The Cost to Have a Book Written

A question I often get asked as a Ghostwriter/Publisher/Marketer is “How Much Do You Charge?” It seems like a fair enough question. The reality, however, is that the answer is not so simple.

It’s kind of like asking, “How much does a house cost?” As you know, there are a lot of things to take into consideration when purchasing a home. For one, where in the world would you like to live? What kind of neighborhood or neighbors would you like to have? What amenities do you want—or need? Do you want a three-car garage—or would you settle for a carport—or for no garage at all?

Aaron Kirman, a west coast realtor, has sold over $14 billion in luxury homes. He has one on the market now for $150,000,000. Check it out. And lest you think that price is outrageous, just know that, earlier this year, Ken Griffin bought the penthouse unit in New York City’s 220 Central Park South for $238 million.

WHY Do You Want a Book Written?

A book can do a lot of things for people. You need to decide what it is you want it to do for you. It could be a legacy project with a small reach. Perhaps you want your “issue” (next of kin) to understand your life a little better, so you compile your memoirs. There’s nothing wrong with that. Or, maybe you have a more ambitious goal of positioning yourself as a Subject Matter Expert (SME). Having a book in your name could do just that. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth is a good example.

Maybe you’re uber ambitious and you have designs on the presidency. A book is a must. Both The Audacity of Hope and The Art of the Deal launched the political careers of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, respectively.

In my interview process I usually ask the person that’s considering working with me a series of questions. One two-parter is often very telling. I’ll ask, “How many copies would you like to sell?” I’ll await their answer. Then, to bring them back down to earth, I’ll follow that up with, “How many copies *realistically* do you think you can sell?” Gulp! If they don’t have any kind of platform, it’s a tough row to hoe.

I’ll also ask people what their budget is (any realtor or car salesperson that doesn’t ask that question won’t be in business for very long). I can’t help laughing when people say they want to sell “a million copies” of their book—yet have no platform to speak of and confess that their budget is in the four-figure range! Obviously, they don’t know very much about how much work goes into writing, publishing and marketing books. Hint: it’s very difficult to get a book written for you for four figures. And that doesn’t even include the publishing and marketing of it.

Maybe you want your book turned into a movie, much like Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella. The book resulted in “Field of Dreams,” which was nominated for three Academy Awards.

Perhaps You’re a Car Person

Another question around budget that I’ll ask is “Would you like the Volkswagen, the BMW or the Ferrari?” If your answer is “the skateboard,” then please look elsewhere. In case you are wondering, the most expensive car on the market, on the day this blogpost was written, is the Bugatti La Voiture Noire. La Voiture Noire is French for…wait for it… ”the black car.” Pretty imaginative, right? It sells for a cool $18.7 million.

The Bottom Line

For context on the “going rate,” check out these links:

Lisa Tener

Scribe Media

Robin Storey

As for how and what I charge to ghostwrite a book for someone, it basically comes down to these five things:

  1. The amount of research I’m going to have to do (or how much time I’ll have to invest in it)
  2. The complexity of the content I’ll be writing about
  3. The quality of the source material that I will be provided
  4. My availability
  5. Whether or not it is a good fit

Reality Bites

Many people think the hardest part of getting a book out there is the writing process. It’s not. Once the manuscript is complete, the next step (after a deep breath) is to get it published. A Ph.D. friend of mine told me it took him longer to format the written document into a publishable version than it did to write the dissertation itself!

After the publishing process is over, you merely have a published book. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back. Then ask yourself, “Now what?” Surely you want some kind of return on your investment of time (very often, a large chunk of it). Well, now you must market it! Proverbial Marketing (or Advertising) 101 says that (even) “if you build a better mousetrap, the world won’t beat a path to your door.” Well, maybe in a perfect world they would. But we don’t live in a perfect world.

You have to promote it. Market it. Until the purple cows come home. You do that by creating channels of distribution. Getting reviews. You might do a book launch. You could appear on podcasts. Perhaps you’ll do speaking engagements. The possibilities are endless.   

Plan B

Of course, there’s always the option of writing it yourself. After all, how hard could it be? As Red Smith was known to have said, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

About: Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter with the number of books he’s contributed to in double figures.

Image credit: bankdirector.com

 

Focus Group Study

               ecommercetimes.com

 

I’m doing a focus group study. This will take less than 10 minutes of your time. Would you mind telling me whether you prefer Narrator A, B or C? I’m having the book On Guard: The Four Pillars of Leadership voiced over.

