Hi, I'm Nikki, and I'm so glad you found your way here. I'm a ghostwriter, which means I spend my days writing books that carry other people's names. My clients have been founders, executives, doctors, coaches, and families who wanted a life written down before the details faded.
Almost every one of them had heard "you should write a book" for years before we started. Hardly any of them were short on material. What held them back was a quieter worry, that the finished book wouldn't feel like theirs, that it would come out stiff instead of carrying the way they actually talk. If that worry has followed you around, too, you're in the right place.
Who reads this
Maybe you run a company, teach what you know, or practice medicine or law. Maybe you're retired and your family keeps asking for the stories. You've probably started at least once. There's a folder of notes somewhere, or three chapters from two years ago, or a voice memo called "book idea" that you haven't opened since you recorded it.
You don't need to think of yourself as a writer to be here. Most of my clients never did.
What you'll find here
Every Tuesday I send one essay on how a book actually gets made, using the same process I use with my clients. Over time that covers deciding what your book is for, getting your stories out of your head (usually by talking rather than typing), choosing a structure, editing until a page reads like you on a good day, and what each path to a finished book really costs. Each essay ends with something small you can try in an evening. Paid subscribers, at $8 a month, also get the full method behind every one.
A few times a week I also post short Notes here on Substack: a word to cut, a before-and-after edit, or one of the questions I open with when I start a new book. Piper, my editor-in-chief, makes the occasional appearance (she signs off on every chapter from her corner office, which is my lap), and so does Finn, my retired editor, who sat in on more of my chapters than anyone.
When you subscribe, I'll send you The Voice Check, the checklist I run on every manuscript before anyone else reads it. It takes about 20 minutes on your first page.
And if you'd ever like more than the newsletter, everything I offer, from my 48 interview questions to writing the whole book with you, lives in The Writer's Room.
What I believe about books
The first thing I believe is that your spoken voice is your best draft. Most people talk in their own voice and then write in someone else's, and the best sentence in nearly every book I've written was said out loud before anyone typed it.
A book should also be written for one person. It will reach plenty of readers, but the drafts that stall are almost always the ones written for everyone at once.
I'll take a specific detail over an impressive one every time. A month, a place, and one line of dialogue will do more for a chapter than any amount of polish, which is the very thing I suggested to speakers turning a talk into a chapter.
And the people closest to you are the real test. When your business partner or your daughter reads a page, they should hear you in it. If what they hear is a press release, the page isn't finished yet.
So, what is your book about? Even one sentence is plenty. You can hit reply or leave a comment, and your answers really do shape what I write next.
From my desk to yours,
Nikki
P.S. If you already know you'd rather have the book written with you, that's The Private Press, one of the paths in The Writer's Room, and you can book a conversation with me here.