The Daily Writer

Today I’m bringing you an interview that will absolutely help you grow your impact and income, particularly if you’re a ghostwriter. You’ve probably heard of Gotham Ghostwriters, a New York City ghostwriting agency. It’s headed up CEO Dan Gerstein, who is a nationally recognized political writer, communications strategist, and idea man. He’s been writing professionally for more than thirty years....

I’m excited to bring you this conversation with Chelle Honiker, publisher of Indie Author Magazine. She has a real passion for serving and empowering authors, and in her role as publisher, she helps authors navigate the business of storytelling with confidence, strategy, and community. I’ve been a subscriber to the magazine for a couple of years now. If you’re looking for a fantastic resource to h...

As you know, I talk a lot about ghostwriting on this show since that’s my primary business. However, I’m thrilled today to bring on three other guests to help me dive even deeper into lots of ghostwriting-related topics. Maria Chapman is the Founder of Connected Ghostwriting, a writing agency built on one clear principle: connection drives success. Her agency does a variety of services, including...

If you think back to the early days of your writing journey, no matter if you’re at the beginning or you’ve been doing it a while, I’ll bet you were filled with joy and wonder at the power of writing. But somewhere along the way, you probably lost the spark a bit. You grew up, life got hard, and you felt overwhelmed with responsibilities in your family and career. It’s a common story most of us ha...

If you write nonfiction, I’m sure you’re familiar with the idea that your book can be the first step your reader takes with you, but not the last step. Although many people certainly make a great living selling lots of books, there are also lots of consultants, speakers, and trainers who make the bulk of their income from those offerings. Their book is just the first step in their readers’ journey...

I talk to a lot of writers who are just getting started in their 40s and 50s. That was certainly the case for me. I was a college professor for many years, then made the transition to ghostwriting and author coaching in my mid-40s. I can name dozens of other writers who have made similar transitions to a writing career mid-life. It’s tempting to feel like you’re getting a late start, but I believe...

As an author, there are lots of ways to collaborate with other writers. You can co-write a book, ghostwriter for people and remain in the background, be part of a series or anthology, and more. However, I confess that until recently, I had never heard of MAPs, otherwise known as Multi-Author Projects. These are typically a series of books written by different authors, but set in the same world or...

Nearly three years ago, in October 2022, the book The Faith of Elvis was published. I had the honor of writing it for Billy Stanley, Elvis’s stepbrother and the author of the book. Billy grew up with Elvis and spent 17 years by his side, working for Elvis, sharing his life, and being a core part of his entourage. Very few people knew Elvis as well as Billy and his brothers. We had an absolutely fa...

There’s one topic I am asked about far more than any other. As you can imagine, that topic is ghostwriting. The questions come from all perspectives. Writers who want to build a business ask me about how I got started and what it takes to build a successful ghostwriting business. Business leaders and others who want to write a book, but don’t have the time or skills to do it themselves, ask me how...

It goes without saying that there are two main words in the title of this podcast: Profitable and Writer. Chances are pretty high that, like me, you became a writer because you wanted to express yourself or tell stories. Or perhaps you were drawn to other elements of writing like publishing, editing, or research. But we do ourselves a huge disservice when we neglect the other component, which is t...

If you talk to any career writer, especially those who have been at it for a while, you’ll discover that the vast majority of them do several different things. In my experience, most full-time writers do a mix of client work in addition to their own projects. Regardless of the specific kinds of client work they do, or the particular projects they create for themselves, the common element is that t...

As human beings, we are wired to crave stories. I’ll bet a day doesn’t go by when you don’t dive into stories in some fashion, whether it’s movies, TV shows, novels, audiobooks, or talking to your family about the crazy things that happened to you that day. We crave stories so much that even at night, when we’re asleep, our brains continue to concoct stories for us! Many writers give life and brea...

In the last couple of decades, audiobooks have exploded in popularity. In fact, audiobooks are the fastest-growing segment of digital publishing, with Audible distributing well over half of all audiobooks. And what’s not love? You can listen to audiobooks anywhere, you can listen while you’re doing other things, and most people can listen to a book faster than they can read them. If you’ve ever co...

