It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, so, hello!

One of the reasons I’ve not been here very much, despite extolling the virtues of blogging to my clients, is that I really don’t enjoy blogging for and about myself. But I absolutely love partnering with other people to get their ideas and wisdom out into the world.

It’s puzzled me for ages, because I write for a living. I wondered whether I was just a scaredy-cat (and, if I’m honest, I am a bit of a scaredy-cat), but that’s not the main thing going on here.

The main thing is simply that I love ghostwriting. When I write for other people, I can take their expertise, what they stand for, all the good stuff they do and get right to the heart of it. In a way that my clients can’t do for themselves, because often they’re hung up on how they might come across, or they don’t see things the way their audience does because they’re right in the thick of it.

Or they just don’t have time to untangle the beautiful knottiness of what they offer to make it clear to people why it’s so important. Or they just don’t like writing.

I’ve had a year of working out what I do best, and ghostwriting is it. Working with people on their blogs – either shaping up their initial drafts or coming up with content from scratch – has been fun. Seeing stories and messages come alive out of a sea of words and ideas.

But the absolutely number one thing I’ve loved doing over the past year has been ghostwriting a book. A bona fide actual book. Getting deep and messy with lots of research and material, getting to grips with who it’s for and what they need to know. An utterly brilliant process of creating something substantial that will change the lives of people reading it for the better.

And for my client too, it was powerful stuff. She knew what she wanted and needed, which was great. Then what she got was so much more valuable than the publishing deal she’d lined-up that she got out of it and negotiated a better one. It was just so damn exciting.

So that’s where Red Tree Writing is at now. I will still be taking on blogging clients, but a lot of my time will be spent working with just one client at a time, getting that ebook or print book they wanted to write ‘someday’ written within a matter of months.

When people collaborate in mutual kindness and respect, something powerful happens. Something that just can’t happen by itself.

I’d say to anyone who’s thinking they’d like to get a book written, please take action. It might seem overwhelming, you might have no time, you might not be sure you’re message is worth reading (though deep down you know it is).

The thing is – you don’t have to do it by yourself. And you’re not helping people by staying small and hidden.

Having a book to your name is a gamechanger too. It sets you up with authority and credibility, and it attracts people to you because it shows you’re really invested in what you’re doing.

And it’s fun and exciting! (Also, in truth, agonising and frustrating at times – but for the ghostwriter, not for you, so that’s okay).