Simply telling me your preference (A, B or C) is sufficient. If you want to elaborate, that’s fine, too. (They are all narrating the same script, so it may be somewhat difficult to choose). You can either leave your choice below or on my initial Facebook post (if you came here from there).

Each of these three narrator finalists submitted well over five minutes for their audition, but I abbreviated their submissions for this A/B test. If you’re still undecided, and want to hear the full auditions, let me know and I’ll send you the MP3 files to listen to.

Thank you very much!

A:

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B:

C:

 

The Lives of Coco Chanel and Stan McChrystal

wsj.com

Stan McChrystal was a huge baseball fan when he was young. He grew up in the Midwest. Naturally, “Stan the Man” Musial was his hero.

McChrystal is a retired four star general in the United States Army. Having attended West Point, he followed in his father’s footsteps. His dad, Major General Herbert J. McChrystal, served with General Eisenhower in Europe. Stan served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Married to “Annie,” they have a son named Sam, who grew up playing ice hockey. The family lived in Boston and, like most military brats, a number of other places (the word brat is sometimes an acronym for “born, raised and trained).”

Forked Tongue

I heard him speak at an ATD (Association for Talent Development) meeting a few years ago. I can assure you that he didn’t hold back.

He now runs a leadership consulting firm in the DC area called The McChrystal Group. The group’s main areas of focus are Talent Management, Leadership Development and Teambuilding. The Team of Teams strategy has worked everywhere from hospital emergency rooms to NASA. It has the power to transform organizations large and small.

He has written a number of books, including Leaders: Myth & Reality, Team of Teams, and My Share of the Task: A Memoir. He also wrote the foreword to One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams by Chris Fussell and C.W. Goodyear.

McChrystal served 34 years in the US Army, rising from Second Lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division to four-star general, in command of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He came to realize there isn’t a simple answer to the age-old question: “What makes a leader great?”

The Great Plutarch

With Plutarch’s Lives as his model, in Leaders, he profiled 13 former leaders in business, politics and the military.

                Walt Disney and Coco Chanel

                Maximilian Robespierre and Abut Musab al Zarqawi

                Boss Tweed and Margaret Thatcher

                Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr.

                And, his military hero, General Robert E. Lee.

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It turns out that Coco Chanel was bright, opportunistic and worked really hard. She was a tough boss that made models stand for hours like mannequins while she chain smoked. However, she revolutionized women’s clothing at a critical inflexion point right around World War I.

The co-writers of the book are Jeff Eggers, a former U.S. Navy Seal, and Jason Mangone, a former marine.

Accolades

Simon Sinek said about Leaders: Myth & Reality, “Anyone who considers themselves a student of leadership must read this book.” Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs, said, “At a time when Americans yearn for leaders we can admire and respect, this book shows what qualities are truly important. It will help you think differently about both leadership and our history.” And Ken Langone, of Home Depot fame (and author of I Love Capitalism), said, “Leaders is a must-read for all leaders – whether they’re just beginning their careers, or whether they’re already leading an entire organization.”

Similarly, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and founder of Leanin.org, said, “Leadership reexamines old notions of leadership – especially the outdated view that history is shaped by great men going it alone. General McChrystal shows us that leadership can take many forms, leaders often have different strengths, and great leaders can come from anywhere.”

After that,Wired UK Magazine said, “To hear McChrystal talk about leadership is like hearing Steve Jobs talk about innovation or Henry Ford talk about productivity.”

Seek First to Understand

McChrystal himself said “Leadership is extraordinarily complex but it’s something we have to struggle to understand.” He goes on to say, “My entire life I’ve been fascinated with leaders and leadership.”

Evidence that he is, in many ways, just a regular guy, is that he wasn’t real studious growing up. His favorite movie is Talladega Nights. And he used to run across the Brooklyn Bridge.

On the other hand, while he was at Ft. Bragg, he was known to have run 12 miles every morning, eat only one meal a day, and sleep less than 4 hours per night. He spent five years running the Pentagon’s most secretive black ops.

McChrystal is a senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs

Above all, here’s a link to his TED Talk, entitled Listen, learn … then lead.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter, publisher and content marketer, living in the mountains of Western North Carolina. 

Featured SME: Michael Lewis

www.google.com

Michael Lewis is on a hot streak. A number of his books have gone on to become not only bestsellers, but also movies. For instance, he wrote The Blind Side, Moneyball and The Big Short.

Lewis’ expertise is cranking out book after book. His latest, The Fifth Risk, is selling briskly. Malcolm Gladwell has called him “the finest storyteller of our generation.” He’s been a contributing author to Vanity Fair since 2009. He’s also been a columnist for Bloomberg View and a contributing writer for Audible. His articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Gourmet, Slate, Sports Illustrated, Foreign Affairs and Poetry Magazine.

