As Told To
Everybody's got a story to tell. Sometimes they need a little bit of help. Veteran ghostwriter Daniel Paisner talks shop with his fellow collaborators and shines a light on what it means to pursue a writing life on the back of someone else’s story.
info_outline
Episode 81: Laura Morton
01/28/2025
Episode 81: Laura Morton
“The work that we do is actually very difficult to detach from when you’re writing in somebody’s voice,” notes veteran collaborator Laura Morton on the emotional connection she often feels when channeling her clients’ stories. Laura comes by this observation honestly, after spending more than thirty years helping to tell other people’s stories. In that time, she has written more than 60 books, including 22 New York Times bestsellers. Her most recent bestseller , written with GoDaddy and PXG Golf founder Bob Parsons—was a publication of , her own imprint at Forefront Books, an innovative independent publisher. Over the years, Laura has worked with a wide range of celebrities, entrepreneurs and innovators, including Joan Lunden, Al Roker, Jennifer Hudson, Susan Lucci, Melissa Etheridge, Justin Bieber, Danica Patrick, John Maxwell, Glenn Stearns, and the Jonas Brothers. Laura is also the writer, co-director, and producer of the award-winning 2022 documentary “,” exploring the age of anxiety and depression, and a leading mental health advocate and workshop facilitator. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation on the changing face of publishing, as Laura reflects on her long career as one of the industry’s leading storytellers, and on her recent shift from ghostwriter to “mission-driven” publisher, helping to build a platform for her collaborative clients and other authors looking to land their stories on America’s bookshelf. Learn more about Laura Morton: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/35033910
info_outline
Episode 80: Benjamin Dreyer
01/14/2025
Episode 80: Benjamin Dreyer
“You’d be amazed at how far you can get in life having no idea what the subjunctive mood is,” writes Benjamin Dreyer, retired managing editor and copy chief of the Random House division of Penguin Random House. “As if it’s not bad enough that English has rules, it also has moods.” Yes, it does. Happily, the mood of the room for writers in Benjamin’s good hands as a copyeditor was cheerful and patient and winning… and, for the most part, grammatically correct. Over the course of his 30+ years in publishing, he helped to shepherd the work of writers such as Michael Chabon, Edmund Morris, Suzan-Lori Parks, E.L. Doctorow, Elizabeth Strout, and Shirley Jackson into print. Somewhere in there, he also found time to write a book of his own: The New York Times best-selling stylebook —a “brilliant, pithy, incandescently intelligent book [that] is to contemporary writing what Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetry was to medieval English,” according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, another Random House author who benefited from our guest’s unseen hand. Join us as Benjamin reflects on the collaborative role of the copyeditor in the publishing process, on the joys of creative footnoting, on the particularly lovely frustration of working with Isabella Rossellini, on a writer’s lifetime allotment of exclamation points, and the excesses to be pruned from phrases like “assless chaps,” “slightly ajar,” and “passing fad.” (Note the ever-popular serial comma in the previous sentence, and the expenditure of one of those allotted exclamation points in this parenthetical aside!) Learn more about Benjamin Dreyer: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/34829450
info_outline
Second Printing: Peter Asher and David Jacks
12/31/2024
Second Printing: Peter Asher and David Jacks
This episode originally aired June 20, 2023 First-time author David Jacks, a veteran video editor and music supervisor, ran into legendary music producer Peter Asher at a Santa Monica taco joint in 2003 and asked if he could interview him. Jacks, a long-time admirer of the man said to be the inspiration for Mike Myers’ “shagadelic” Austin Powers character, who first came to prominence as one-half of the hit-making British pop vocal duo Peter and Gordon and would go on to produce generation-defining albums for artists such as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Diana Ross, immediately asked Asher if he would sit for an interview. The aspiring journalist thought he might use the interview as the basis for an article in a music magazine, but the two-time Grammy-winning Producer of the Year didn’t think anyone would want to read it. Nevertheless, that first interview led to another… and another… and on and on. Over the next two decades, the two continued to talk, while Jacks lined up interviews with hundreds of musicians and record industry professionals who had worked with Asher over the years, eventually leading to the publication of , the first book-length account of the producer’s life and career. Join us for a two-part conversation with author and subject, as Asher reflects on a book he never thought anyone would be interested in reading, and Jacks shares what it was like to tease out the story of a shape-shifting pioneer—“a fascinating music business anomaly,” according to The New York Times, who could never quite understand what all the fuss was about. Learn more about our guests: Read , timed to coincide with the publication of the David Jacks book. Read Read Peter Asher’s , based on the author’s popular Sirius XM radio show on The Beatles Channel. Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/34665760
