{"id":2816,"date":"2018-06-01T22:37:15","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T22:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2019-07-24T00:42:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T00:42:34","slug":"building-a-profession-an-interview-with-ghostwriting-aficionado-claudia-suzanne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/?p=2816","title":{"rendered":"A Q&A with Ghostwriting Aficionado Claudia Suzanne"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you ask ghostwriting guru Claudia Suzanne, 8 in 10 people in America alone dream of one day writing a book.<\/p>\n

But, a fraction of that number will have the fortitude and resources to make it a reality, and even fewer possess the writing skills to translate their vision into a compelling and commercially viable book. Suzanne has spent her career helping make those dreams come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has been my personal mission for decades now \u2013 to raise the literacy bar of the industry one author at a time,\u201d says Suzanne.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Suzanne has poured all she has learned over three decades as a successful ghostwriter into the first professional ghostwriting designation program offered in the world. The 10-month program\u2014taught virtually through California State University, Long Beach\u2019s College of Continuing and Professional Education\u2014has attracted students from around the world.<\/p>\n

She also birthed a new venture, Wambtac Ghostwriters, with some of her best graduates to give authors risk-free ghostwriting services. Her innovative model allows an author client to have two ghostwriters and a team of experts for the price of one.\u00a0The ghostwriter receives support from Suzanne and other mentors, allowing them to grow their skills throughout the project and ensure a successful outcome and a delighted client.<\/p>\n

This January Suzanne will release the 5th edition of her signature book,\u00a0This Business of Books: A Complete Overview of the Industry from Concept through Sales<\/em>, which has been used in colleges, translated into Chinese, and carried in major libraries worldwide.<\/p>\n

Suzanne, who tackles the craft of deconstructing books in the same way her father approached engineering problems, shares her unique perspective on the craft of ghostwriting, the book industry, and what writers thinking about moving into this field need to know.<\/p>\n

Q. How is ghostwriting different than other writing disciplines?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s very different. When you are writing under your own name and you\u2019re writing your own material, even if you are writing for a client, it\u2019s very personal and very ego-involved. It\u2019s all about you doing your best job to get the job done in your vision. You are conforming to the perimeters, but it\u2019s still your vision.<\/p>\n

When you ghostwrite, that goes out the window. Ghostwriting is all about the author\u2019s vision\u2014and you are not the author. You\u2019re merely the person who makes the author\u2019s vision work.<\/p>\n

In order to write someone else\u2019s vision, you first have to deconstruct what they created because oftentimes, what a person expresses verbally is generic and general. So step one is to figure out the gold of their material so you, the ghost, can craft something the author will be proud of.<\/p>\n

Deconstruction requires an entirely different set of skills than most writers learn in school, or even over the course of their careers. It\u2019s not the same thing as going to an English class and saying, \u201cLet\u2019s figure out what the author is trying to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next step is to uncover the problems that might keep the book from being successful and remedy those issues without overtly changing what the author\u2019s vision. And, of course, we have to do it all in the author\u2019s voice, tone, and flavor.<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re done, we get paid, and the author is very, it\u2019s a win-win all around.<\/p>\n

Q. How well understood is ghostwriting as a specialized writing craft?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne:<\/strong>\u00a0A lot of people hanging out their \u201cghostwriter\u201d shingles ghostwriter really don\u2019t understand the depth of the process.\u00a0They figure if they know how to write and have been successful in their own writing career, that\u2019s all it really takes. They rely on their writer\u2019s methodology because they don\u2019t know the difference between it and the ghostwriter\u2019s methodology.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve dealt with authors who say the final book of their book doesn\u2019t sound like them, or that the writer changed their vision\/voice\/style. They feel they\u2019ve been cheated somehow, and are confused because they know the person they hired it a good writer\u2014possibly even a bestselling author themselves!<\/p>\n

Part of our mission is to educate not only the public, but the writing community-at-large about the differences between writing and ghostwriting. What we old-timers used to do instinctively doesn\u2019t necessarily play anymore. Too many aspiring authors need help.<\/p>\n

Q. Obviously, not every writer is cut out for this. What qualities does it take to be a successful ghostwriter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne:<\/strong>\u00a0Oh, I have a whole long list about that, and it starts with having a strong enough ego to not have to put your name on someone else\u2019s book. You need to be a good writer and editor, of course, but even more, you need to be open to working with writing that may not be up to your personal standards.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important that you feeling a calling to write, but it\u2019s equally important that you not be a prolific author. Sounds strange, doesn\u2019t it? But writers who have a lot to say and know exactly how they want to say it often have trouble putting someone else\u2019s vision above their own.<\/p>\n

Q. What common mistakes do new ghostwriters make?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne:\u00a0<\/strong>They don\u2019t know how to price themselves; they don\u2019t know how to close the deal; they don\u2019t know how to make the client happy; they don\u2019t know how to maintain the author\u2019s vision, perspective and intent. They only know how to write in the client\u2019s voice, so they make the book over in their own image.<\/p>\n