Lewis has served as senior editor and campaign correspondent for The New Republic as well as editor and columnist for the British weekly, The Spectator. He’s filmed and narrated short pieces for ABC-TV’s Nightline and created and presented a four part documentary for the BBC and recorded stories for the American Public radio show This American Life.

Plots

Moneyball was about the Oakland A’s decision to focus on sabermetrics over talent. The Blind Side was about the danger an American football quarterback exposes himself to when he stands in the pocket before finding an open receiver to throw the ball to. And The Big Short was about the failure of big banks to do their due diligence before lending money to people who couldn’t afford to buy a home. His theme seems to be that the world isn’t analyzing risk effectively.

Personal

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The writer grew up in New Orleans and got a bachelor’s degree in art history from Princeton before going on to The London School of Economics. He worked in London for Salomon as a bond trader. This led him to write his breakout book, Liar’s Poker. Fortune describes it as “So memorable and alive … one of those rare works that encapsulate and define an era.” Newsweek said it “falls somewhere between Wealth of Nations and Animal House.

The Latest Page Turner

Amazon reviews of The Fifth Risk, about the (lack of a) transition team for President Trump, naturally run the gamut, although 61% of the over 500 reviews are favorable. For instance, headlines include “Pure Trump bashing,” “Stunning,” and “A Divisive but Possibly Necessary Work of Partisan Storytelling.”

Other books he’s written include Signs of Life, In the Line of Duty and Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. The latter is about the danger of high frequency trading. He also wrote Boomerang, The New New Thing and Losers, about the 1996 Presidential Campaign. In addition, he wrote The Undoing Project, which some argue is his best book.

I used to work with someone whose philosophy about cinema was “Even great acting can’t make up for a poor script.” Well, that’s not the case with his flicks. But he must’ve insisted on great actors since they star the likes of Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw and Brad Pitt. I saw all three movies – and I am far from a film buff. In other words, his work appeals to mass audiences.

In conclusion, most of his books have been published by W.W. Norton & Company. However, one of them is published by Alfred Knopf. After that, Whittle Direct Books, Sterling and Audible Studios round out his publishers.

Above all, he, his wife and three children, live in Berkeley, CA. In 2009, he published Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood about his attempts to raise his those children.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg, writer, publisher and marketer, lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Therefore, he occasionally encounters bears, snakes and bobcats. Similarly, he tries to keep raccoons and pileated woodpeckers away from his property.

Book Purple Cow Marketers

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Seth Godin is prolific. He’s written quite a few books in his 58 years.

He initially came onto my radar in 2002, after the book Purple Cow was released. I saw it as a modern day version of Reality in Advertising, the classic by Rosser Reeves. Reeves, who helped Dwight D. Eisenhower with his presidential campaign, astutely pointed out that products and services, in order to be embraced by the general public, needed to have a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. If people understood what was different about it, and they agreed it was important to them, they would buy it. People that don’t really understand marketing might say a product has to have some kind of “secret sauce.” They’re only partially right.  

Reeves, a copywriter, was a regular guy who would try out the household products that he would write about. He felt it was his obligation to determine what set it apart from all the other “me, too” products out there.

Al Ries and Jack Trout called the concept Positioning. They wrote a book with that title. Their thought was the product had to stand out “in the mind of the consumer.” Godin, you might say, repackaged the concept, calling his rendition, or book Purple Cow.

The notion of the book Purple Cow is that if you were driving down the road and saw a herd of cows grazing in the grass – and one of them was purple – most likely you would pull over to the side of the road. Or stop and get out, depending on how safe the road was, or whether you would be trespassing or not. In fact, you might even jam on the brakes and insist on a closer look at this unusual animal.

The Milkman

The book Purple Cow sold over 150,000 copies in over 23 print runs in its first two years.

Other books by Godin include:

This is Marketing (his latest, which went to #1 on the WSJ list only months after it came out)

Linchpin (named by Business Week among its “20 of the best books by the most influential thinkers in business in 2015”)

Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers (published by Simon & Schuster)

All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low Trust World (updated to All Marketers Tell Stories: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works – And Why Authenticity is the Best Marketing of All)

The Dip (a New York Times and Business Week bestseller)

Free Prize Inside (a Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004)

And many others (18 total, which have been translated into 35 languages)

In addition, his blog was named by Time among its 25 best blogs of 2009.

