About Me
In the last eight years, I have established myself as one of the leading business ghostwriters in the UK. I have ghostwritten more than 35 books, including numerous Amazon bestsellers. My ghostwriting clients have ranged from a world-renowned fashion critic to academics, a leading US lawyer, and a world innovator in surgery and surgical recovery. I have written books for business coaches and recently have been working with founders and their mentor to tell their stories as part of their funding rounds.
Four of my authors enjoyed their collaboration so much they have chosen to write a second book together.
My preferred subjects are business, thought leadership, and memoir, but I have also written about contemporary history, and innovation in medicine and the law. I am a skilled interviewer who helps clients identify the goals of their book and works with them to find the best structure and content to reach their key audience. I particularly enjoy taking imaginative approaches to my authors’ stories, such as the book-length I wrote for a former-shepherd-turned-Dubai-industrialist. I enjoy genuine collaborations with authors who have something to teach me but who also welcome my input.
I appeared on the Rising Authors podcast with Hussein al-Baiaty to discuss all things ghostwriting…
My Many Hats
When you hire me, you're not just hiring a ghostwriter. You're hiring a whole cast of experts to make your book as good as it can be.
Audiologist:
I listen hard to what you say so I can pick out the story you should be telling. It's not always the story you think you should tell.
Ideator:
You've likely got far more ideas than can fit in any book. I help you sort your ideas into coherent themes and figure out what it is you really want to say.
Story architect:
I figure out how the blocks of your stories fit with one another to create the best narrative to attract a reader and carry them forward through the book. Sometimes it's straightforward. Sometimes we have to get more creative.
Guide:
It's my job to get you to the end of the writing process, so I show you how to navigate the highs and the - very real -lows that come with the journey
Impressionist:
I learn how to think like you and feel what you feel about the subjects in your book so I can sound convincingly like you. (As for my own voice, I leave it at the door … It has no part in this book.)
Head coach:
If I think you're going wrong, I'll tell you. If you push back, we can have a frank exchange of views. You're the client; I'm the expert. That means I sometimes have to be the boss to try to keep you on the path I know is best.
Cheerleader:
No one wants you to succeed more than I do. I'll tell you all the way through how well I think it's going and how much the world needs to hear what you have to say, because when we work together I buy in 100 percent to you and your aims.
Skeptic:
"So what?" I'll ask you that a lot. When you tell me a story I don't think the reader will be interested in, or when I can't see what the point of it is, I'll ask you, "So what?" No so what, no inclusion in the book.
Interpreter:
The way you speak to yourself about your expertise probably sounds great … because you're an expert. But the way it sounds in your head might not be what other people hear … because you're an expert, it sometimes sounds to others as if you're speaking a different language. I help put your thoughts into language that makes them easier to digest.
Counselor:
Very few authors get to write a book without a lot of emotion coming out. Because you're asking the reader to trust you, you need to get vulnerable … and getting vulnerable often makes us uncomfortable. I'm used to helping authors get through difficult moments. This is my job, so I don't suffer from writer's block or imposter syndrome—and I prevent my authors from feeling them, too.
Word wrangler:
This is the bit everyone thinks about when they imagine a ghostwriter, but it's the bit that's least visible to my authors. This is when I go away and take an author's words and polish them into compelling prose that the author recognizes as being their own words but with a fluency of which they never imagined they'd be capable.
Off-Duty
I live in London with the woman I have loved for 40 years but only married three years ago, and my stepson. My wife and I travel widely in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. When I'm not working, I enjoy lifting weights, trying London’s restaurants and pubs, hanging out with my family and friends, watching sports on TV, and listening to minority-interest music.