Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Hurt People Hurt: One exception is Stephen King

There's a saying in 12-step programs: Hurt people hurt.  But there's an exception to that.  He's Stephen King, at least the decent person/author/recovered drunk and druggie captured in the unauthorized biography "Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King." 

In that amazing 2008 book, Lisa Rogak chronicles King's boyhood of poverty.  His father went out for a pack of cigarettes.  That left his mother and the two boys - King had an adopted older brother - to live with a God's Plenty of relatives around the nation, most of whom didn't welcome the three.  Without the usual middle-class comforts and diversions, King turned inward to his imagination and books.  Writing became his first drug of choice.  Then came the usual route for the wounded and gifted: Alcohol and cocaine.

But even in wealth and fame, King was never mean.  Not to his family.  Not to neighbors.  Not to old friends.  Not to those on his business network.  The more material goodies came to him the more he and his wife gave them away to the needy.

Given his fame, it was likely that there would be a search by others for his father.  They tracked him down, once he had been dead.  A bigamist he had taken on another wife.  Children resulted from the marriage.  Always decent, King never made that public.  He did not want that family hurt.

On days we are in emotional pain or even at a bottom, we writers should write about it, not cause more harm in the world.  Hurt people don't have to hurt.

Bloggers: Yes, We Can Shoulder the Investigative Reporting Piece of Traditional Journalism

The argument has gotten old - and it isn't true:  That traditional journalism is needed because only the card-carrying members of that profession have the skills and resources to drill down into what is.

Actually, we citizen journalists have better skills at uncovering the ugly underbelly of a situation as well as the benefits which may not be so visible or welcome in the court of public opinion. 

I did just that when I live-blogged the four-month trial in Rhode Island [a short commute from my home office in Connecticut] about the alleged lead paint public nuisance.  The defendants, ranging from NL Industries to Sherwin-Williams, weren't perceived in a positive light.   I listened in court.  I interviewed, mostly off-the-record, lawyers, policy makers, healthcare workers, social workers, heads of trade associations, and businesspeople.

On this blog [under "legal"] and then on http://lawandmore.typepad.com I told that story.  In fact, I am still telling it as the California Supreme Court reviews the contingency part of the Santa Clara lead paint public nuisance suit.  Here is the CA appeals court opinion approving the use of contingency in litigation initiated by government entities if the government maintains full control over the process Download H031540. Hogwash, I say.  Litigation, from discovery to the actual process, is too much a seamless web for the government to ensure "control."

What I've found is this: Investigative reporting doesn't require expensive anything.  It only demands passion, altertness, and plenty of hard work.  The availability of digital communications makes the search for background information easy and cheap, of course.

The lead paint controversy is winding down.  I have moved onto digging for the story in healthcare.  Why does it cost so much?  Are paid consultants to the industry helping contain those costs?  What aspects of the European model of the healthcare system should we be reviewing?

If you can share your knowledge, insight and contacts, please get in touch with Jane Genova at Mgenova981@aol.com, 203-468-8579.  I have a track record for keeping input confidential.

Fellow Ghostwriters, Forgive Me: That Fake/Real British Accent Shoulda Tipped Me Off

I have let down every seasoned ghostwriter in the U.S.  I shoulda known. 

The red flag was that fake/real British accent.  This is the economy in which business is a conversation and this healthcare consultant didn't seem to be having a conversation with me when he explained his ghostwriting need.  The tone was top-down.  The words were enunciated in, if not British English, than boarding-school lockjaw.  And the draft to be rewritten didn't have a lot of value to communicate to his prospects or clients. 

From experience I shoulda known not to get in.  After all, I published a book on that, which you can download free Download SavingSoulsJaneGenova.  Ghostwriter trainer Claudia Suzanne provides bulletproof strategies and tactics for not dropping into those sorts of black holes.

