The first is Michael J Dowling’s White Paper on Publishing Options, in which he very clearly spells out the advantages and disadvantages of today’s publishing options. Check it out at: http://www.michaeljdowling.com/pdf/Michael-J-Dowling_Publishing-Options-White-Paper.pdf.

The second is my discussion with JW Najarian about ghostwriters and ghostwriting on his quite fascinating “Cause and Effect” site. Look for it at: http://jwnajarian.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/claudia-suzanne-professional-ghost-writer-on-learning-how-to-find-one-or-be-one/

What a great time to be in the book business!

“It can’t make you much money,” she said. “Not for the amount of time and work you put in over the three months.”

She’s right; it doesn’t. I spend three hours a week teaching each class–in the fall, that’s going to go up to four hours/week. My students tell me they put in between 6 and 10 hours on their homework every week–homework that I then have to go over, comment on, discuss, and correct. If I add up everyone’s tuition and divide by the number of hours I put in, I’m making …

Damn little.

So why do I teach GCT? Not sure. Let me muse as I write.

If we go back to the beginning, I started teaching the basics of the book business and a little bit about ghostwriting back in 1993, I think. Maybe 1996. Don’t remember. My motive then was to pass on some information and sell my book, This Business of Books: A Complete Overview of the Industry from Concept through Sales, then in its 3rd Edition.

Maybe I was looking for referrals. Maybe I just wanted to share. I honestly cannot remember. But I found I enjoyed teaching. It was fun. It was stimulating. It was educational for me. And people paid me a little bit of money. A win/win.

Over the years, the class ebbed and flowed. I taught sometimes, didn’t the rest. Tried to put together Professional Book Writing School, but life got in my way. Remember, I spent over two decades struggling with serious health problems, which I have now, Baruch Ha’Shem, completely overcome. But during most of the past two decades, I was inconsistent and intermittent with my work habits, my clients, and my teaching.

Looking back, it’s amazing to me how much I managed to get done by just bulldozing through. When faced with allegedly insurmountable odds, some people take it easy, some people rely on the medical community, and some people give up. I just put my head down and worked. Not fast, not always well, but through the best and the worst of it, I worked.

And then I was facing the end.

It was 2000 and I had one of those “life-changing” episodes during a downward health spiral that told me I was coming to the end of my days. But I had a client! How could I transition to the next world and leave my client up in the air?  So I handed the client over to one of my interns and started pricing funerals.

I won’t keep you in suspense–I didn’t die. In fact, with the help of my beautiful sister-by-love, Bera Dordoni, N.D. (Bastis Foundation), I began the long journey back to perfect and total health. But it was an eye-opening experience and I realized I had to write a book. And so I did.

And I rewrote it.

And rewrote it.

And so and so forth and scooby dooby do.

The final edition of said book, Secrets of a Ghostwriter: World’s First Step-by-Step Guide to the Theory, Skills, and Politics of Ghostwriting, is at long last complete and exhaustively emended by five wonderful, nit-picky editors. And Ghostwriter Certification Training has evolved from a 5-week to a 7-week to a 14-week and soon to be 16-week program that details exactly what the job is, how to do the job, how to find aspiring authors to do the job for, and how to convert those authors into contracted clients.

Which may be the actual reason why I continue to teach GCT. After putting in all this time and effort to develop what Cora Foerstner called “the seminal text” on the subject and honing the program to the point that I’m confident it’s turning out skilled, competent ghostwriters, how can I stop?

But I warn you now: in fall, the price is going up. Because yeah–I don’t make enough money at this right now!

Don’t you deserve better?

As a book ghostwriter, I always get paid, I set my own fees, and I can work as many big-ticket projects at the same time as I want. Business ghostwriter Michael Levin says that three $35,000 projects per year is not unusual for him; truth is, it’s not unusual for any trained or experienced ghostwriter.

Ghostwriter Certification Training is the wave of today. Join the  growing ranks of certified ghostwriters who are landing hi-ticket projects that are fun and fulfilling. The next GCT session starts the first week of June with day classes, teleclasses, and evening classes. Click on Ghostwriter Certification Training in the left column or go to http://claudiasuzanne.com/gct to learn how to improve your writing, increase your income, and get paid to live the writer’s life.

I look forward to seeing you in class next month!

There are only two absolutes in the book industry: 1) all publishers edit according to Chicago Manual of Style (except those that don’t) and 2) all publishers expect authors to use MS Word (except those that don’t).

