Ghostwriting | Henry Rees-Sheridan

What is ghostwriting?

When you think of ghostwriting, you probably think of celebrity autobiographies and political memoirs.

But ghostwriting isn't constrained to those genres. It's for anyone who’s ever thought, “I wish someone else could write this for me”.

This could be a business leader with more important things to do, or a thought leader who has brilliant ideas but struggles to convey them in writing.

Why bother publishing writing under your name at all?

Here's a post I wrote about the benefits of writing.

How I work
I work one-on-one with business and thought leaders to help them write anything they want to write. This can include

Op-eds
Articles
Film and podcast scripts
Blog posts
White papers

I'm open to more formats. I'm best at content between 500 and 5,000 words in length. (I'll have a go at a book for you if you want, but it'll be my first.)

I like to write high-quality prose for a sophisticated audience. It's really important to me to write stuff that's actually worth reading, and not just packed with keywords and calls-to-action to buy a product.

Why bother?

Because high-quality writing is still the most effective way to establish credibility. When you read a really good piece of writing, it makes you think the person whose name is in the byline is intelligent and cogent.

Credibility is difficult to quantify but extremely important

I have a specialised 2800

Weird ghostwriting

I'm also interested in 'weird' ghostwriting — any tricky piece of writing that falls outside of what people wouldn't consider hiring a ghostwriter for but. This might be an emotionally fraught email to a colleague or a wedding speech.

I can write yoiur thoughts fromnowhere, or I can edito your writing.

The benefits of

Who am I?

What I offer

I've found that tons of people think this, because more people than ever today either have to produce substantive writing as part of their work, or stand to benefit by doing so.

But writing is labor-intensive. And some people simply aren't very good at it, in the same way I'm not very good at anything to do with numbers.

It's not the best way for a CEO to be spending their time.

The value of writing

High quality writing smacks. It still establishes credibility faster than any other medium.

Here are just three examples of the kind of people who could benefit from a ghostwriter

A CEO who needs to
Someone who has brilliant ideas but just doesn't have the time
A person

I use it as a succinct way to describe developing writing in close collaboration with other people to be published under their name(s).

No matter your field, quality writing is still the most salient way of establishing credibility among your peers, customers, clients, and employees.

The benefits of writing

Who am I, and what have I done?

Here's a miniature cv:

From 2015 to 2018, I worked at Monocle in London.
- My main job was as a producer and reporter on Monocle 24 radio. I wrote literally hundreds of radio scripts at part of this.
- I also contributed to Monocle's magazine and newsletters during this time.
In 2018 I moved to NYC and started working as a freelancer.
- I continued to work mainly for Monocle. But I've also taken on other clients in diverse fields including:
  - maude (sexual wellness, NYC)
  - The Story (content agency, Sydney)
  - Owkin (healthcare, Paris-NYC)

Why I love ghostwriting:

I love the intellectual challenge of conveying another person's thoughts
I love the productive function of producing a well-turned piece of writing
The interpersonal dynamic of working in close 1-on-1 collaboration with others
The reward of making other people's lives easier in a direct way
Get to work with interesting people in a variety of industries

I find the challenge of interpreting other people's thoughts then turning them into a piece of writing that serves them most effectively intellectually stimulating.

I love the dynamic of working one-on-one with interesting people. I find it more rewarding than working for nebulous organizations. And it's satisfying to help someone in a direct way.

I like that it enables me to work with people in a variety of industries

How I work

If you think I can help you, email me and let me know

What can a ghostwriter do for you?

Many people — probably more than ever — either need to do a substantial amount of writing in the course of their work, or could benefit from doing so.

But for most people, doing the actual writing themselves doesn't make sense. Lots of people simply aren't good at writing. For many who are good at writing, there are simply better ways they can spend their time.

Someone with brilliant ideas who struggles to convey them in writing
A person simply too busy to sit down and produce a piece of writing which is cogent, stylish, and TK enough to do justice to what they want to say
And it's OK if you're not lookign to turn out a particularly engaging piece of prose. Some people who simpl dreads writing, in the same way, that I dread any task — from calculating a restaurant tip to filing my taxes — that involves numbers), and a ghostwriter can alleviate you of the burden of having to deal with it in the. same way my accoutant does my tax return for me.

Many business leaders, for example, stand to benefit enormously from boosting their personal brand by writing high-quality op-eds to publish internally or on LinkedIn. But it takes a lot of time and energy to produce writing that is really good, and effectively conveys your ideas to the world.

- It's why people want to be featured in the New York Times

- It's why the book deal is still a marker of prestige for celebrities with more exposure and money than 99.9999999% of professional authors could ever dream of

It just hits harder than other formats. This is partly because it's very good at precisely communicating complex, layered information to be referred back to. And it's partly because of snobbery.

You don't have to overthink this. Think about your thought process when you read a cogent and interesting piece of writing: you become interested in the writer because you think they're reasonably intelligent and have something to say. (Unless you're a professional writer reading the writing of another professional writer. Then you get jealous of their talent and wonder how much they got paid.)

- Conveying complex ideas

- Boosting your profile as a thought leader

- Indirectly selling your product

A CEO who wants to
A

Why hire me (Henry) as a ghostwriter?

Background writing high-quality journalism for a sophisticated audience.
- Won't come off as a marketing email
  - Think how you feel when you open your inbox and glaze over the emails from people
    - The low-quality ones go down in your estimation
I'm a reasonable — and reasonably fun — person to work with

What I (Henry) like about ghostwriting

What I offer

The specific form isn't particularly important to me. (Although I'm not very good at very short-form social media content.)
Similarly, I'm open to working with people in a variety of industries. The most important thing is that we can develop a workign. relationshoo;m when

My rates

One-on-one consultation