So, why did I get in?  Oh, all the usual reasons:

• Money.  Some money is always better than no money.
• Push to beef up my knowledge base and portfolio about healthcare topics, which are very marketable.
• The old insecurity of wanting to please an apparent Crusty [Upper Crust].  It comes back: The need to try too hard Download Geezerguts.

There.  I confessed my sin.  Actually, there's one more part.  Mr. Man castigated me for not reproducing the original graphics.  Graphics.  What ghostwriter worth his/her salt does graphics?  We're too busy keeping up with what's going on in the world and trying to mirror the tone and thinking of the client.  In addition, he never mentioned graphics in his original order.

Well, already I have done the penance.  This afternoon I terminated the relationship and told the Crusty to cancel the invoice submitted.  Do I have the lesson down cold this time?  We will see.

Best online site for work: Craigslist & it's free & global

I've tried them all: Monster.com, LinkedIn, Journalismjobs.com, Odwyerpr.com, Elance.com, Mediabistro.com, Careerbuilders.com, CT Job Bank, Public Relations Society of America, International Association of Business Communicators.  The site that brings me assignments and it's free and it's global is Craigslist. 

Those who post help-wanted on Craigslist mean it.  If we pitch ourselves as providing what they need, we will hear back.  No carefully crafted cover letters going down that black hole.  And the clients/employers are willing to pay a living wage.  Yeah, there are some crazy compensation offers, just like on elance.com.  But, overall, those placing ads want to wrap up the deal.  Therefore, they are talking reasonable money.

The big treat was that assignments are coming from outside the U.S.  Canada has been the most productive place to hunt for me for writing, public relations, and marketing assignments.  Perhaps that's because the two versions of English are so similar. 

My hunch is that the other job sites are going to go the way of print journalism.  All that's come from them for me is, yeah, nothing.  In all that I must have invested light years in presenting myself. 

Another Old White Guy Pontificating - This time it's Dan Rather

Those old white guys just won't go.  Not that there's a necessary correlation between white/being-over 60/male and not creating value.  After all, management consultant Peter Drucker was publishing disruptive perspectives - e.g. "sell the mailroom" vs making it more efficient - until just about the day he died in his 90s.

However, the odds are that old white guys, given their privileged status in the power system, would tend to lose touch faster than most of the less privileged.  Yet they will do anything to hang on.  The latest to surface with an urgent message is Dan Rather.

In the ASPEN DAILY NEWS, Andrew Travers reports:

"Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute."

Analogy: An impassioned speech on the deck of the Titanic to save the ship.

21-st Century Voodoo - Don't use term "dream," stand on 1 leg when discussing goal

Does using the term "dream" put a hex on pursuing a career, buying a house, or investing for a great retirement?  Seems that way.  In too many cases in the 21st century, dreams have turned into a handful of dust.  The new voodoo might be to avoid the word like a plague, refer to whatever as a "goal." and stand on one leg while discussing the matter.

It downright scared me that Alexis Page's preparation for a possible Olympic try was described in a headline in THE NEW YORK TIMES as a "dream."  Page's mom might be wise to sprinkle the gymnast work-out clothes with garlic and sea salt.

Broken Networks - After all, Jung Dumped Freud

Most of it was fear.  When I spotted on Caller ID or Email names from the past, I assumes they wanted something.  We're all too depleted to do much more than help ourselves and those who we do business with in the now.  A little bit was not welcoming any opportunity to catch up.  Catch up to what? Loss of a nest egg, a few molars, and along the way my mind.  I didn't respond. 

That set in-play the Broken Networks.  My heart and mind were reset to resist the pull of nostalgia, magical thinking that a dead connection could turn into gold, and that I had changed enough to change abusive relationships.  Gradually doing a dump became easier.  Intuitively, I got the steps down. 

The payoff has been profound in professional growth spurts.  To come into his own Jung had to leave Freud.  To come into my own I had to break open and break free of The Establishment types.  Or maybe that was just the dynamic of the relationships. Whatever. 

