Brian McDonald

Maybe the most important skill for a ghostwriter is mastering the author’s voice and syntax. There’s only one way to nail this: time and work. Today’s transcription software is incredible. What once took most of a morning can now be done in minutes with nearly flawless results. But if you…

There’s no reason for anyone outside publishing circles to know you’re working with a ghostwriter, unless you don’t mind. J.R. Moehringer, who ghosted Prince Harry’s Spare (and Andre Aggasi’s Open), came out as his ghost in an explosive and controversial piece in The New Yorker about his experience (see my…

One of the best reasons to hire a ghostwriter? You don’t have to quit your day job.Most of my clients are incredibly busy people. They have stories worthy of publication and the desire to write, but zero time to actually do it.A good ghostwriter works around your schedule. The collaboration…

For a traditional published book or legacy project (we’re talking about 300 pages or 90-100,000 words), my fee starts at $40,000. That number can go up depending on the timeline and scope. If you need the book done on a tight deadline or it requires me to put everything else…

How many times have books landed on the bestseller list with much fanfare only to fall off in a week or two as they tumble their way to the remainder bin?  Platform, marketing, and waves of popular culture can make your book an instant success, but they won’t make your…

You know those movies where a struggling writer comes in possession of a completed manuscript that belongs to someone else and decides to pass it off as their own? Usually, the author of the manuscript is either dead, dying, or believe they’ve lost the manuscript forever. The Infernal Machine with…

A recent article in the NY Times written by a Yale professor cites an MIT study of students writing essays with and without the use of Gen A.I. The ones who used A.I. began to suffer from a condition they called “cognitive debt”—weaker brain activity.Wait, what? Students get dumber using…

Humanizers” are the new, big thing in Gen AI. They make your AI writing sound HUMAN! Still, they have a couple of glitches to be worked out. Below is the warning label that accompanies them: Caution! Humanizers can make spelling mistakes, use the passive voice, misplace modifiers, and write run-on…

A few months back, a veteran joke writer from the world of late night went head-to-head in a joke writing contest with an AI tool called Witscript. A human comedian delivered the jokes to a live audience in North L.A. The result? Too close to call. Does that mean the…