In fact, one of my students was a\u00a0New York Times\u2019\u00a0<\/em>bestselling novelist who had won many literary awards. People kept asking her to write books for them and she was writing them and getting them published, but the people were never happy. The referrals just dried up.\u00a0We got into deconstruction, where we figure figuring out what the author\u2019s intent is and how to make the manuscript work without impacting its fundamental weave, and she called me. She said, \u201cI know what I\u2019m doing wrong! I keep writing my clients\u2019 books as if they were my own!\u201d<\/p>\n

That, in a nutshell, is the most common mistake writers make.<\/p>\n

Q. I\u2019ve read that you often describe ghostwriting as \u2018recession proof.\u2019 What do you mean by that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne:<\/strong> We have about 300 million people in the United States, according to the latest Census data. According to a publisher in the Midwest, about 81% of the American public wants to write a book or feels they have a book in them. That\u2019s approximately 200 million Americans. Let\u2019s say 10% of those 200 million are really serious about it and looking for help. And then let\u2019s say 10% of them can actually afford legitimate ghostwriting fees, which start around $35,000. That\u2019s 10% of 20 million, or two million. So, two million people every single year in America alone not only want to write a book, but also are serious about writing a book and have the wherewithal to hire a ghostwriter.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also say, for the sake of argument, that there are maybe 200 legitimate, competent ghostwriters out there, and that each one can do three projects a year. That means the ghostwriter is making at least $100,000 per year from 600 people who are being helped. That leaves 2,999,400 people who aren\u2019t getting helped every year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a huge market. And, that\u2019s just in America\u2014and it\u2019s not counting the people outside the United States or those who want to be coached through writing the book themselves. There is a lot of work out there. It\u2019s all the same methodology.<\/p>\n

Q. Your professional designation program at California State Long Beach has evolved quite a bit. Can you describe how you have grown and evolved the program?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne:<\/strong> It started as a 7 week class, and my students left with their eyes rolling in the back of their heads. I expanded it into 15-week course of study, which grew to two-semesters once we went into CSULB. Now we have a solid 10-month professional designation program. Some students say it\u2019s more intense than what they had to do to earn their master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s because people think, \u201cHey, I\u2019ve got an MFA, or an English degree, or a PhD in English Lit and have been writing for years. I I can take this and expand my knowledge a little bit.\u201d It doesn\u2019t work that way. There isn\u2019t much in this course that building on what we all learned in high school and college. In fact, people have to unlearn<\/em> some stuff so they can absorb all these new techniques nobody else ever introduced them to. So, like all new life skills, first it\u2019s a challenge, then it becomes practiced, and finally it turns into second nature.<\/p>\n

We use at least two teaching assistants at all times because the class is so dense and demanding, and we all make ourselves available to our students constantly. There are no set office hours. You can email or call at any time, and we will help you figure it out. Our sole purpose in doing this program is to launch new careers.<\/p>\n

Q. You also launched a new company to serve the ghostwriting market.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne:<\/strong> Yes, Wambtac Ghostwriters, which is staffed exclusively with certified ghostwriters. It\u2019s a win-win: the client gets a team of ghostwriters and support people for the price of one, and the certified ghost gets support and an ear to bounce off of throughout the project. We have analysts to help make sure everything is on course, and we have in-house editors and proofreaders. We also are affiliated with a self-publishing service that will walk the client through the publishing process one step at a time.<\/p>\n

We have no a\"\"<\/a>genda as far as publishing is concerned. If the author wants to go to a self-publishing outfit, fine. If they want to go to a traditional publisher, we will help them put together those submission materials and find an agent to get there. Everything is a project-by-project situation because every book and every author is different.<\/p>\n

Q. You have a new edition of\u00a0This Business of Books\u00a0<\/em>coming out in January. What kind of new content will people find?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne: <\/strong>It\u2019s a complete overview of today\u2019s book industry from concept to sales. The opening chapter discusses how the book industry is a risk-management business, and how to mitigate that risk is woven throughout the rest of the text.<\/p>\n

This is the fifth edition of the title, and the first time I\u2019ve gone so deeply into the ins-and-outs of the industry. It covers close to everything\u2014I\u2019m sure I left something out!\u2014including literary scouts; what authors need to be aware as they try to market their book; the real differences between a first and second draft; and the difference between market and audience. It delves into that a great deal. It also explains how to figure out what a book\u2019s market is and how to extrapolate the audience from that. And it talks about the book-industry supply chain in much bigger depth than previous editions.<\/p>\n

Q. Can you share your top ghostwriting best practices?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suzanne:<\/strong>\u00a0Here are my five rules of ghostwriting \u2013<\/p>\n