info_outline
Episode 79: Seth Rogoff Returns
12/17/2024
Episode 79: Seth Rogoff Returns
Here at the podcast factory, we’re thrilled to welcome back novelist, translator, collaborator and cultural critic Seth Rogoff to talk about his new novel—a thrilling and unsettling coda to Franz Kafka’s unfinished masterwork The Castle. Seth joined us in Season 2 () to talk about the also thrilling and decidedly unconventional memoir he helped to write with ESPN basketball analyst and former NBA star Kendrick Perkins, , which took a critical look at racism in America, and in professional sports, and sounded a call for justice and social change—a book hailed by Kirkus Reviews as “a well-balanced blend of activism and memoir.” In that first interview, we talked a little bit about Seth’s work as a noted Kafka translator, and we’re picking up that conversation here, as Seth celebrates the publication of —“a palimpsestic fever dream” of a novel, according to another noted Kafka translator, Ross Benjamin. (Go ahead and look up palimpsestic—we’ll wait.) In this follow-up conversation, we talk with Seth about the collaborative nature of translation, the state of contemporary memoir, and the never-ending search to find meaningful stories in the life and work of others. Learn more about Seth Rogoff: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/34458050
info_outline
Episode 78: Mike Thomas
12/03/2024
Episode 78: Mike Thomas
“In general, magazine profiles are to biographies as inland lakes are to oceans,” writes the late entertainment journalist and ghostwriter Bill Zehme in The New York Times best-selling . “Far less sprawling and easier to navigate.” This is true—and readers need look no further than Zehme’s latest (and last) book, completed posthumously, for confirmation. Zehme, who collaborated on memoirs with Jay Leno and Regis Philbin and was a frequent contributor to Esquire, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Vanity Fair, worked on his Carson biography for over a decade, before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023, The New York Times cited “Carson the Magnificent” in his obit as one of the entertainment world’s “great unfinished biographies.” Enter podcast guest Mike Thomas, Bill Zehme’s former research assistant and longtime friend, who was tapped to complete the project, which was an immediate New York Times best-seller upon its publication last month. “Everything I needed (and so much more) was there, somewhere, stashed in long-unopened binders and torn envelopes and dusty bins,” Mike Thomas writes of this collaboration. “It was mostly a matter of sifting through the stockpile, extracting and sorting the relevant material and reaching out to a handful of Bill’s sources, all of whom were eager to help, for further illumination. But I’ve never lost sight of the fact that, despite my contributions, this is Bill’s book.” The book, Mike says, has been a blessing, gifting him the chance to keep connected to a close pal with whom he can no longer communicate directly—a mentor who cheered him on during his own career as arts and entertainment features writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, as a regular contributor to Chicago magazine, and as the author of two critically-acclaimed books of his own— and . Learn more about Mike Thomas: Mentioned on the show: , by Bill Zehme and ATT guest David Rensin Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/34220240
info_outline
Second Printing: Winnie Holzman
11/26/2024
Second Printing: Winnie Holzman
This episode originally aired on Feb. 14, 2023 “I moved on to the next thing I was going to write,” says the noted dramatist and television writer Winnie Holzman, recalling the cancellation of her critically-acclaimed series “,” after just one season. “That’s what we do as writers. We move on to the next thing.” Indeed. In Winnie Holzman’s case, one of those “next things” turned out to be the book for the with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz—one of the longest running shows in Broadway history. The collaboration earned her a prestigious Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, as well as a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical. Prior to her Emmy-nominated work on “My So-Called Life,” which she created for executive producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, Winnie wrote several scripts for the Zwick-Herskovitz drama “,” and she would go on to serve as executive producer of “,” created by Cameron Crowe, and as co-creator of the series “,” with her daughter Savannah Dooley. Join us as Winnie reflects on her wickedly successful career writing for the stage and the small screen, the many ways writers measure their successes, and the give-and-take that has fueled her collaborations with some of the most creative minds in theater and television. Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/34136031
