My children and I were picnicking in the very field where my grandmother had once raised cattle when my phone rang. I glanced at the screen and saw an unfamiliar number. From across the Atlantic came a friendly voice with an English accent asking if I had a few minutes for “a chat”.
That “chat” was my initial interview with LifeBook Memoirs, and the irony of the moment was not lost on me. There I was, sharing my grandparents’ legacy with my own children and discussing my prospects of ghostwriting other people’s memoirs for their own children, grandchildren and generations still to come.
How does one become a LifeBook ghostwriter?
That initial conversation went well, and I was invited to the next step of the interview process. Here, all aspiring LifeBook ghostwriters are put through a simulation exercise. I was provided with an audio recording of a former author’s interview and asked to create a written story from it. The results were evaluated by the LifeBook Memoirs team, who sought to answer these questions:
- How well did the candidate listen to the content of the interview?
- Did the candidate organise the interview into an accurate and compelling narrative?
- Did they display empathy and cultural sensitivity?
- Did they capture the author’s tone and storytelling style?
- Did they incorporate the author’s dialect, word choice and turn of phrase?
- Was the writer’s sample in keeping with our standards of excellence and authenticity?
It is a deliberately demanding bar, set high because every member of the team, from the interviewer to the ghostwriter to the editor, is there to ensure that when the finished memoir is opened, the only voice the reader hears is that of the author. Only experienced writers who offer adaptability and can work productively within a team become LifeBook ghostwriters.
When I received another call inviting me to become a LifeBook ghostwriter, I was thrilled to accept.
What does a LifeBook ghostwriter do?
While our ghostwriters are provided with author profiles, including specific concerns and goals for the finished product, our work truly begins after the interviewer and author have their first in-person meeting. There, they establish the desired style, tone, audience and purpose of the memoir and lay the initial framework for the book. That meeting, as well as all subsequent ones, are recorded in audio files and sent to the ghostwriter.
When I receive an interview recording, I begin by listening to it in its entirety. This helps me to gain invaluable insights about my author. I am not only listening for what is said, but also for what is not. I seek to discern what is truly important and where I need to tread lightly and respect sensitive material and deep emotions. I am listening for what excites the author and the accomplishments of which they are most proud. I look for themes and common threads between experiences, and I compare what I am hearing to the author’s project goals and their intended audience.
But it is not only content that matters. I also want to learn the author’s voice. How do they tell the story? Is it direct and sincere? Playful and witty? Which words did they choose that are distinctive to their mode of expression? Do they have unique professional jargon or regional colloquialisms that would help their readers hear their voice embedded in the text?
I am now ready to translate the oral storytelling into a written narrative told with the author’s words, tone and voice. I carefully shape the narrative itself, establishing a structure that flows naturally, balancing pacing across chapters and ensuring the story builds with the clarity and continuity a reader needs to stay engaged. Once completed, I send the narrative to the project team’s editor, who will further polish and improve the draft.
It is a collaboration that LifeBook Memoirs editor Steve knows well: “What makes the ghostwriter-editor relationship work here is that we’re both looking in the same direction – towards the author. I’ve worked in publishing for long enough to know that writer–editor relationships can be complicated, but this one isn’t, because there’s no disagreement about whose voice matters. There’s a generosity to the way our ghostwriters work. They hand over their drafts without attachment, knowing the editor may reshape things, because neither of us is precious about the work; we’re precious about the author’s story.”
The author is involved in the process throughout, and the written narrative grows rich and complete with the feedback the author provides and with each additional interview until it is the author’s robust and faithful rendering of a life well lived.
My LifeBook ghostwriting journey
My first author was the daughter of Sicilian fishermen who emigrated to the West Coast of the United States and grew up to become a devoted wife and mother. Her book was a gift of love and appreciation from a son she had worked tirelessly to put through medical school. Family, hard work, sacrifice and devotion were her legacy, and the family culture she has shaped and guided for more than ninety years will continue to impact future generations.
In the years since that first project, I have travelled with my authors from mountain tops to undersea depths and across a broad spectrum of careers, from LTL transport to real estate and from university leadership to beer distribution. I have been captivated by stories of savvy business investments, policy-shaping political roles and elite social circles. I have travelled vicariously with authors to China, India, Switzerland, Argentina, Tanzania, the Arctic Circle and so many more places of interest. Accounts of lifelong devotion, broken hearts, failures and setbacks, personal triumphs and beating the odds have been entrusted to my care to faithfully narrate.
How does LifeBook Memoirs achieve true authenticity?
Our secret to achieving truly authentic and high-quality memoirs for our authors is really no secret at all.
Each project begins with a carefully curated team comprising a professional interviewer, ghostwriter and editor who are each hand-selected as a considered match for that specific author – wherever possible, we ‘pair’ authors with ghostwriters who share relevant interests, professional backgrounds or areas of specialism, so that the person shaping the story already understands the world the author is describing.
Our ghostwriters bring years of professional writing experience alongside the demonstrable ability to work sensitively across cultures, life stages and subject matters. With thousands of satisfied customers and readers, the process is working!
No less important are the use of project managers, in-person meetings and audio recordings. This format builds relational connections and allows authors to relax and enjoy the process without worry. Friendships are frequently built between interviewers and authors, while ghostwriters and editors are true partners in the process.
A reader would be hard-pressed to find ‘Kelly’ in any of the LifeBooks that I have written. As editor Steve says, “I often think the best compliment you can pay a LifeBook ghostwriter is that their work is invisible. What you see on the page is entirely the author – their words, their rhythm, their life. Ghostwriting at this level requires a kind of creative selflessness that not every writer possesses, but the ones who do it well seem to enjoy the disappearing act. Getting out of the way that completely takes real skill.”
Your stories in your voice
And that is exactly the point. Our ghostwriters elicit your stories and your memories, and they record them in your voice so that one day, when your great-grandchildren open your memoir, you will speak to them as clearly as if you were sitting right there beside them.
That is the promise every LifeBook author receives; it is a promise that our team is built and trained to keep.
Written by Kelly, LifeBook Memoirs ghostwriter
