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ghostwriters
No, it’s not a new kind of crispy cracker or a movie you should see or a book you should read. Reedsy is s a British ghostwriting site.
I joined after Al Zuckerman, my agent of 25 years, retired at the beginning of Covid. I’d done ghostwriting before, but not in this way. People with ideas or manuscripts come to Reedsy requesting professional help. Some of the ideas are…well, not great, but some are terrific. As are the people seeking help.
The main thing for me is that the idea appeals to me, speaks to me in some way. Sci-fi with a vision rather than a zillion books in a series that Netflix or someone will love. The paranormal presented as the mystery and mind-blower that it often is. Stories about people getting through the twists and turns that life hurls their way. In other words, I gravitate toward stories that challenge me and my skill as a writer. I like the strange, the weird,but give me a taste of the characters who experience it.
The writer evaluates the idea or manuscript and makes a financial offer.I base my offers on the difficulty of writing the story and the time I think it will take. One thing I’ve discovered is that writing is sometimes undervalued. My husband, Rob, who also writes for Reedsy, and I have a standing joke: please, just 5 dollars!
Many of the requests I receive involve sci-fi of 80K words or more. An 80,000 word book is roughly 320 pages, double-spaced. Quite a few people use AI and I can usually tell. A common AI thing is to state what something IS NOT, then state what it is. Like in this example: He knew is wasn’t an illusion. He knew it wasn’t an opinion. It was a truth.
Yes, writers may use this technique on their own, but I usually figure it’s AI because it’s so common.
So if you’re a writer with novels or non-fictions books to your credit, and have lost your agent or would like to tap into some extra income, give Reedsy a try. For one thing, the people you meet & work with are often from different cultures and countries & have valuable perspectives. And some of these people, both foreign and domestic, often become friends. Here’s my link.
I truly have the utmost respect for professional writers, people who make a living at it. Writing is a LOT of work: tedious, detailed, and quite often frustrating. Readers have the impression that writing is easy because they get to curl up and enjoy the finished story; the dessert that a writer spent months, or even years preparing. A.I. is a crutch that people over-rely on. Sure, it’s fast, easy, and convenient, but it’s also lazy. I take pride in doing my own work. Sure, it might take me several agonizing years to finish writing a novel, but I have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s 100% mine.
You r so right!