by Jill Amadio
Last week, I was sorely tempted to slip back into a non-fiction writing career that has sustained me when my mystery book sales faltered. I gave a proposed project a few hours thought. Then, I came to the decision that my ghostwriting years were definitely gone with the wind, as vanished as the ghost I had become.
Ghostwriting popped up in my life when I least expected, and it was certainly not sought. In fact, I was barely aware of someone writing someone else’s life story for them. It seemed the height of hubris both from the viewpoint of the writer and that of the subject. I believe I thought, when I first heard of ghostwriting, that if you couldn’t write your own story, then forget it.
However, during a particularly “dry” period when my finances were almost non-existent, I held my breath and agreed to at least investigate what was involved. I was writing a business column for Entrepreneur magazine, and one day, the editor told me that a reader called, asking if they could recommend a writer to write their business book for them
“What? Be a fake writer? And on top of that, write a whole book?” I squeaked. “No way! I hardly manage to squeeze out 3,000 words for my column. How can I write a hundred times that number? No way.”
“Jill, look at it this way. Approach each chapter as an article. Besides, it pays well.”
When the editor mentioned the sum of money I could earn, I no longer resisted. Ghostwriting, here I come!
Since then, I have ghosted 19 memoirs and enjoyed the process immensely. I met a fascinating group of clients who took me into the realms of several diverse worlds. I wrote books for a champion cowboy, a nuclear physicist, and just about everyone in between.
After I finished the business book and was telling a friend at the local TV station about it, she passed the word around. I soon received a referral that sent me to Hollywood to meet Ellie, the fourth wife of singer Rudy Vallee. She was one of those larger-than-life ladies who called everyone “Darling.” We clicked right away.
Ellie sent me to the Simi Valley Library, which had bought Rudy’s archives after he died. Five hundred boxes. I spent weeks delving through clippings, photos, contracts, reviews, personal letters, and marriage certificates. The material was rich with wonderfully intimate biographical pieces of Rudy’s rollercoaster life and career. The publisher decided that rather than following the usual process of hiding the ghostwriter, I should be named as the co-author of the book. A great and much-appreciated surprise.
During her book tour in Las Vegas, Ellie had lunch with the owner of the many taxi companies in town, who promptly contracted with me to write her own memoir. I interviewed many of the cab drivers and collected some surprising stories of famous celebrity passengers. However, the cab owner decided to only publish enough books for her immediate family and friends. Thus, those stories remain undercover.
Another memoir (each of the 19 I ghostwrote was by referral, happily) was more of a revenge publication against no fewer than a dozen attorneys for malpractice. My client owned a small business, which soon expanded into selling one of the nation’s leading entertainment devices. However, the clients had hired what she and her husband called “incompetent” lawyers. Soon, there were lawsuits initiated by my clients all over the place. The book was to name each one and detail their transgressions. I knew a little about the law and told my clients we needed to give those lawyers false names or be sued ourselves.
Some of the names we came up with included Mack E. Avelly, Mal Lingerer, Jep Ardy, Rack E. Teering, and an Ignorentia Legis (translation: ignorance of the law).
Several of the memoirs I wrote were written in the first person, from the client’s point of view. A favorite of mine was about Monterey, CA’s first policewomen in the 1950s. The lead female cop rode a Harley to patrol the streets and, occasionally seeing a fellow cop’s car outside another cop’s house whom she knew was working, discovered several love affairs taking place during her tenure.
One client hired me to write a mystery. She’d always wanted to write about a financial scam that victimized her father. It sounded boring, so I suggested we add a murder into the mix to jazz it up. She agreed wholeheartedly and asked how many murders we could include. I talked her down to two.
Some clients decide to write their memoirs after changing their lives. One of these was a model, international actress, and recently divorced mother of two who decided to leave her luxury life in New Jersey and move to California. I met her at her home, where she showed me the minivan they’d be traveling in for the cross-country trek. I was surprised that the SUV was pretty stinky compared to the shiny Rolls-Royce parked nearby. She said she wanted a completely fresh start. She got one when she met and married a California billionaire after arriving in Laguna Beach. Then she moved to Italy, where she bought a villa.
Before COVID struck and I moved back to Connecticut, I received a call from a cowboy in southern California. He had recently completed a humanitarian project: riding horseback across America from California to Florida. The mission was to raise money for an orphanage for disabled children. The book was fun to write, covering how he, the seven horses, and a one-eyed mule he needed completed the journey.
One memoir I wrote on my own was the life story of the first lady of aviation art. A British artist, Virginia Bader, ran a gallery of paintings on both coasts devoted to World War II scenes, dogfights, and heroes such as General Jimmy Doolittle, Air Vice Marshal Johnnie Johnson, and many fighter aces from both sides of the conflict. Her efforts helped establish the careers of the now top aviation artists in their field, such as Nicholas Trudgian, John Shaw, and Sam Lyons.
I wrote three other memoirs as my own client because I became fascinated with the subjects’ stories. One I was asked by the publisher to write about was Gunther Rall, the third-highest fighter ace of World War II and a General in the Luftwaffe. It was published in 2003 and continues sells worldwide.
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