Recent Accolades

This past year he was inducted, along with Lee Clow and Esther Lee, into the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Hall of Fame. He’s also in the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and may be the only person in both. Therefore, there’s no denying that the book Purple Cow, was his breakthrough.

Personal Life

He graduated from Stanford in 1984 and also went to Tufts. He was a former dot com executive and worked for Spinnaker. He and his wife, Helene, live in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY with their two sons.

Godin’s appearance is also unique. He obviously practices what he preaches by setting himself apart from the competition. I don’t think he would be successful in Japan, where the philosophy is “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”

Godin is a phenomenal storyteller and a good writer. Most importantly, though, he is a savvy marketer. Therefore, his books sell briskly. He knows how to get his material to the top in record time.  

He founded Seth Godin Productions with $20,000 in 1986. It was primarily a book packaging business. He’s a big believer in “shipping.” In other words, don’t spend time trying to make something perfect – send it out!

He sold Seth Godin Productions and focused on permission marketing. In March, 2006, he founded the company that he called Squidoo. He also launched Yoyodyne, which was later acquired by Yahoo.

Getting Buy-In

In 2010, he got rid of his longtime publisher Portfolio in favor of selling his books directly to his readers. A few years later, he returned to Portfolio with a Kickstarter campaign and three new books, The Icarus Deception, V is for Vulnerable and We Are All Weird.

He tested online the viability of his books before they actually hit the shelves. He felt this approach minimized risk.

At that time, he was quoted as saying, “The pressure on the bookstore and the publisher is to pick stuff that will work… I’m saying, ‘Hey, Mr. Bookstore Owner, the world has spoken. There are lots of people talking about these books.’”

The reality is it’s hard to convince traditional publishers to take on some authors unless you can prove you have a solid fan base. “The future of publishing,” he is known to have said, “is about having connections to readers and the knowledge of what those readers want.”

He sought pledges on Kickstarter with this approach:

For $4 or more, pledgers got a digital preview edition of The Icarus Deception.

For $49 or more, they got four copies of Icarus, plus access to the preview digital edition.

$111 or more got pledgers eight hardcover copies of Icarus, two signed copies of V is for Vulnerable, a limited edition essay collection and a digital preview.

And, for $1150 or more, Godin would interview each participant and write a brief account of an artistic accomplishment that would be included in Icarus. Pledgers also got eight hardcover copies of Icarus, two signed copies of V is for Vulnerable, an essay collection and the digital preview.

If I were pledging, I would’ve held out for a partridge in a pear tree as well.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a writer, publisher and marketer in Western North Carolina. However, he lived outside of Philadelphia for six decades.

America’s Favorite Finance Coach

NewYorkTimes.com

Many people have a New Year’s resolution to manage their money more effectively. Dave Ramsey can certainly help you do that.

Bestselling author of The Total Money Makeover, he is a no-nonsense bloke that has become the Go-To-Guy regarding budgeting as well as helping parents teach their children how to handle their finances. The book, published by Thomas Nelson, has sold over six million copies. Consequently, he’s a Subject Matter Expert on the topic of finance.

Working out of Brentwood, Tennessee (near Nashville), he hosts a radio program that reaches 14 million listeners per week via over 600 stations. As a result, he was named the 2009 Marconi Award winner for Network/Syndicated Personality of the Year, and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2015. Likewise, his daughter, Rachel Cruze, is also a New York Times bestselling author.

Background & Ideology

First of all, he claims that when he was in his 20’s he was “dumber than a rock.” In fact, he says he has a PhD in D-U-M-B. In the ‘80’s he was over-invested in real estate and went bankrupt. Rather than throw up his hands in surrender, he became even more determined to figure out how to live within his means.

So, he humbly confesses, “I am sure that the problem with my money is the guy in my mirror.” If this describes you, if you have too much month left at the end of your money, his advice is to “get a mirror.” “That man in the mirror is your Total Money Makeover Challenge,” he proclaims.

Ramsey is not a fan of the word “allowance.” He realizes the power of words and thinks this one has a negative connotation. It makes children who ask for one seem inept, he touts.

Other Endeavors

While The Total Money Makeover is his cash cow, he has also written (and originally self-published) Financial Peace, along with a planner with the same name. Regarding the difference between The Total Money Makeover and Financial Peace, he writes that the latter is “what to do with money,” while the former is a “how to do it” plan.

In addition, other books he has penned include Foundations in Personal Finance, More Than Enough and Life Lessons With Junior (a children’s series). While adults are his prime audience, he thinks even more attention needs to be on kids.