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies said it best: all those “rules” are really just guidelines. When it comes to writing, editing, submitting, and publishing,  there are really no absolutes, no hard-and-fast rules, no by-the-book regulations. Instead, the business is very firmly based on what this person wants, what that person remembers has sometimes worked in the past, or what some guy in marketing believes will work next quarter. It’s quite hit-or-miss, very trial-and error, extremely whatever works for a particular individual at a given moment on their one, specific project.

So if it works, you did it right. If it doesn’t, you didn’t. If it worked last time, you did. If it doesn’t work now even though it worked last time, you did then but not this time. If it works again next time, you did. If it works for you but not for him, you did, he didn’t.

Have I made myself fairly clear?

Once upon a time, a really smokin’ ghost lost her groove. No, she didn’t collide with some old man while dancing down the hall, and she didn’t go to Jamaica and hook up with an underage cutie, either. She just got smacked in the face with that most famous of all movie devices, “undeserved misfortune.”

Aka “life.”

“Think positive,” said her favorite authors. “Get rid of your negativity,” intoned her best friends. “Keep a stiff upper lip,” insisted the positive-reinforcement tapes in the back of her head. “Pay us!” cried her creditors, drowning out all the others.

But “life” had other ideas. The smokin’ ghost’s income plummeted while her debt skyrocketed. And her self-confidence evaporated along with all the clients who used to seek out her help.

Her smokin’ days were over.

Or so she thought.

One afternoon, just as she was about to crawl off into that watery cave with Puff, the discarded Dragon, a real-life avatar came into the formerly smokin’ ghost’s life.

Synchronistically. From out of nowhere.

“You’re going to tell me to think positive, aren’t you?” the wispy thin phantom groaned plaintively.

“Tish tosh. What good would that do?” the avatar said. “Only set you up for failure. That won’t get you smokin’ again.”

“Then … what?” asked the now curious but still undeniably doused ghost.

“I want to show you how to live Today,” said the avatar. “How to gently reprogram your subconscious so you don’t have to work at being positive. How to get smokin’ results again, easier and bigger and better than ever before.”

“Are you for real?” queried the previously positive poltergeist.

“What—you’ve got a better idea for turning your life around?” responded the avatar with distinctly Jewish-mother overtones.

So the formerly smokin’ ghost read the avatar’s eBook. And then took her program’s lesson instructions and material. And she did the homework and, when it was time, listened to the audio files.

And pretty soon—like about two, three weeks—the formerly quenched spirit was back to smokin’ and ghostin’.

So she snuck onto the avatar’s website and bought a program for her sister, a smokin’ naturopath who had always smoked in tandem with her until they both lost their smolder. In tandem.

And her sister read the avatar’s eBook. And then took her program with the lesson instructions and material. And she did the homework and, when it was time, listened to the audio files.

And pretty soon, the smokin’ ghost’s sister was smokin’ again herself. And the reignited specter knew it hadn’t been just a fluke—it was real.

And she had to spread the word.

And so the smokin’ ghost (it’s me! did you guess?) will be hosting a teleclass with her real-life avatar on Monday, Nov. 9 at 4:00 PM Pacific Time. If you want to get smokin’ again in your life—or even for the first time—sign up NOW so you have time to read the program’s lesson instructions and material and do the homework for at least week before the teleclass.

But then, instead of listening to audio files, you’ll participate in a live two-hour session—real-time, person-to-person, ask questions/get answers—teleclass with my avatar, Marilyn Jenett.

The program is called Feel Free to Prosper. (And I do.) The cost is $197 for the whole thing. CLICK HERE to register. All monies go to the care and feeding of the avatar, so she can continue to reignite the doused and ember-dying, wherever they may be.

Synchronistically.

MARILYN’S GUARANTEE

After applying the lessons and participating in the teleclass, if you don’t find the program to be of great value as promised, I will refund your payment completely.

For the record, I get no financial remuneration from this teleclass. It’s my gift to you: the writers I work with, teach, read with, have come to love—and, especially, the writers who ask, “Yeah, but how do you find clients?”

Honest to God, this is how I do it.

Always have, even when I didn’t know what I was doing and couldn’t direct it. Now, thanks to Marilyn, I do and I can. In the few months since I started Feel Free to Prosper, I’ve landed a high-fee client, contracted a standard-fee client, fulfilled a scattering of fast-buck projects, filled my classes, found a new agent, been called upon to do a handful of public appearances, lost some weight (yeah!), and shed an incredible amount of stress.

