Who do you admire? Who we choose to call our heroes may have great power over our lives, whether we know them personally or not. Do you remember who your first writer hero was? I do. Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a writer. I wrote plays, poems, stories, and even a newsletter for my family, which I subjected them to every Sunday night at the dinner table during the year I was nine. It seemed a miracle to me that color, excitement and action could bloom out of black lines on white paper. I still remember the Christmas when I was nine or ten and given Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. I fell in love with its heroine, Jo March. She, too, wanted to be a writer, and her “scribbling” meant more to her than anything else. She wasn’t one of those namby-pamby, retiring, “good” girls – no, she was exciting, bold, tumultuous, a passionate rebel who had problems with anger and who rebelled against female restrictions. I strongly identified with her. Jo March was my first author men...

So if someone wants to write a book, why don’t they just write it? Why do they need you, the ghostwriter? Of course, the answer is that not everyone who wants to write a book does need you. They might be able to write their book themselves, thank you very much. But it’s equally true that there are many people who’d love to be an author, but don’t think they can be, because of three main reasons: 1. They’re not a writer, or they lack confidence in their writing skills. 2. They hate to write – some would rather clean the bathroom than write. 3. They don’t have the time. These are not empty excuses. Writing a book is hard. It does take time. Writing talent and skill do help a great deal. That is exactly why authors are given respect. Yet just because someone is not a writer or doesn’t have time to write, doesn’t mean that their ideas, methods, systems, tips or tricks, or stories don’t deserve to be in a book. In my experience, the number one reason people want to hire a ghost...