He’s obviously a pretty good marketer, too, as he runs a class called Financial Peace University. It integrates video teaching, class discussions and small group activities. The follow up program to it, The Legacy Journey, is a training series for adults, focused on “What’s Next” after getting out of debt. While debt is a bondage he urges his listeners to avoid, he makes an exception for certain types of home mortgages.  

Advice

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He recommends good growth stock-type mutual funds and confidently states that you should make 12 percent on your money over time. The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 stocks, he declares, have averaged a gain of 11.67 percent per year for the last 80+ years – and that even includes the 2008 market. He also suggests that retirees withdraw 8% of their retirement fund each year (as opposed to the conventional recommendation of 4%).

In Total Money Makeover, he tells the story of the typical American making car payments. He says the average car payment is $495 over 64 months. “Most people,” he writes, “get a cay payment and keep it throughout their lives. As soon as a car is paid off, they get another payment because they ‘need’ a new car. If you keep a $495 car payment throughout your life,” he astutely points out, “which is ‘normal,’ you miss the opportunity to save that money. If you invested $495 per month from age 25 to age 65, a normal working lifetime, in the average mutual fund (the aforementioned 80 year 12% stock market average), you would have $5,881,799.14 at age sixty five. Hope you like the car!”

As a result, his best piece of advice may be, “Don’t even consider keeping up with the Joneses. They’re broke!” That quote, in tandem with the reality that “to change your money thing, you have to change,” is priceless. Finally, someone with the guts to tell it like it is!

Volatility

Due to the stock market’s ups and downs, Ramsey’s philosophy is that your plan has to work in both good and bad times. Consequently, he quotes Warren Buffett when he says, “When the tide goes out, you can tell who was skinny-dipping.”

Total Money Makeover has been a bestseller for years. My copy of it boasts “Three Million Copies Sold and Lives Changed.” That figure has now doubled. His goateed visage adorns the cover. The subtitle is A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. Most noteworthy is that there is a workbook that complements it.

Give & Live

Furthermore, lest you think he is only about hoarding the money he has made, pinching every penny, he is also a strong proponent of giving. He thinks children should have three envelopes: save, spend and give. Besides Benjamins, he believes in giving hope, too.

Above all, his motto, written on every page of Total Money Makeover, is “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a writer, publisher and marketer living in Western North Carolina. He is looking forward to another short winter, in contrast to when he lived in the Philadelphia area.

10.5 Million Gets You on the List

Nora Roberts on Goodreads

The Forbes list of wealthiest writers over a one year period hit the newsstands recently. And there are a few surprises. James Patterson headed the list (no surprise here). Bill Clinton recently collaborated with him on a novel entitled The President is Missing. Patterson sold nearly 5 million books in the U.S. alone this year, earning $86 million, according to Forbes.

J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame is right behind him (or $32 million behind him, anyway). Many know her story as an author. She grabbed $54 million over this time frame, $41 million less than last year. Pretty rough year.

Stephen King, writer – and Boston Red Sox fan, was number three. He still writes macabre stories and gets paid very well for them. That’s scary. In many ways, he’s kind of the modern day Alfred Hitchcock. He made $27 million – much, much more than Hitchcock ever dreamed of (or had a nightmare about).

The Rest of the List

John Grisham was fourth. I have a great deal of respect for JG — and not just because he, too, is a huge baseball fan (see my blog post of January 1, 2018 for a deeper dive into what I think of him). He wasn’t too far behind his friend King, as his haul reached $21 million.

Number five was a tie. Jeff Kinney must’ve been some wimpy kid, so I didn’t think I’d ever heard of him. However, Dan Brown, the author on the list that Kinney tied in the rankings, I have heard of. Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts are names that most people recognize. They tied for eighth on the list. I’m not that familiar with Rick Riordan and E.L James, perhaps because I don’t generally read fiction. They pulled up the bottom of the list with ONLY $10.5 million in earnings (each) this year.

One More Gainfully Employed Individual

Michael Wolff made the Top 10 after the release of his book, Fire and Fury, this year. Apparently, Trump got him a job, too, since DJT’s been in office. Wolff is the first nonfiction author on the list in 11 years. The book sold 1.7 million copies, flying off the shelves in hardcover, e-book and audio formats in the first three weeks alone. Wolff earned an estimated $13 million from June of 2017 to June of 2018. This placed him seventh on the list of the year’s wealthiest writers.

Persistence is a Plus

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Rowling didn’t give up either. She was a single mom who lived in a small flat while going to cafes to write Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She often took her daughter Jessica (named after Jessica Mitford, the British investigative journalist and activist, who was J.K.’s favorite author). Jessica slept in a pram next to her while J.K. scribbled away.