info_outline
Episode 77: Hal Donaldson
11/19/2024
Episode 77: Hal Donaldson
Hal Donaldson’s faith-based humanitarian organization Convoy of Hope is a magnificent agent of change. In partnership with local churches, businesses, civic organizations, and government agencies, the organization is deeply committed to healing the world in all its broken places, through children’s feeding initiatives, community outreach and disaster response. currently feeds more than 571,000 children worldwide each day—and has served more than 250 million people in total since Hal, together with his brothers and friends, started the organization in 1994. It’s the 35th largest charity on the latest Forbes “100 Largest U.S. Charities” list. So what does all of this have to do with ghostwriting? Well, before launching Convoy of Hope, Hal started out as a journalist and ghostwriter. Early on in his career, on a ghostwriting assignment in Calcutta, he had the opportunity to interview Mother Teresa, who turned the tables on their interview and asked the young journalist what he was doing to repair the world. Hal had no answer, but when he returned to the United States a short while later, he rallied his friends and family and began donating goods and supplies to communities in need. As the organization has grown, Hal has continued to write. He’s just out with his latest collaboration, , written in collaboration with his daughter Lindsay Donaldson-Kring. Join us for an inspiring conversation on what really matters, as Hal Donaldson reflects on the good works that continue to flow from the first strokes of his pen. Learn more about Hal Donaldson: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/33960367
info_outline
Episode 76: Aaron Philip Clark
11/05/2024
Episode 76: Aaron Philip Clark
What does it take to help channel one of the most singular voices in rap in an entirely new medium? Join us as we chat with novelist and screenwriter Aaron Philip Clark, co-author of the just-published thriller , written in collaboration with rapper and entertainment mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Aaron is perhaps best known for his International Thriller Writers Award-nominated crime fiction series featuring Detective Trevor Finnegan (, ), as well as for his standalone novels. His first book with 50 Cent introduces readers to Nia Adams, a New York-born, Texas-bred detective who always dreamed of becoming a Texas Ranger, who sets off on the tail of a hardened Vietnam vet bad guy who steals the secrets of the rich and powerful. In addition to writing fiction and screenplays, Aaron teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, and he collaborates with a variety of public figures and luminaries. Learn more about Aaron Philip Clark: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/33766682
info_outline
Episode 75: Betsy Lerner
10/22/2024
Episode 75: Betsy Lerner
“Lots of ambitious books announce themselves,” writes Lauren Christensen in The New York Times Book Review of podcast guest Betsy Lerner’s debut novel . “This one doesn’t need to.” High praise for a first-time novelist, but that’s not surprising considering Betsy’s long and distinguished career as an editor and literary agent. A born storyteller (and, story-sharer), Betsy has helped to shape our literary landscape, as the guiding hand behind such cultural touchstones as Patti Smith’s and Elizabeth Wurtzel’s . She’s also earned her As Told To stripes as the co-author of The New York Times best-selling , written in collaboration with Temple Grandin, in addition to writing several non-fiction books of her own, including the memoir , and the writing guidebook . A recovering poet, Betsy received an MFA in poetry from Columbia University, where she was selected as one of PEN’s Emerging Writers, before trading her pen for a red pencil and embarking on a heralded career as an editor. With the publication of her first novel, longlisted prior to publication for the , Betsy kick-starts an exciting new chapter in her writing life, offering a rich, bittersweet tale of sisterhood, mental health, love and loss, and reminding us that it’s never too late to become the artist you were always meant to be. Learn more about Betsy Lerner: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/33539232
info_outline
Episode 74: Jill Sobule
