Hi Reader, Time for my weekly update, and it starts with a confession. I moved the Book Finisher Lab writing community's first session to Wednesday, September 2. Here's why. When I asked what was keeping you from joining, the answer wasn't the idea, and it wasn't the time slot. It was the money — paid in one lump, in August, right when the camp invoices land. A lot of you said some version of I want this, I just can't do it this month. I could have opened on schedule to a half-empty room....
18 days ago • 4 min read
Hi friends, Time for my weekly update. Remember two weeks ago when I said I was taking Jay Clouse's Build a Beloved Membership cohort and to "watch this space" for a new membership program? Well — this is the space, and this week (week three of the cohort, appropriately titled "Design the Experience") the thing got a name. More on that in a second, because I need your help with it. On the client side, it's been a shipping week: I delivered the full sensitivity-and-editorial memo for that...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
I turned 50 last week. I know, I know. I can hardly believe it, and to use a cliché phrase, how did the time pass so quickly? How did I get here? Like seriously, 50? What the.... Well. It is what it is, and I would be lying if I said that I don't feel a bit sad. Sad for a youth lost, for more than half a life already gone. Is it all going downhill from here? Is this where my body starts falling apart, and my cognitive ability starts declining? Have I optimized the last 50 years? Have I done...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi friends, Time for my weekly update. First, in my efforts to scale and improve, I invested in the first-ever live cohort of Jay Clouse's Build a Beloved Membership. I have been a fan of Jay's work for years, and if you don't already listen to his Creator Science podcast, go fix that immediately; it's a must-hear for anyone building something of their own. And yes, I will be launching a new membership program soon. Watch this space for updates. Meanwhile, on the client side, it's been a full...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
A few times a month, someone asks me some version of the same question: "How much would it cost to have you write my book?" The answer I give usually surprises people on both sides — the aspiring ghostwriters who think it's a side hustle, and the authors who think it's a weekend favor. So let me put real numbers on the table. A full-length nonfiction book or memoir — the kind someone hires a professional ghostwriter for — typically runs anywhere from $20,000 to $80,000+, depending on length,...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Let me say that again, because it still surprises people: roughly 80% of my writing income comes from ghostwriting, yes, from writing books that have someone else’s name on the cover. And here’s the cool part: I didn’t plan it. A few years ago, deep in the COVID years, I’d just started my own business and was mostly posting online while quietly wondering what I was doing. Then a memoir agency messaged me on LinkedIn — they’d seen my writing and asked if I’d ghostwrite. My first reaction was...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, I don’t fully know why I decided to publish a children’s book in the middle of all the chaos — my business, my household, and my other creative projects all going at once. I just had to. There was a story sitting inside me, and I decided I’d do whatever it took to get it out into the world. So I went into hyperfocus mode and made it happen. My first children’s book, The Lonely Cucumber, is now out — starring a cucumber who’s sad because he keeps getting left behind in a child’s...
2 months ago • 7 min read
Hi friends, It's been a busy week, so here's a quick look at the business. My imprint is suddenly a real production house. Two client books are moving through it at once: one just locked its cover (hardcover and paperback both) and is headed to the typesetter, and another cleared its second editorial pass and is into bios, synopsis, and back-cover copy. There's a certain thrill to the moment a manuscript stops being a Word file and starts looking like a book, and I got to feel it twice this...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Hi friends, It's been a busy week, so here's a quick look at the business. A few wins. I spent part of the week interviewing some genuinely remarkable women for my Bethesda Magazine "Women Who Inspire 2026" feature—the kind of conversations that remind me why I got into journalism and writing in the first place. Meanwhile, a client memoir kept moving through edits and toward publication through my imprint, and there were also fresh episodes of the Read and Write with Natasha podcast. In other...
3 months ago • 4 min read