J.K. said she was as poor as possible without being homeless — severely depressed and considered suicide. Christopher Little, an “obscure London literary agent,” finally accepted Rowling’s book, after she was on the receiving end of many rejection letters.

Grisham didn’t give up either. He felt that the fact that he had successfully completed law school – persevered through years of study, then taking the bar exam – was ideal training for the task of persisting through the obstacle course that is publishing.

All earnings describe June 1, 2017 thru June 1, 2018. Figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers aren’t deducted (and you can be sure they’ll get their share). NPD BookScan and Box Office Mojo collected the data. Industry insiders, along with some of the authors themselves, were interviewed for the study.

The world’s 11 highest paid authors sold nearly 25 million print books combined in the U.S. alone over the one year period. Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train, was most likely #11.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FJ Felsburg, ghostwriter, publisher and marketer, lives in Western North Carolina with his beautiful wife and hyperactive dog, surrounded by woods infiltrated with snakes, raccoons, bears, bobcats, white squirrels and turkeys.

R. Didi: A Writer Who Has Prevailed

www.amazon.com

Wikipedia doesn’t do Ray Didinger justice. Their short synopsis of the author is matter-of-fact.

Some would call Didinger parochial because he grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and writes about Philadelphia sports. Others might call him a “long-suffering” Philadelphia sportswriter. First of all, the “long-suffering” moniker no longer applies (as of February 4, 2018). That’s when the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LII.

Mr. Didinger is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Writers Honor Roll), a five-time Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year winner, and a Pro Football Writers of America award recipient for outstanding feature story. He has written 10 books, including The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies (with Glen Macnow), The New Eagles Encyclopedia (with Robert S. Lyons) and The Super Bowl: Celebrating a Quarter-Century of America’s Greatest Game. He has also won four Emmy Awards as a writer and senior producer at NFL films and has penned numerous blog posts and a screenplay. In addition, he is an analyst for Comcast Sportsnet.

Roots

A Philadelphian through and through, there aren’t many people around today who can say they attended their first Eagles game at Connie Mack Stadium. Formerly called Shibe Park (renamed after owner/manager Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy), it was where the Philadelphia A’s and later the Phillies played baseball. What many don’t realize is it was the Eagles home field from roughly 1940-1957.

Didinger never missed a deadline, but insists there were many close calls. The subtitle of his book One Last Read is The Collected Works of the World’s Slowest Sportswriter. A graduate of Temple University, he wrote pieces for the now-defunct Philadelphia Bulletin and for the Philadelphia Daily News.

In addition to being a football aficionado, he has also covered baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, hockey and the Olympics. Football, however, is his true passion. He describes basketball as “a simple game.” And baseball, he says, is a “game of cameos – the pitcher, the hitter, the fielder…” Football, which he has been covering for 45 years, has strategy, complexity and intricacies. “It is the most inclusive, truest team game.”

He’ll be the first to admit that it is a violent game. That is one of the reasons why he has such profound respect for those who play it. He says both the courage and the durability of the players are admirable, and therefore he holds in high esteem those who can play through and endure the pain.

Endurance, Faulkner Style

But, there is no doubt he has suffered the slings and arrows of many athletes and fans. Admirably, he’s not afraid to state his opinion. This past year, for example, he openly stated that Jay Ajayi should “Shut up and tote the ball,” when he detected resentment in the Eagles running back’s postgame comments after one regular season game.
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“R. Didi” credits his many influences. He is well versed in sports with a deep reservoir of knowledge about figures – even outside of Philadelphia – from Grantland Rice to Jerry Rice. But, perhaps the reason why he is so respected, is, he understands the Philadelphia fan and their obsession with sports like no other. Watch here as he diplomatically defends the city’s sports fans’ reputation as a bunch of thugs.

He works hard to remain an objective reporter and separate himself from his emotions. However, after the Eagles Super Bowl victory, he broke down when his son visited him on the TV set. He was uncharacteristically emotional when he described what had happened days before – an eagle had landed on his garage roof. He saw it as a reminder of his father’s spirit.

The bottom line is Ray Didinger does his homework. He knows what he is talking about. And it is crystal clear that he loves what he does.

But, most importantly, he has endured. He has endured the abuse from his colleagues from all over the world – about the behavior of Philadelphia fans. Endured the futility of numerous Eagles seasons and incompetent ownership. Endured the National Anthem controversy, the huge salaries and the selfishness of players. The macabre stories and the cold hard truth about concussions. The domestic abuse allegations. The replacement players, the “know-it-all” fans and commentators. And he has prevailed.