10/08/2024
Episode 74: Jill Sobule
Over the course of her nearly forty-year career, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule has earned a singular spot in the American songbook. Best known for her breakout 1995 singles “” (from the “Clueless” soundtrack) and “” (which came out more than 10 years before the Katy Perry hit of the same name), her quirky, heartfelt, cheer-filled songs are difficult to categorize: she sings about the death penalty, anorexia, shoplifting, the French Resistance, LGBTQ issues and Mexican wrestling. In another decade, Jon Pareles, the chief pop music critic of The New York Times, wrote that she stands “among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade”—high praise that has surely applied in all subsequent decades. Jill’s songs are enchanting, disarmingly funny and achingly poignant, and many of them are featured in her Drama Desk-nominated autobiographical musical "," which premiered at the Wild Project in NYC in 2022 and returns for a limited engagement in November 2024. “We didn’t have to create a story around these songs,” she says of the show, which she really, really hopes isn’t dismissed as just another jukebox musical featuring songs from an artist’s back catalogue. “These songs are my story. I just wrote a few more to fill out the narrative.” Jill joins us on the podcast to discuss her rich and varied career as one of the music industry’s most uniquely collaborative artists. She’s performed with musicians such as Neil Young, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, and Warren Zevon, and once released a concept album of original music with lyrics written by some of her favorite writers, including Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, Vendela Vida, and David Hajdu. She regularly tours with comedian/actress/author Julia Sweeney in their two-woman “Jill & Julia” show. Two highlights from the very many cool, pinch me-type moments that have stamped Jill Sobule’s remarkable career: she inducted Neil Diamond into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and she appeared as herself on an episode of “The Simpsons.” So, you know, there’s that. Learn more about Jill Sobule: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/33343157
info_outline
Episode 73: J. Michael Straczynski
09/24/2024
Episode 73: J. Michael Straczynski
“The task of writing is to take a character and put him up a tree and start throwing rocks at him,” notes novelist, screenwriter, comic book writer, and television showrunner J. Michael Straczynski. The two-time Hugo Award-winning author is perhaps best known as the creator of the television series “Babylon 5”, and as the screenwriter for the 2008 Oscar-nominated Clint Eastwood film “Changeling.” He is also the author of the Superman: Earth One” trilogy of graphic novels, and for many years he was the writer for Marvel Comics’ “Thor,” “Fantastic Four,” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” series, as well as for DC’s “Superman,” “Wonder Woman,” and “Before Watchmen” titles. These days, Joe is spending most of his time throwing rocks on behalf of his late friend Harlan Ellison, the legendary writer of speculative fiction, who is having a bit of a moment more than six years after his death. As the executor of the Harlan Ellison estate, Joe has been the driving force behind the re-release of the first two installments of Ellison’s landmark story collections and , which the author had always imagined as a trilogy. Now, thanks to Joe Straczynski’s dedication, the long-awaited third installment of “the most significant and controversial Science Fiction collections of our time,” will finally see the light of day with the publication of The , due from Blackstone Publishing in October 2024. “Harlan was my friend, and I have an obligation to him to get his work where it needs to be, in front of a mainstream audience,” Joe reflects on a year that has also seen the publication of a new collection of Ellison’s stories () as well as a novel of his own (). Join us as we talk with J. Michael Straczynski on his influences as a writer, on the art and craft of storytelling in all its many forms, and on what it has meant to him to be able to breathe new life into the work of an artist hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a twentieth-century Lewis Carroll.” Learn more about J. Michael Straczynski: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/33174032
info_outline
Episode 72: Nancy French
09/10/2024
Episode 72: Nancy French
