Do You Need Help Writing Your Book?
I can help you as your ghostwriter.
My ghostwriting services are aimed at two audiences:
* Medical doctors and other professionals who need help writing informational or educational books or articles and
* Senior Citizens seeking to leave a written legacy about their lives. As a Personal Historian, I help individuals write their own memoirs/autobiographies. If you are interested in that type of help please click on the "Biography" tab in the above toolbar.
Benefits of Hiring Me
The first reason to hire me is to benefit from my extensive experience. My work for professional audiences has included writing with co-authors and ghostwriting both books and articles. I have authored and co-authored several books listed on these pages and have also written articles for the readers of Docguide.com, Family Practice News, Geriatric Times, WebMD, and many other medical trade publications. To see my Docguide.com articles for physicians and my WebMD consumer articles just click the Articles link at the top of the column on the right. If you are a medical doctor or professional person, I mention these facts to assure you I have the experience and credentials to help you.
A second reason to hire me is I have the background knowledge and training to tackle practically any technical subject. I'll tell you more about my education and training a bit later. Right now, I want to concentrate on how I can help you.
Over the years I have learned that success doesn't just happen. One has to work hard and smart. I promise you my best efforts. Here are the services I offer:
Summary of Editorial Services
* Collaboration/Ghostwriting/"book doctoring" and in-depth editing on books, autobiographies, personal histories, journal articles, and newspaper or magazine features. Help in creating comprehensive Book Proposals and the ghostwriting of entire books.
* White Paper and Monograph creation, including literature review, writing, editing and organizing of the Work from scratch, or as a "manuscript doctor."
* News and feature writing for placement in newspapers and on Internet publications aimed at professional audiences or consumers. Over the years my writing has appeared in newspapers, magazines, newsletters, on the Internet, and in published hardcover and paperback books. To be more specific, my consumer articles have been marketed by the L.A. Times Syndicate, The New York Times Syndicate, and News-America/Times of London. Magazine features written by me have appeared in Kiwanis, Ladies' Home Journal, Mademoiselle, Readers' Digest, Working Mother, and many other fine periodicals.
* Copywriting for marketing or sales letters, brochures, booklets, pamphlets, or fact sheets.
* Web site and CD-ROM development.
Successful Book Proposals that Convince Publishers to Offer Contract to Publish Those Books
You really shouldn't invest the time and money it takes to write a book unless you are either willing to self-publish it -- a much more feasible endeavor than it used to be -- or are determined to find a publishing company to publish it.
To convince a publishing company to publish your work, you need what is known as a Book Proposal.
Do You Have Ideas for a Book that Will Benefit Consumers?
If so, I can help you craft a book proposal to attract a publisher. A professionally written, comprehensive book proposal is a roadmap for the actual writing of the book. It includes an annotated Table of Contents (TOC) in which every chapter is described in-depth. This allows an acquisitions’ editor to very quickly understand what the book is about.
A comprehensive book proposal also includes an Overview, and a Market Study and Competitive Analysis. Those elements identify the potential audience and point out how numerous that potential audience is.
The Competitive Analysis is the part of the document in which I elaborate on why your book is better than, or at least different from, what's already out there.
Finally, at least one (preferably two) sample chapters are vital components of a comprehensive book proposal.
The creation and tailoring of a book proposal--one that is an effective sales document designed to entice publishers to offer us a good contract--is a time-intensive process for the ghostwriter. Starting from scratch, a good book proposal usualy takes 3 months or longer. That includes the interviews and assimilation of any written material or videos that the expert has on the subject, and, if necessary, doing supplemental research or further interviews with the expert.
That’s a lot of time for a self-employed writer to go without income. That’s why I am a ghostwriter. I need the income from my clients to support myself and my family while I am creating that Proposal.
I can be paid on a weekly basis as the work is turned (with prepayment of the first and last weeks), OR on a project basis with half the agreed-on-fee upfront, one-fourth at the conclusion of a mutually decided benchmark such as the completion of the TOC, and the final payment on the client's approval of the proposal. After that, I send the proposal to not just one, but several literary agents, and possibly (depending on the subject) directly to acquistions editors at publishing houses.
May I Now Help You with Your Writing and Research Needs?
You now realize that I can help you with your editorial or communications needs, no matter what they are. For further information, call me at either 858-357-4239 or 361-244-8530, or e-mail at
Potential Autobiography or Informational Book Customers
If you are a potential client who needs help writing your own life story or your corporate history, learn about my autobiography/Personal/Company history writing services by clicking on the Biography tab on the top of this page.
Potential Informational Book Clients
If you are a physician or some other professional needing help in writing an informational/educational book, please familiarize yourself with the Breecher Code of Ethics, a list of promises that I make to my clients:
My Code of Ethics -- Principles to which I adhere.