Up Close and Personal

Like most Philadelphians, he’s seen it all. As their illustrious former mayor Frank Rizzo used to say, he had a “front row seat to the greatest show on earth.” He should be commended.

All in all, Ray Didinger is a true professional and a sports sage.

But he’s human too. At the beginning of the year, he predicted that the Eagles would go 8-8, and miss the playoffs.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg lived in Philadelphia for 61 years. Shortly after he left, the Eagles won their first Super Bowl.

A Great (Success) Story

www.bostonglobe.com

John Grisham married a woman six years his junior. He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, right next door to the girl he would go on to marry. The now famous author said when he came back from school, she had grown up! He went to Ole Miss after attending some smaller schools (he changed colleges three times before graduating). But her parents wouldn’t allow him to date her because he was too old. On their first date, her parents weren’t home and they went out to see a movie.

A Time to Kill was his breakout book. He also wrote The Pelican Brief and The Firm. Grisham has sold more books (nearly 300 million) than any other author. Aside from his children’s book series, he has penned a total of 33 books – 31 novels, one collection of short stories and one work of non-fiction.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was a book that inspired him. Lee, like Grisham, was from the Deep South. In addition, he enjoyed reading Mark Twain’s Roughing It, John le Carre’s Little Drummer Girl and Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.

As long as he can remember, however, he really wanted to be a professional baseball player. After that dream died, he built a $3.8 million stadium in Virginia. He is a St. Louis Cardinals fan and is involved with RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities). Combining his vocation and his avocation, he wrote the original screenplay for Mickey, a baseball drama movie which starred Harry Connick, Jr.

Old School Media

He said he gets most of his fodder from the newspaper. There is always a story there of a trial taking place. He postulates there is inevitably a “Crime of the Century” every two years or so.

He started writing early on in his life. Grisham said he was a terrible lawyer but was always dreaming of the big case. Because he was a young attorney, he felt that time was on his side. Knowing that writers like James Michener wouldn’t be around forever, he knew would have his day sooner or later.

It doesn’t take a speed reader to realize that many of his books start with the word “the.” The Runaway Jury, The Client, The Brethren, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The King of Torts, The Summons, The Broker, The Appeal, The Associate, The Confession, The Litigators and The Last Juror. Exceptions include Bleachers, Skipping Christmas, Playing for Pizza and A Painted House. Regardless, they have all become international bestsellers.

Start Before the Day Catches Fire

Infertility drugs are the major forms of these exclusive medicines are * Tablets * Soft tablets cheap levitra tablets * Jelly Moreover, these online medical stores are not only ideal to grab these medicines but other related stuffs like tablet cutter is also available in the form of jelly. Suicide is of generic tadalafil tablets specific danger for the individuals who experience issues in gulping. According to an article viagra generika appalachianmagazine.com on Livestrong, Vitamin E has promise for Peyronies Disease, but such claims have not demonstrated a consistent benefit. If you wish to gain back the lost happiness in your life, then don’t wait for cialis cost australia miracles to happen. His routine is that he will write starting around 7 or 7:30 am, and will stay at it for four or five hours. The creative juices only last so long, so he generally doesn’t go longer than that, as his brain is pretty well fried by then. He writes in a farmhouse that is steps away from his kitchen. During the process, he denies himself access to the internet and his mobile phone. Rarely does he ever suffer writer’s block, he claims.

He said that men don’t generally write women very well. Those who read Gray Mountain, which included a female lead character, would probably agree.

The Big Screen

His books have been adapted into screenplays, starring such notable actors as Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts and Gene Hackman. The books themselves have been translated into nearly 50 languages.

Lately, he has been writing for the kids market. Theodore Boone is a series of books that have gotten much attention. Theodore’s parents are both lawyers and are very smart. While the kid can’t practice law (because of his age), he knows it very well and imparts helpful information to friends and members of his community.

Wynwood Press picked up A Time to Kill (after it was rejected by 28 publishers) and gave it a modest print run. Doubleday ended up republishing it – and turned it into a blockbuster.

The Innocent Man marked his foray into non-fiction. Grisham boasts that, after 30 books, there’s still plenty to write about. He wishes he could write two or three books a year – but instead has been writing one a year for quite some time.

JG says “If what you are writing is good, it will eventually get noticed.” And perseverance is a big, big part of it.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg resides in Western North Carolina. He is a former college baseball player and an avid golfer.