Best-selling author, investigative journalist, political commentator and memoirist Nancy French is a storyteller at heart. She’s helped to write more than a dozen books, including five New York Times best-sellers, with a variety of collaborators from conservative politicians to Olympic athletes to reality television stars. Her latest memoir——was published in Spring 2024 to wide critical acclaim. CNN’s Jake Tapper hailed the book prior to publication as “a great read for anyone trying to make sense of cultural whiplash over the last few years,” and went on to write that “Nancy French’s journey from poverty-stricken mountains to a presidential campaign plane is a joy.” Join us as we kick off Season 4 at the podcast factory with an insight-filled conversation on what it means to lend your voice to leaders who share your values, only to find yourself “ghosted” by a political establishment that seemed to want to punish you for your refusal to endorse the 2016 Republican Presidential nominee. Learn more about Nancy French: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/32959812
info_outline
Second Printing: Frank Santopadre
08/27/2024
Second Printing: Frank Santopadre
Originally aired Dec. 6, 2022. Frank Santopadre is a veteran comedy writer and the longtime co-host of “,” with the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. Prior to working with Gilbert, Frank helped to write jokes and supporting material for numerous awards shows (including the Daytime Emmys, the TV Land Awards, and the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize). He has also written comics for Bazooka Joe bubble gum, and mock ad copy, concepts, and character profiles for the Topps Company’s popular Wacky Packs and Garbage Pail Kids trading cards series. Oh, and did we mention he also wrote for Mad and Cracked magazines? And the somewhat less zany The New York Times, The Washington Post, People, US Weekly, and Politico? Along the way, he has created comedy material for an eclectic line-up of celebrated personalities, including Bill Murray, Howard Stern, Sarah Silverman, Meryl Streep, Martin Short, and Ben Stiller, and briefly served as a staff writer on what he proudly calls “the worst sitcom in television history”—a forgettable show from the late ‘90s called “,” hailed by The Los Angeles Times during its mercifully-brief run as “mirthless.” Join us for a somewhat more mirth-filled hour, as we talk about what it was like to help give voice to one of the most singular voices in the annals of American comedy—a joyful burden Frank kinda, sorta shared with podcast host Daniel Paisner, who collaborated with Gilbert Gottfried on his 2011 memoir . Learn more about Frank Santopadre, visit his , like his , and follow him on . Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/32713252
info_outline
Episode 71: Gathering of the Ghosts
08/13/2024
Episode 71: Gathering of the Ghosts
Join podcast host Daniel Paisner as he moderates the keynote panel discussion at the inaugural “Gathering of the Ghosts” ghostwriting conference earlier this year—an event jointly sponsored by and the . Dan is joined by music journalist Holly Gleason and former As Told To guests Seth Davis and Jodi Lipper for a spirited discussion on their ghostwriting journeys, and a reflection on the many ways authors and journalists are writing in collaboration. Learn more about our guests: | | Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/32536337
info_outline
Episode 70: Hope Edelman
07/30/2024
Episode 70: Hope Edelman
Hope Edelman is an author, ghostwriter, essayist, writing instructor and life coach. The through-line connecting much of her work, from the collaborations she’s helped to write to her own best-selling memoirs, is the theme of parent-loss. “Navigating motherhood without your mom is like assembling a complex puzzle without the picture on the box,” she writes in a blog post on her website. She’s been writing about the grief and loss in her own life since her best-selling 1994 memoir —a book she began as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, when she realized she was being called to write about her mother’s death more than a decade earlier. It's a calling that connects Hope to her ghostwriting clients as well. Her first collaboration, a dual memoir written with actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez——is informed by the death of Sheen’s mother, when the actor was just 11 years old, while her current project, written with Owen Elliot-Kugell, the daughter of the late Cass Elliot——finds its narrative drive in the sudden death of the author’s mother, who died in her sleep in a London apartment nearly ten years after she shot to fame as a member of The Mamas & The Papas. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize for Creative Nonfiction, Hope has taught writing at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the University of Iowa, and Antioch University-Los Angeles. Join us for a compelling conversation on what it means to find a way to heal as you find your voice as a writer. Learn more about Hope Edelman: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/32333477
info_outline
Episode 69: Adam Nimoy
07/16/2024
Episode 69: Adam Nimoy