Accuracy and clarity are the marks of a professional. I am a competent professional in my field and, to the best of my ability, will make every reasonable effort to:
1. Provide accurate, clearly phrased reports or other writing on, or before, your deadline.
2. Avoid conflicts of interest.
3. Use the appropriate style depending on the assignment, always writing clearly and creatively.
4. Make feasible and justifiable recommendations that could improve the project.
5. Never fail to perform my services to the best of my abilities.
6. Never knowingly deceive my client.
7. Never knowingly be negligent.
8. Discuss my fee forthrightly so my client always knows what his/her money will buy.
9. Always work to the best of my ability to ensure the quick success of our project.
10. Maintain client confidentiality when such confidentiality is called for.
Thanks for reading this far. To contact me, e-mail me at <"mailto:"bookwriter@nasw.org", or phone me at either 858-357-4329 (my San Diego, CA home) or 361-244-8530.
You may also want to check out my other Web sites such as:
"http://"www.Howtowriteautobiography.com","
"http://"www.CharlestonProgram.com"",
"http://www.Diabetesreviews.com"
To enjoy the rest of this site, just scroll back to the top of this page and click on "My Works" or on the "Biography" tabs to see more. Please visit my other web sites too, especially www.diabetesreviews.com. If you have diabetes or want to learn more about this disease, you'll be glad you did.
Again, thanks for reading this far. By now you should have an idea whether you want to work with me. If, however, you are ultra curious and want to learn even more about my personal background and hear about a book I would really like to write with a qualified medical doctor co-author, read on:
How I Came to Specialize in Two Areas
I am a member of the American Medical Writers Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild, the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Personal Historians. My own personal saga will someday make a good autobiography, too. I started out as a journalist writing about medical topics because my father had died of a stroke at an early age and because my mother died at an even earlier age with uncontrolled diabetes. Furthermore, the mother of my first two sons suffered from epilepsy.
Obviously, I was motivated to learn more about medical matters, especially about maintaining health. That's why, after several years as a journalist, I accepted a position as a writer for the Illinois State Medical Society in Chicago. I went on to become Public Relations Director of a 400-bed hospital in Oak Park, Illinois, and also started my freelance medical writing career.
During those years I discovered that the modern medical system, while the finest in the world, is hobbled by stringent governmental regulation, an unjust legal system, and a health insurance system that is unfair to doctors and patients alike.
Does that sound like a book topic? It does to me. I'm looking to be a co-author of a book on this subject with a knowledgeable expert who can subsidize the time it takes to first write a Book Proposal aimed at Literary Agents and Publishers, and then to write such a book.
Even though my articles had already been syndicated to newspapers and magazines throughout the world and in medical trade publications such as Medical Tribune and Medical World News, I felt something was missing.
I wanted to better understand the science behind medical research.
To achieve that understanding and take my writing to a higher level, I went back to graduate school to study many subjects including biostatistics, research methodology, and epidemiology. As an adult student in the Master of Public Health program at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, I was taught to understand the research process. Then, as a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, I learned to write in a scholarly manner.
My scholarly writing has appeared in encyclopedias and peer-reviewed journals. However, scholarly writing doesn't have to be boring as I proved in my first book, Healthy Homes in a Toxic World, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
What I learned during my academic studies added to my professional experience and has helped me become a better medical writer.
However, I haven't lost the common touch ability to write for consumers. I also write for medical and public health newsletters such as The Handle, the award-winning magazine of the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
I wouldn't have been able to achieve many of those accomplishments if I had not, in mid-career returned to academia to learn how to be an even better medical writer. As an adult graduate student in the Master of Public Health program at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, I was taught to understand the research process including biostatistics, research methodology, and epidemiology. Then, as a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, I learned to do research and write in a scholarly manner.
Many newly minted PhDs go on to become university professors. I considered that path, but had already landed a publishing contract with a medical doctor co-author and realized that writing about health had a stronger appeal. Here's how that came about:
While working on my dissertation, I had kept up my freelance medical writing career and had been assigned to cover a scientific conference in Orlando, FL. There, I met James W. Anderson, M.D., a noted high-fiber and antioxidant researcher with the University of Kentucky, Lexington. He was presenting new research on the health benefits of antioxidants.
I recognized an up-and-coming subject and convinced him to collaborate with me on what became our first co-authored book, Dr. Anderson's Antioxidant, Antiaging Health Program , which later became a Prevention Book-of-the-Month Club selection and the paperback sequel, Live Longer Better: Dr. Anderson's Complete Antiaging Health Program. Both were published by Carroll & Graf, Inc., of New York City.
Later, I became co-author of Biohazard: The Hot Zone and Beyond, published by Barnes & Noble and Future Plagues: Mankind's battle for survival, published by Blandford, a Cassell imprint of Wellington House in the UK, and was co-author of the e-book, The Charleston Program: The Permanent Weight-Control Solution.
A few years ago I had the pleasure of becoming the founding Executive Editor of the UCLA Diabetes Perspective newsletter. That led to my later creation of my own diabetes website, www.diabetesreviews.com. For even more detail about me, click on the "About Me" link on that site. Health and happiness. MMB
