Two years ago, out of the blue, a world-renowned vascular surgeon named FRANK VIETH contacted me about ghostwriting his medical memoir. It seemed like a daunting task.
After all, Dr. Veith, the author of hundreds of medical papers, had been in practice more than 70 years, performing his magic in the OR—from lung transplants and amputations to life-saving vascular procedures that made national headlines.
As a ghostwriter assessing such a project, I knew there had to be a careful balance between highly technical medical commentary and a dramatic narrative that anybody could understand.
“This book might kill you!” someone warned me. But I’m still here.
The result is THE MEDICAL JUNGLE, a captivating expose of the medical establishment that unveils an often clubby industry that many believe needs serious reform. This 288-page fully-illustrated book candidly recounts Dr. Veith’s countless battles inside what he calls the “medical jungle”—-a cut-throat environment that threatens as much as it heals. And so it is that The Medical Jungle is making its literary debut this month from Amplify Publishing Group.
For any potential ghostwriting client who wants a look behind the curtain, here are five principal keys to the kingdom:
(1) YOU TELL ME YOUR IDEA: We discuss your concept for a book in detail, defining your purpose, vision and outcome: Why do you want to write a book? How will it benefit you and others? What kinds of information do you want to share? What other books in this genre have already been written? And most key, what is driving you to write a book right now? Why is it your passion? Will it be a marketing tool that benefits your business and provides media opportunities to expand your reach? Is it going to be a current event-related book? Or an inspiration recovery tool for readers? Or a revealing memoir with lessons learned? Or a family legacy book intended just for those closest to you? Perhaps you want a corporate history with key photos. Or a book about a particular event that happened to you in life. No matter what the subject—from celebrity to hard news, from sports to science, from politics to psychology, I cover it all. Whatever your idea, we will bring it to life. If you can visualize it and want it done, we make it happen.
(2) I CREATE A VIABLE STRUCTURE FOR THE BOOK, a storyboard that captures your message in a succinct chapter by chapter outline. We start with hundreds of bullet points, specific stories and subjects that are potential ingredients for the book. It’s a download of your brain, assembling the best possible raw material from your life experience. Once we have all the most compelling material available, we start cataloguing it into categories, juggling topics back and forth until we get the perfect chronology. Then we narrow down the topics so that we can produce a standard 250-page book with consistent chapter lengths. Once we have all the subjects for the book, we sub-divide and create a chapter sequence for your book, customized just for you. Many books with have a Part I and Part II, each with 5-10 chapters under each. It’s like creating the scenes of a movie. Each book needs a beginning middle and end with lessons learned. We never begin the writing until we have a great outline to follow. It’s like a literary map, which allows us to navigate toward our goal.
(3) I INTERVIEW YOU over a period of months, probing into the details of your story. Using interview skills honed over 30-plus years as a national magazine and newspaper reporter, my in-depth interview approach is at your service. In advance of the actual interviews, I create a template of sequential questions relevant to your topic based upon our initial consultations by phone. We then start weeks of recorded conversations, which can be conducted over a period of 45 days in person or by phone or zoom, all of which are transcribed word for word. The interviews are scheduled at your convenience, when you are most relaxed and fluent. Whether day or night, I do the interview when it’s best for YOU. Whether you’re in your office or on the beach, in your living room or on vacation, I suggest you get in the most comfortable space possible, so that you and I can talk freely. You talk. I write. The transcripts from these conversations form the raw material for the narrative are then edited by my team, further refining them for inclusion in the first draft. It’s a cathartic process that allows you to relive your story and remember it with thought and emotion. Most clients enjoy it a lot. I am your book therapist, so to speak, someone you trust implicitly with your precious story.
(4) I CONDUCT NEEDED RESEARCH, a complex time-consuming process that is indispensable to the ultimate result. No matter what the subject, there is a history behind the story that can play a supporting role in the ultimate success of your book. We need to paint a vivid picture of the dramatic scenes that unfold and put them into context. For example, to establish the atmospheric detail in a memoir we need to know about the history of your town, the weather pattern, the family tree, the news events of the time, the history of your school or church or company, and so much more. This involves finding reliable, trustworthy sources of information, analyzing and synthesizing that information, and presenting it in a compelling way. It can be a time-consuming process, but it is essential to producing high-quality content and validating any claims made in the book. It also prevents any possible chance of a legal claim against you. Part of research also involves collecting materials you already have, such as notes, diaries, scrapbooks, personal papers, letters, and background research. In addition, one key piece of the research for any book is interviewing people closet to you—your family members, your spouse, your friends, your business associates, ANYONE who was “there” and able to recall stories and events in full detail. These are memories that even you may not be able to fully access. We make a list of all possible candidates for these supplementary interviews, and I conduct them all by phone or zoom, recording and transcribing and editing them. Putting a book together is like assembling a vast puzzle, and each piece is an interview that will fit into the whole picture.
(5) I WRITE THE ENTIRE BOOK, chapter by chapter, reviewing each section with the author, assuring that the story is unfolding as they wish it to be. As I complete each chapter, it is emailed to you for review. This allows us to course correct along the way, insuring ultimate accuracy of your intention. Once you review the text and add in your corrections, your red-lined changes are sent back to me for incorporation into the chapter. The writing process is a synthesis of this exchange of ideas, grounded by the recorded conversations with you, with those closste to you, guided by the completed research, and with the ghostwriter’s imagination. Yes, a certain amount of improvisation is needed to create a fluent book with a dramatic arc. This is the art of the ghostwriter, using intuitions and decades of experiences to meld together all these literary assets into a readable narrative. You can tell me a story in your own words, but putting it down on the page to create an emotional impact is an art, not a task. Once the first draft of the book is completed, we sit down and read it through it again, word by word, attending to nuances of meaning that perfectly match your intention. Remember: This is your book; not mine. It has to capture your voice; not mine. And it will.
Eight to twelve months later, your book is finished, ready to hit Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and social media platforms, sold as a hardcover and paperback, E-book and Audiobook, establishing a national platform for you.
Dr. Veith, who unveiled the book at his recent VeithSymposium, can hold the tangible result of our work in his hand, an educational tool, a historical record, and proof positive that “going against the grain,” as he always says, can yield incredible results.
Like every worthy book, THE MEDICAL JUNGLE, getting rave reviews, tells a story that has never been told.
That’s the job of the ghostwriter.
Sky Wilson, Director of Marketing at Amplify, at the VEITHSYMPOSIUM book debut