It was like voodoo.  The right kinds of clients came to me vs. my chasing them.  I knew the accounts not to take on.  I found my voice in all media: Digital, print, video, audio and in-person.  I no longer make mistakes of showing up where I don't belong or "they" don't want me.  Bestbestbest, I freed myself of envy of those who earn more,  seemingly receive more recognition, create fresher, bolder content.  We're different.  My hard-wiring just won't get me those goodies, not in that way.  Perhaps I will find another way.

Past connections seem so deadly in the new economy.  Yeah, I still fear they will pop up in my life.  In airports, I keep my head down. 

So we, including Stephen King, were drunks

America specializes in shame.  And there's no better place to pile it on, especially if you're a parent, former boss, or has-been mentor than on a successful writer's drinking past.  Even after years of sobriety and even serenity, their torments or, worse, praise for my "behaving myself" could make me come undone.

That all stopped after I read and thought about the 2008 unauthorized biography "Haunted Heart" of Stephen King.  It's by Lisa Rogak.  It covers King's drunkenness and drugging like all the other stuff he had to go through to become and stay Stephen King the horror writer.

Think about it, and I do every day now: Without the wiring that led us through that passage of alcohol and then no alcohol, we would probably never have started, stayed with, and will stay with writing.

Library of Congress & Digital - Is there a gap?

Tonight I returned to my office from a client's appointment at about 7:00 PM, New York time.  There on Caller ID was: 202-707-5000 - Library of Congress.  Had I applied there for freelance assignments?  Maybe but unlikely.  Had I violated some author's copyright?  Was I going to the slammer?

I rushed to check the voice mail.  It was puzzling.  The caller alluded to an ebook I had submitted for copyright.  I had turned in the forms and enclosed the check in snail mail.  I put the publication date as December 25, 2007. 

The issue was:  In order to receive a copyright the book has to be "sold" or "published."  Since the date of publication was listed as Christmas Day, there were questions.  The implication was that a book would not have been sold or published on Christmas Day.

But it was, published that is.  On Christmas Day, I turned the Word document into a PDF file and distributed the ebook on my two blogs.  I also sent via email complimentary holiday copies along to a few special clients. Since then over a million copies have been downloaded, which you can do now free as an early or late Christmas gift Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.  Incidentally, for Christmas 2008, I had the heaviest traffic on my blogs as did Facebook.

When I called the Library of Congress this evening the office was already closed.  I will try to set matters straight tomorrow.  But why should there have been any ambiguity to begin with?  In a global digital economy, I both work and publish on holidays, Christmas no exception.

 

Ghostwriting: One of the best careers for 2009 [U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT]

Ask any one of us ghostwriters:  People, and not only Americans, don't want to write, can't write, don't have the time to write, or are uncomfortable with the aloneness of the process. 

For just that reason, Marty Nemko reported in U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT that ghostwriting is one of the best careers for 2009.  That will  continue.  It has to.

Although words are needed more and more in every medium - print, digital, audio, video and in-person - more and more don't want to touch the whole enchilada or any part of it.

Jobless journalists, lawyers, management consultants, and even chief executive officers ask me daily:  Jane, where can I take a seminar in ghostwriting?  Then they say:  I don't want to have to get a Master's degree in this.

Because so many have asked, I will tell the world, and there are the restless, underemployed and unemployed in India and Singapore who are also interested in becoming professional ghostwriters.

The best, most affordable and most efficient training around is provided by ghostwriter, gifted teacher, and author in her own right Claudia Suzanne.  Her latest how-to is "Secrets of a Ghostwriter," 2nd edition, published by WCPublishing.  Both in-person and now online, Suzanne provides not only training but certification in ghostwriting.

The online or "distance learning" might be the best the package for those who want to try this out while still bringing in streams of income in other ways.  Increasingly I advise those I coach to spread the risk by ensuring multiple ways of earning a living.  That might include part-time gigs, temporary work, running your own small business, and just-in-time tasks.

For more information, you can click here.

You can contact Claudia Suzanne at 1-800-641-3936, claudisuzanne@gmail.com.