Television director, filmmaker and author Adam Nimoy, the son of actor Leonard Nimoy, knows what it means to grow up in the chilling shadow of a famous father. He also knows what it means to tell a helluva story, and he does so in the pages of his new memoir . The book explores the author’s complicated relationship with his father and reflects on how it informed his views on marriage, parenting, addiction and recovery. A graduate of Loyola Law School, Adam Nimoy started his career working in entertainment law, before becoming a filmmaker, ultimately directing dozens of network television shows—some of them, he allows with self-deprecating good cheer, “sublime”, and some of them “eminently unwatchable.” He also directed the documentary “,” which was originally conceived as a collaborative venture with his father shortly before the actor’s death in 2015. Adam also taught writing, directing and acting at the New York Film Academy, and filmmaking at , an addiction treatment center. “Whether you’re a Leonard Nimoy fan, a Trekkie, or from another planet,” writes noted rabbi and social justice advocate Shmuly Yanklowitz, “you are sure to find this vulnerable, brave, humorous, and intimate story about Spock, the outer limits, a father-son relationship, and teshuvah (recovery and repair) deeply moving.” Learn more about Adam Nimoy: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/32116622
info_outline
Episode 68: Michael Franklin
07/02/2024
Episode 68: Michael Franklin
Michael Franklin is the co-founder and executive director of , a community of expert and aspiring communicators helping to give voice to leaders at every level of the public, private and non-profit sectors. As a proud partner of the , the organization has placed dozens of candidates in both full-time and contract roles as speechwriters across the Biden-Harris administration. “We are definitely understanding and realizing the power of words to make a difference,” Michael says. As the founder and chief thought leadership officer of , a Black- and Gen Z-owned and certified LGBT Business Enterprise, Michael has developed a reputation as a leading communications strategist, working with clients in higher education, political advocacy, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, sports and entertainment. Michael’s commitment to telling stories through coalition building, targeted outreach and inclusive communications practices has its roots in his commitment to public speaking and debating. While a student at Howard University, he was the inaugural HBCU Speech and Debate League National Champion in both Parliamentary Debate and Extemporaneous Speaking and helped to lead the school’s debate team in 2019’s “Great Debate” against Harvard University. Learn more about Michael Franklin: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Chelsea Devantez's Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/31962427
info_outline
Episode 67: Ellis Henican
06/18/2024
Episode 67: Ellis Henican
Ellis Henican—New York Times best-selling collaborator, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist, and popular television news pundit—had perhaps the coolest side-gig of any of our podcast guests to date. He provided the voice of “Stormy” in the adult animated television series “,” which ran on the Cartoon Network for four seasons. This spring, he’s also provided the “voice” for books by former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (); legendary actor Tom Selleck (); and, high-stakes hostage negotiator Mickey Bergman (), marking him as perhaps the busiest ghostwriter of the publishing season. Ellis’s other collaborative credits include , a New York Times best-seller written with New Orleans Saints football coach Sean Payton; , with two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip; and , with former All-Star pitcher Dwight “Doc” Gooden. For 20 years, he wrote a thrice-weekly column in New York Newsday, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for the newspaper’s coverage of the Union Square train wreck. Join us as Ellis reflects on his mid-career pivot from the newsroom, the lessons he’s learned writing on behalf some of our most influential athletes, actors, and politicians, and how it happened that a veteran journalist found his way to becoming a cartoon character. Learn more about Ellis Henican: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/31778002
info_outline
Episode 66: Chelsea Devantez
06/04/2024
Episode 66: Chelsea Devantez