His Name Rhymes with “Wallet”

                                                                         www.ken-follett.com

Ken Follett, born in Cardiff, Wales, is, by all accounts, a very successful author. After all, his books have sold over 160 million copies! Follett writes thrillers and historical novels. He wrote The Eye of the Needle in 1978, which was turned into a major motion picture, starring Donald Sutherland.

The author broke from the thriller genre when he published a book called The Pillars of the Earth, about a building in the Middle Ages. He followed it up with World Without End and then A Column of Fire, the two sequels to it. From a marketing standpoint, he has found that trilogies work well for him. The Welshman calls this particular trilogy, “Kingsbridge.”

Other books he has penned include Fall of Giants, The Man from St. Petersburg, Edge of Eternity, Lie Down with Lions and The Key to Rebecca. His books have been translated into 30 languages. World Without End was a bestseller in Italy, the U.S., Germany, the UK, France and Spain.

The Process

He said that he usually wakes up with an idea of where he wants to go in the story. He’ll write in his bathrobe, after he makes himself a cup of tea. Other than taking a break to shave or walk the dog, he pretty much writes from 7 am until 5 pm. One of the tricks he employs is he’ll cut out pictures from a magazine that he thinks resemble his characters and hang them on a board. So, while he’s writing, he’ll look at the board to get ideas. He also uses an Excel spreadsheet where he lists all the characters and their traits and age. After work, he enjoys a glass or two of champagne.

He shows his first draft to people, telling them to look for mistakes. The scribe listens to them all the time, he said, but doesn’t always take their advice. But, if they find a certain section boring, he’ll want to know why. Sometimes it will need to “go through the typewriter again.” He said one of the best pieces of writing advice he got was early in his career when his editor told him that, regarding his characters – none of them seemed to have had a past. Follett realized then that he and his readers have to imagine they have a life outside of the story.

As an alternative to writing, he plays bass guitar in a band called Damn Right I Got the Blues. In addition, he plays the balalaika. His son Emanuele also plays in the band. The artist started off in the publishing world as a rock ‘n roll critic. He studied philosophy in college and says that he likes music because it is sensory, as opposed to writing, which is entirely cerebral.

A Master Storyteller

Vomiting, headache, itching, frequent hiccups and poor appetite or anorexia are some other symptoms 20mg tadalafil prices shown by nephropathy. Nobody ever gambled with “Boomie.” Not online cialis check out here if they knew him. With the increasing popularity and demand of this water was so high; thus, the genuine Karlovy Vary thermal spring salt at home. cheapest cialis soft Although it can be said that there is no such thing as a distinction between patented and levitra lowest price , both are manufactured with the identical formulation containing the identical energetic ingredient and has the identical useful results on the body then why purchase the costlier the cost of any product, the better the long-term outlook for the stock market, and vice versa. Follett has written about secret agents, Nazis and the KGB. He has written about World War I, World War II and the Cold War. He was born in 1946 so he lived in half of the Twentieth Century. It takes two years to write each book – although, he said, Pillars of the Earth took him three years and three months to write. He offers advice to writers on his website. One of his suggestions is to form an outline, something we have all heard about since grade school.

His stories often deal with the theme of good versus evil. His parents were devout, born-again Christians that didn’t allow him to watch TV while he was growing up. So he embraced books. He insists that writers must have a voracious appetite for reading. This lifelong learner said his most important asset was that he read thousands and thousands of novels in his youth. He learned to read when he was four years old. One of his influences was Jane Austen.

If you are looking for inspiration, keep in mind that his breakthrough book, The Eye of the Needle, was Follett’s 11th novel. The original title was Storm Island. How’s that for perseverance?

His books often feature strong women characters. He employs researchers and subject matter experts (such as history professors) to check his facts. He’ll also peruse diaries and memoirs of everyday people who lived in the era that he is writing about. He gets enjoyment out of doing things like researching failed banks, perhaps because his father was a tax inspector (his mother was a housewife).

Personal Life

Follett was married to Mary Emma Ruth Elson, but they divorced and he married Barbara Daphne Hubbard, a political activist who became a member of British Parliament’s Labor Party. He and his first wife once owned a home in the South of France. Barbara and Ken own two properties in London and a place in Antigua called Bananaquit, named after a local bird (it was up for sale for a cool $25 million two years ago, but I can’t find evidence that it sold). Sixty-eight years old and a lover of Shakespeare, he also acts and has been in some motion pictures where he wrote the storyline.

He says he wants to give the reader the excitement he had when he read James Bond’s Live and Let Die. The main “trick” (if there is one) is to engage the reader. You have to get them emotionally involved, he insists. “We have to accept that there are terrifically attractive rival forms of entertainment.”

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a writer in Western North Carolina.