✍️ Desk of Amy Suto: The 3 Ways I Became a Traveling Memoir Ghostwriter

How I broke into book ghostwriting and reminiscing on my first client trip.

Happy Sunday! In today’s newsletter, you’ll learn about…

✍️ How I went from new freelancer ➡️ being flown out to ghostwrite memoirs all over the world

☕️ The 3 things that helped me break into memoir ghostwriting

😎 A rebrand for this newsletter, and what’s next ✍️ From the Desk of Amy Suto!

BTW, I’m sending this to you from a plane en route to Costa Rica, so fingers crossed it gets to you a-okay! 😅

📖 3-Minute Story: How I Became a Memoir Ghostwriter

I’ll never forget the first time a client flew me out for a book ghostwriting assignment.

I remember arriving at LAX, absolutely giddy with excitement. As I rolled my suitcase past TSA and through the airport, I was glowing with the knowledge that I was being paid to hop on a plane and hear someone’s story.

In the past few years, I’ve made a great living helping people with their memoirs and other books, and I get to visit my clients in exciting cities such as Athens, Greece and NYC.

I’ve written before about how I went from $17/hr to $750/hr as a freelance writer, but in this post I want to share the 3 tips I’d give to someone wanting to break into book or memoir ghostwriting:

📚 Tip #1: Create a Daily Habit of Reading Many Different Books

My clients are busy pro athletes, tech entrepreneurs, and celebrities. They don’t always have time to read widely, and they depend on me to be aware of literary trends and different storytelling structures and techniques to help them best communicate what they want to share with the world.

📖 Tip #2: Write About Your Own Life to Kickstart Your Portfolio

If you’re just getting started as a book ghostwriter, you may not have many samples. That’s okay: just start writing about your own life on a Substack or blog, and use that as an example of your style of writing.

👩‍💻 Tip #3: Write Fiction and Become a Chameleon

Writing fiction sharpens all of your skills as a freelance writer. Learning how to write dialog for different characters also helps you better write in the voice of your clients as a memoir ghostwriter.

Just as you read widely, you should also write widely to keep honing your skills!

📗 Bonus Tip: Skill Stack

The freelance writers who do the best are the ones who think like entrepreneurs, not just like writers.

I’ll be writing more in the coming months about other skills and services you’ll need to offer to get the most out of your solopreneur/freelancer business.

💻 Diary of an Author ➡️ From the Desk of Amy Suto

You may have noticed a rebrand in progress on this newsletter. I’m slowly (yet surely!) replacing the title Diary of an Author with the new standalone title, From the Desk of Amy Suto.

Why? I found the title Diary of an Author to be too restrictive to what I want to write about here. I believe in a holistic approach to my life and work. I want to share everything with y’all —

• Travel tips

• Solopreneur/entrepreneur strategies for creatives (including advice for how to grow your Substack, which y’all voted as the thing you’re most interested in from last week’s poll!)

• Writing and freelancing advice

As well as stories that encapsulate the wild journey that is my life as a creative entrepreneur, writer, and digital nomad.

Thanks for reading, and if you’re enjoying this post — please share!

✨ 2 Quotes to Inspire You

• "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.” — Stephen King

• "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." — Ernest Hemingway

✍️ 1 Journal Prompt for Reflection

• Think about a turning point in your life that, in the moment, seemed rather mundane. Revisit that moment and turn the mundane into something exciting using emotion, perspective, and hint at what’s to come for the past version of yourself.

Feel free to share your reflections in the comments:

💻 New Blog Posts on AmySuto.com

• Working Remotely in Cusco, Peru

• 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Self-Publishing Your Book on Amazon KDP

• 3 Steps: How to Write a Book Outline for Your Memoir or Nonfiction Book

🎙 New From the Desk of Amy Suto Podcast Episodes

• #88 How to Write Great Landing Page Copy (8 min)

• #87 My Process: How I Ghostwrite Books as a Memoir Ghostwriter (7 min)

• #86 What is Asynchronous Work? (4 min)

I create these podcast episodes from my blog archives using the tool Wondercraft AI, a text-to-speech tool that speaks in YOUR voice. 🎙 Use my code SUTO50 or this link to get 50% off your Wondercraft AI subscription! (paid/affiliate link)

📸 Photo of the Week: Hello 👋 From a Town of Aviators

I’ve been spending some time with my partner’s family in Groveland, CA. There’s a part of the town just for aviators — they have their own small planes, hangars, and even a tiny airport. I secretly suspect they’re all spies.

Follow me on X/Twitter or Instagram for more!

📸 Video of the Week: Unboxing My New Quince Clothes

Quince (paid/affiliate link) was so kind to send me some new clothes for my upcoming trip to Costa Rica. Here’s what they gave me!

⚡️ Upcoming Wednesday Edition: I’ve Peaked as a Freelance Writer. What’s Next? [Essay]

This Wednesday, ✍️ From the Desk of Amy Suto paid subscribers will get an exclusive issue about…

✨ My journey as a six-figure freelance writer up until now

🧪 How AI is actively changing the landscape of freelance writing

📚 What I’m excited about these days beyond writing

Sending creativity and good writing vibes your way,

-Amy