“Celebrity memoirs have always been my favorite book genre,” reflects podcast guest Chelsea Devantez, the Emmy-nominated writer, comedian, director, and host of the celebrity book club podcast “.” “That is what happens when your nearest bookstore growing up is a Wal-Mart. That was my fate.” Chelsea is just out with a celebrity-adjacent memoir of her own, , from Hanover Square Press. It’s a book that might surprise her loyal podcast listeners, or viewers who know her from her work as a television writer for shows like “Not Dead Yet,” “Girls5Eva,” and “Bless This Mess,” or as the head writer for the Apple TV+ show “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” The book is wildly funny in spots, but harrowing and traumatic in others, as Chelsea tells her story through a series of essays about the many women who have given her life shape and meaning, recounting a tumultuous childhood, a series of toxic relationships, and a pattern of domestic violence that might have upended a less determined soul. Join us as we talk with Chelsea about her new book, about her unlikely career path, and about the current state of the celebrity memoir, in a conversation that will hopefully make you think about the stories we share, and the ways we go about sharing them. Learn more about Chelsea Devantez: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/31557192
info_outline
Episode 65: Maria Burns Ortiz
05/21/2024
Episode 65: Maria Burns Ortiz
“You gotta be the best on your worst day.” Words to live by from the mother of Ronda Rousey, the mixed-martial-artist-turned-professional wrestler known as “the baddest woman on the planet.” Rousey’s mother happens to be first American to win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships, and she also happens to be the mother of podcast guest Maria Burns Ortiz, co-author of Rousey’s just-published memoir . The book is a follow-up to the sisters’ previous collaboration—the New York Times best-selling . Maria has taken her mother’s hard-won advice to heart, in an entirely different arena from her famous sister. A former columnist at ESPN.com, with an expertise in digital integration in sports media, she was honored as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Emerging Journalist of the Year in 2007 and has served as an adjunct professor of journalism at Emerson College. Alongside her work as a journalist, Maria is also a leader and innovator in the game development industry. She is the CEO and co-founder of , an award-winning developer of educational adventure games for children, and was recently named executive director of , the world’s largest game creation event. Join us as Maria shares what it was like to give voice to a shared childhood and a family history that gave rise to one of the most celebrated female athletes of our time. Learn more about Maria Burns Ortiz: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/31377252
info_outline
Episode 64: Zibby Owens
05/07/2024
Episode 64: Zibby Owens
“Reading to me is like breathing,” notes Zibby Owens, the creator and host of the Webby Award- winning podcast “Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books,” who joins us on the podcast to discuss her lifelong love of reading and writing and her commitment to championing books and authors. Indeed, Zibby has built on the success of her podcast to become the publishing industry’s “most powerful book-fluencer,” according to New York magazine. A frequent contributor to “Good Morning America” and other media outlets, she is the co-founder and CEO of Zibby Books, an independent book publisher, and the owner of Zibby’s Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, California. Across her Zibby Media empire—which devoted followers have christened “the Zibby-verse”—she also offers retreats, classes, special events, a book club, a writing group, and other bookish opportunities. “Everything has unraveled one thing at a time,” she says, of her full-on embrace of the book world, and the community of book lovers she has helped to nourish. “It’s like a carpet sort of unspooling in front of me.” Most recently, Zibby has added the title of novelist to her long list of credits. Her just-published first novel, , the story of a frustrated writer who seeks to disrupt the publishing industry, was hailed as “a delightful gift to book lovers,” by New York Times best-selling author Carley Fortune. Join us for a fresh, candid conversation on what it means to celebrate the written word. Learn more about Zibby Owens: “” Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/31130808
info_outline
Episode 63: Todd Strasser
04/23/2024
Episode 63: Todd Strasser
“This is an author who really has his finger on the way kids think,” The New York Times says of podcast guest Todd Strasser, the author of over 150 books, including the award-winning young adult and middle-grade novels , , and . He is also the author of the wildly popular series of books for young readers, as well as several other best-selling series and movie tie-in books and novelizations. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and several have been adapted for film and television. Many of his standalone books are pulled from today’s headlines, exploring difficult themes like bullying, homelessness and school shootings. Join us as we talk with Todd about his influences as a writer, and his unlikely career turns writing X-rated fortune cookies (“clairvoyant contortionist is one who can see her own end”) and soap operas (“Guiding Light”) to become one of our most prolific YA novelists. Oh, and he also finds time to share one of the best pieces of writing advice he ever received, after struggling for a way to explain how the character of Cameron Frye managed to place a chair on the edge of a diving board, facing the pool, before sitting himself down in it, as he attempted to “novelize” a key scene in the “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” script: “You just cut to it!” Learn more about Todd Strasser: (with Lia Strasser) Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/30925718
