As Told To

"No one is born a celebrity," notes collaborator Hilary Liftin. As the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including 13 New York Times best-sellers, she knows this as well as anyone. In addition to her work behind-the-scenes helping to pen best-selling memoirs from stars such as Miley Cyrus , Tori Spelling , Mackenzie Phillips and Tatum O'Neil , she's also written three books of her own: De...

Michael Jan Friedman is one of the most successful sci-fi and fantasy writers on the planet—although in Mike's case we should probably specify the planet. Most of Mike's early work centered in and around the Star Trek universe, as the writer of novelizations based on the show and its many spin-offs. He's the author of the first "Star Trek: The Next Generation" hardcover, Reunion , which became a N...

Veteran journalist and author Robert Sabbag joins the podcast to share the story behind the story of one of the greatest books ever written about drug smuggling— Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade , a classic example of collaborative memoir that helped to establish him as one of the most esteemed chroniclers of his generation. No less an authority on these matters than Hunter S. Thomps...

"William Novak had the career I hadn't even known I wanted," host Daniel Paisner says of this episode's guest, who for a time seemed to have his have his hand in every major celebrity autobiography on bookstore shelves. Starting with the publication of the genre-defining best-seller Iacocca , by Lee Iacocca—the best-selling book of 1984 and 1985—Novak embarked on a string of collaborations on some...

Joni Rodgers is known to readers and publishers as a novelist, ghostwriter and essayist with an eye for detail, an ear for language and a heart to match her subjects. She's collaborated on best-selling books with Don Lemon ( This is the Fire ), Kristin Chenoweth ( A Little Bit Wicked ), Swoosie Kurtz ( Part Swan, Part Goose ), Elizabeth Smart ( Where There's Hope ), Justin Bieber ( First Step 2 Fo...

"Don't make it out, make it better." That's a line from podcast guest D. Watkins, offered in the book trailer for his book of essays We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black Americ a , in which he gives voice to the voiceless and shines meaningful light on what it means to come of age in East Baltimore, in one of America's poorest black neighborhoods.  It's a line you might hear as well...

Laura Zigman is one of our leading voices in contemporary fiction. She's the author of five novels, including her genre-defining debut, Animal Husbandry , which enjoyed a second life on the screen as the Hugh Jackman/Ashley Judd starrer " Someone Like You ," as well as her most recent novel, Separation Anxiety , which is currently being developed as a limited television series featuring the actres...

"Each author is different, and each book a puzzle we figure out together," Lisa Dickey writes, of her work as a collaborator. In the course of her career as one of publishing's most sought-after ghostwriters, Lisa has put together over 20 such puzzles, alongside a rich and varied list of high-profile clients, including first lady Jill Biden ( Where the Light Enters ); Illinois senator and Iraqi wa...

Sportswriter, collaborator, editor, publisher…Steve Kettmann has just about covered the publishing waterfront. Perhaps his biggest success on the ghostwriting front was his 2005 collaboration with outsized baseball slugger Jose Canseco, Juiced , which made headlines immediately upon publication for its revelations on the widespread use of anabolic steroids in our national pastime and became a #1 N...

Veteran journalist and collaborator David Rensin is the author or co-author of dozens of books, and a longtime contributor to Playboy , where he conducted hundreds of celebrity interviews for the magazine. As a ghostwriter, he has written numerous books in collaboration with leading show business personalities like noted film and television producer Bernie Brillstein ( Where Did I Go Right? ), as...

Michelle Burford is having a moment. As the co-author of six New York Times best-sellers, including the #1 best-selling Just as I Am , written with the legendary actress Cicely Tyson and published just days before Ms. Tyson's death in January at the age of 96, she has established herself as one of the leading collaborators in publishing. She actually prefers the term "story architect" to describe...

Welcome to As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast , where we take a look at the work behind many of the autobiographies and memoirs that dominate our best-seller lists. Artists, athletes, politicians, business and thought leaders, change agents of various sizes and stripes…a lot of them rely on the talents of some of our guests to help them tell their stories, and we believe there's something to be...