a little bit in this post a about what I learned while working for a publisher.  If you are self-publishing or using a cooperative-style publisher, you want to be sure that your book has a professional look. This almost always means that it was professionally designed both inside and out.  What are the important aspects of a great cover? Besides not looking photoshopped (that is absolutely the worst thing you can do) here are some things t...

Before the COVID hit, I spent some time working for a small publishing company. I went into it as a writer, not knowing what publishing was all about. I learned a lot. For example, there are approximately 7 million kinds of paper (Okay, I might be exaggerating, but it's a lot!) My job was to help walk authors through the process from start to finish. Here are a few things I learned that are crucial to writers.  You need editors.  I spoke to so many writers who told me that their manuscripts were "already edited." None of them were right. That's because most people have not invested in a professional editor, and editing is often still needed even after a professional has been over the work.  At a minimum, you need a couple of different types of editors on your team. A developmental editor is one who looks at plot, consistency, story flow, character arcs, and other literary elements of the work. That person may also notice spelling and grammar issues, but that's not...