Editorial Toolkit: Book Doctoring and Ghostwriting (Mar 26 – Apr 22, 2025)

$330.00

Description

$330 (Members: $297) | How to perform book doctoring and ghostwriting | 4 weeks | Instructor-led | Intermediate

This class shows you the basics of book doctoring, coauthoring, and ghostwriting, which go beyond editing to actually writing and/or rewriting an author’s work. Though much of the available work is in nonfiction, there are opportunities for fiction editors/writers as well.

We’ll talk about:

  • how book doctoring, coauthoring, and ghostwriting are similar – and how they’re different
  • why developmental editors are in a good position to do this work
  • the importance of the client interview
  • how to understand an author’s voice and reflect it in the manuscript
  • avoiding common pitfalls, including legal concerns
  • writing effective proposals and outlines
  • understanding how media tie-ins work
  • identifying audience needs and expectations
  • getting paid fairly for your work – including kill fees and paid samples
  • finding clients
  • and more!

Each week includes a new lesson and a new assignment to be submitted for the instructor’s feedback along with online discussions about the lesson materials.

Intermediate classes are intended for those with some developmental editing experience or who have taken the Beginning + Intermediate DE for Fiction classes or the self-paced DE 1 through 6 classes.

The class is entirely online and asynchronous (you don’t have to be in any particular place at any particular time to participate) but weekly assignments are due by specific deadlines.