Recent comments in /f/IAmA

BuySideWSJ OP t1_ixd0ven wrote

Reply to comment by jspepper in We are editors at Buy Side, a new site dedicated to smart shopping and financial decisions from The Wall Street Journal. Ask us anything! by BuySideWSJ

So our reviews and other stories are typically written by journalists, not specialists in their field. Our DNA is that of a news organization and we trust journalists to collect information from experts and distill it into a package that we think readers will find compelling and useful.That said, we do look for journalists with relevant experience in the subjects they write about.

So for instance, in the Money group we generally do not ask financial planners to write for us. However, several of the people who've written for us happen to hold a certified financial planner designation or have previously worked in the financial services industry.

But authors aside, I think the main way we try to build credibility and give our rankings heft, is the process we use to produce them.We ask writers to go through extensive research and testing to pick the products that are the best based on what we think are the most important features. The process isn't always perfect-—not everyone is going to favor the features we favor.

But it allows us to narrow the number of picks we offer readers down to four or five. And it allows us, when we go to write the story up, to always clearly explain why we made the choices we did. That way, even if you don't like our picks, once you've read the story you should clearly understand how all the top products compare and then you can make your own choice. — Ian Salisbury Buy Side from WSJ Money Editor

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GlitterGhostwriter OP t1_ixbhtuj wrote

Reply to comment by BadWolfXF in I am Haylee Justine, a six figure ghostwriter who works with literary agents, traditional publishers, and celeb clients. AMA! by GlitterGhostwriter

I do enjoy it for the sake of reading but I will admit I do it a lot less. Because I’m addiction to ghostwriting I book doctor and line edit for clients so I read a lot technically but read what my clients have done. I definitely still read, or listen to audiobooks rather but I consider it reading haha. But I definitely go way slower these days.

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GlitterGhostwriter OP t1_ixbcfwa wrote

Reply to comment by BadWolfXF in I am Haylee Justine, a six figure ghostwriter who works with literary agents, traditional publishers, and celeb clients. AMA! by GlitterGhostwriter

This is not the first time I've been asked this and I always feel like it's a letdown to say I've never done any fanfiction lol! I did not get my fanfiction era. Which is weird because it would've fit me well. I also have always been obsessive about the worlds I read about. Just didn't happen!

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GlitterGhostwriter OP t1_ixasjv9 wrote

Reply to comment by lorazepamproblems in I am Haylee Justine, a six figure ghostwriter who works with literary agents, traditional publishers, and celeb clients. AMA! by GlitterGhostwriter

Haha I’m afraid I haven’t watched Seinfeld!

But that’s an excellent question. Thankfully my clients usually come to the table pretty open. As we get to writing there may be things that felt too vulnerable that we redact. Though it does take some interview skill sometimes to tease out things they wouldn’t think to say. I can honestly say I’ve never padded a book except for with details that were real that they didn’t tell me. And by that I mean they might tell me they watched a tv program, not tell me anything about it, but I’ll go watch it and try to fill out the experience. So far all my clients have approved and know every chapter.

Not to say that it doesn’t happen or has never happened. I’m sure somewhere there was a very famous celeb who pushed a book out with minimal oversight. But it definitely hasn’t happened to me and my working relationships with my clients have always been pretty tight and collaborative, particularly in non-fiction/memoir.

Where you’re more likely to see padding would be in a researchable topic like business books or self-help, maybe. Again, I haven’t padded those genres much either though except with very appropriate amounts of research.

I do talk to my clients friends and family members though sometimes. There are incidents where a family member knows more about a specific event than my client does. My client still approves it and knows about it long before publishing though.

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lorazepamproblems t1_ixarce7 wrote

Reply to I am Haylee Justine, a six figure ghostwriter who works with literary agents, traditional publishers, and celeb clients. AMA! by GlitterGhostwriter

Have you seen the Seinfeld episode where J Peterman didn't have enough interesting stories for Elaine to write his biography so he bought Kramer's life stories to put in his book as his own?

And do you ever have clients who won't reveal enough about themselves to you to make an interesting book? If so, what do you do to pad the book? Do you ever have to resort to public sources? And finally, do you ever have celebrities who can't be bothered to read the book that they couldn't be bothered to write? Meaning they put a biography about themselves out into the world and don't even know what's in it.

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GlitterGhostwriter OP t1_ixar1xi wrote

Reply to comment by nederlandspj in I am Haylee Justine, a six figure ghostwriter who works with literary agents, traditional publishers, and celeb clients. AMA! by GlitterGhostwriter

Oh, well, to be clear by the time I googled what high-end ghosts made, I already was a ghostwriter for awhile. So, I knew what I was doing and had a lot of experience. I started by cold networking with people in the publishing industry and reaching out to ghostwriting agencies, hybrid publishers, etc. it wouldn’t be something you could do as a straight beginner, but I wasn’t one.

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