Best investment I ever made.

He’s absolutely right–from an agent’s pov. Here’s my take: publishers aren’t willing to spend money on these books because the market for them is down since the Internet is indeed awash with such personal stories for free. But therein lies the rub: the public still wants to read them; they just don’t want to pay for them anymore.

Subsidy press, disguising itself as self-publishing service, is really the answer for almost all memoirs these days. I used to rail against it, but now accept its value in the changing landscape. Here’s the trickle down: as life becomes more and more virtual, more and more groups and organizations are springing up so people can physically get together, make new friends, network, or just enjoy live human contact (LHC). Most of those organizations and groups enjoy having speakers as part of that LHC experience. Hence, more and more Baby Boomers and young entrepreneurs are adding “speaker” to their resume and hitting the road, either locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally.

Whenever someone moves their audience, that audience wants to take a piece of them home; it’s a natural human response. Ergo, selling a POD (print on demand) title BOR (at the back of the room) becomes a logical and almost essential revenue stream. Will the speaker continue to get gigs and grow their reputation if the book does not read well? No. Negative reactions spread very fast. Ergo, those speakers need our ghostwriting and editing services.

Plus, using Chip’s advice, authors can not only sell a POD title BOR (back of the room), they can spin their title into a secondary advice book or Ebook. Ebooks are the wave of the present, if not the future. Since the cost is so low–the ability to create an XML file that can be tagged and converted to various readers, all of which is built into Word 7 (Vista) and above–the emphasis returns once more to a well-crafted manuscript which, in turn, promotes sale of the POD hard copy.

In other words, as the playing board expands, our services are in ever-expanding demand.

God Bless the computer age.

For additional information on making money with ebooks, check out Ellen Violette, The eBook Coach. I sat on a panel with her the other night, and she definitely seems to know her stuff.

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Thank you very much. – Claudia Suzanne

1. Write an easily rejected manuscript. Don’t clutter up your nonfiction manuscript with a thesis or your novel with a theme. Ignore the differences between journaling and creative writing. Think of your audience as not only the general public, but teachers and your professional peers as well. Quote extensively from other books. Give all your characters the same background, agenda, and perspective. Never consider altering your plot. Get all your writing guidance from a critique group. Look for an editor who always goes by the book.

2. Don’t learn anything about the publishing industry. Send out hundreds of queries at a time by email. Don’t bother learning the nuances of book proposals or submission synopses. Send out your novel’s most compelling chapters, not the first ones. Expect agents to value your work even if they don’t handle your type of book. Resubmit your rewrite to agents who have already turned you down. Figure your publisher will tell you how to promote your book. Insist on keeping your title exactly as it is and dictate the cover design. Bank on Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s local-author program and your title’s web site to sell a lot of copies. Assume your book will always be available whenever and wherever you do a promotion. Trust your friends’ opinions about everything.

3. Believe all the hype about subsidy press and “self-publishing services.” Know in your heart that agents and traditional publishers are biased, elitist or “just don’t know a good thing when they see it.” Expect your subsidy publisher’s catalog to get your book into brick-and-mortar stores. Plan on massive, continuing sales from Amazon. Ignore all that mumbo-jumbo about ISBN ownership and P-CIP requirements. Never question whether your book is up to industry editorial or design standards. Assume copy editing is the same as editorial accountability. Get all your marketing and distribution advice from publishing-service web sites and friends who have also used a subsidy press. Believe your ebook and web presence will entice a traditional publisher to pick up your title.

Don’t want to trash your literary aspirations? Read more than you write. Seek out legitimate writers groups. Find yourself a good teacher.  Read Larry Brook’s blog , Joanne Penn’s blog, this blog, and any other blog with solid writing or industry information. Plan to get your book edited by at least two or three different people, preferably professional book editors, not English teachers, out of work journalists, or former magazine editors. Recognize that you’ve entered a new industry that has its own rules, foibles, idiosyncrasies, personalities, jargon, and erratic ebb-and-flow, so learn first, question second–insist never.

And keep writing. Because the real way to trash your career is to give up at the first rejection, the first call for rewrite, the first deal gone sour, the first bad review. Writing is rewriting,  rejection is part of the game, and reviewers all have their own agendas, so keep revising, keep coming up with new ideas, keep pushing on.

Questions? Call 1-800-641-3936 or email claudiasuzane@gmail.com