When I started podcasting over ten years ago, one of my major motivations was getting to have interesting conversations with interesting people who were doing interesting things. That sentence sounds a little convoluted on purpose but it still rings true: I love getting to sit down with people who are doing meaningful work and talk about the themes and threads running through it—and what you and I...

Imagine if you were taking a trip across the country, from New York to L.A. You probably wouldn’t just hop in the car and start driving. Instead, you’d plot out your journey via Google Maps, Apple Maps, if you’re a bit old-fashioned, maybe even a good old paper map. Yet failing to plan out the journey is exactly what many authors do when it comes to their books. That’s why putting together a book...

One of the realities that binds us all together as human beings is that we experience pain. It doesn’t matter what culture you’re from, how old you are, or what your life experience is … you deal with suffering on a daily basis. My guest today is here to help us understand that our pain and suffering can be a useful tool for writing. In fact, if we are willing to face our pain in life and use it a...

If you’ve listened to this show any length of time, you have heard me talk about the value of building multiple streams of income. Almost every successful writer I know has followed this path of building their business. No matter what the specific income streams are, the common element of almost all successful career writers is that they have a variety of outlets for their writing. That’s certainl...

What label would you use to describe what you do? Would it be writer, editor, designer, author, creative, artist, ghostwriter, publisher, entrepreneur, or maybe something else? Most of us would gravitate toward one or more of those terms. But I’ve never heard anyone in the writing and publishing world use the term “sales professional” or perhaps “salesperson” to describe what they do. Which is a b...

I’ve never done a poll on this, but I’d venture to say that most of my listeners have books, blog posts, social media, and newsletters as their main writing outlets. That includes me as well! But as I’m sure you know, there is a whole wide world of opportunities out there for writers. That’s why I’m excited to bring you this interview with Tim Carter. He is not only a novelist, but has also done e...

If you’re like me, you probably have a shelf full of books on the craft of writing and storytelling. Yes, I admit it, I’m a junkie for books that dissect and analyze how to tell better stories. Whether you write blog posts, books, material for clients, and of course, novels, you can always learn to become a better storyteller. Today we’re going all the way back to one of the most important sources...

If there is one word I keep hearing over and over again in conversations right now, it’s the word “stuck.” I’m not sure if it’s just a function of my age (I’m 50, by the way) and the fact that most of the people I talk to are in the middle-age range, or maybe it’s something going on in the culture at large. Who knows, maybe it’s just writers! We are a bit of a crazy group, after all! Whatever way...

I don’t know about you, but many times I’ve had this experience when listening to interviews on podcasts: I love what the guest is talking about, and it’s cool to hear about all their wins and successes. But then I relate what they are saying to my own experiences, which by comparison don’t seem so successful. There’s a clear reason we feel this way sometimes when listening to interviews. It’s bec...

I’m thrilled to share this conversation with Dennis Pullin. He is the President and CEO of Virtua Health, an academic health system in New Jersey which offers a full continuum of preventative, primary, ambulatory, acute and tertiary care across more than 400 locations. Virtua Health is a $3B organization with more than 16,000 employees. As a recognized thought leader, published author, and advocat...

  I can say in all honesty that today is a momentous occasion here on the podcast! Why do I say that? Because today is the culmination of a nearly 20-year journey to hold a very special book in my hands. It’s titled, Carson the Magnificent, and it’s the long-awaited biography of one of my entertainment heroes, the late Johnny Carson. For those who aren’t very familiar with Johnny Carson, he was th...

You probably didn’t know this, but I recently turned 50—on July 26, to be exact. And while I don’t feel 50 in my mind, in my body I’m definitely starting to feel it a bit! 50 is an interesting age: a watershed moment when many people re-evaluate their lives. Over the last few years, I’ve started paying more attention to how different people deal with this important transition in life. I’ve noticed...