info_outline
Episode 62: Genevieve Field
04/09/2024
Episode 62: Genevieve Field
Veteran magazine journalist Genevieve Field joins us to discuss her mid-career pivot into ghostwriting, as she celebrates the success of her “Andy Award”-winning collaboration with Hollywood stuntwoman Kimberly Shannon Murphy. , Murphy’s unflinchingly honest account of intergenerational familial abuse, was honored this winter with an inaugural “Andy Award”—so named for the “and” credit often awarded to ghostwriters—at the first annual “Gathering of the Ghosts” conference in New York City, jointly sponsored by Gotham Ghostwriters and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Genevieve Field is no stranger to long-form storytelling in the voice of one of her subjects, but she is a relative newcomer to book-length memoir and collaborative non-fiction. Prior to embarking on a freelance writing career, she worked as a story editor at The New York Times Magazine, as the editorial director of Seventeen online, and the features director at Glamour. While at Glamour, she was a frequent contributor to the magazine’s first-person celebrity features, presenting “as told to” articles in the voices of notable figures such as Rachel Maddow, Cecile Richards, and Sarah Silverman. She also co-founded the Webby-Award winning magazine and dating site, Nerve. “I help writers unearth the stories in their hearts, get that deep wisdom on the page, and create breakthrough books,” she writes on her website. “Whether serving as a collaborator or editor, my purpose is always the same: to help bring important stories and great writing into the world.” "This book is so much more than the sum of its parts,” notes actor Cameron Diaz in the forward to Glimmer. “It is a gift. It is Kimberly's offering to readers suffering in silence. It is a companion for anyone who has endured trauma, at any level. And it is a beautiful tribute to the strength and power of the human spirit." And, in the talented hands of podcast guest Genevieve Field, it is a powerful example of what it takes to collaborate on a deeply personal memoir of sexual abuse and childhood trauma. Learn more about Genevieve Field: , on her battle with depression, as told to Genevieve Field Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/30712083
info_outline
Episode 61: Seth Davis
03/26/2024
Episode 61: Seth Davis
Seth Davis is a veteran sports journalist and broadcaster, and The New York Times best-selling author of and . He is the co-author of the just-published memoir , written with NBA veteran and University of Kentucky basketball legend Rex Chapman—a book that transcends (and upends!) the sports memoir genre and stands as a devasting and inspiring story about the human struggle for self-acceptance. Over the course of his career, Seth has written for The Athletic and Sports Illustrated and served as a college basketball studio analyst and reporter at CBS Sports. “You have to make the phone ring,” he says, echoing a piece of advice once shared with him by his one-time SI colleague and longtime friend and mentor Rick Reilly, of his efforts to grow his game from magazine and broadcast journalism and jump-start his career as an author and collaborator. Join us as we celebrate “March Madness” with one of our leading sportswriters who is fast becoming a sought-after ghostwriter, calling on the hard-won experience he’s developed in thousands of locker room and post-game interviews to help his subjects reflect on the games we play and the reasons we play them. Learn more about Seth Davis: (with Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt) (with Tareq Azim) Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/30522548
info_outline
Episode 60: Mark Dagostino
03/12/2024
Episode 60: Mark Dagostino
Veteran journalist and collaborator Mark Dagostino is the author of more than two dozen books written with some of our most compelling public figures. He has helped to write seven New York Times best-sellers, including the #1 best-selling , with Chip & Joanna Gaines, co-stars of the hit HGTV show “Fixer Upper.” Mark began his career at The Boston Globe, as a general assignment news reporter, before moving on to a ten-year stint at People, where he turned his focus to popular culture as a correspondent, columnist, and senior writer. While at People, he conducted interviews with such celebrities as Michael J. Fox, Christopher Reeve, Justin Timberlake, Sting, Ben Afleck, and Nicole Kidman, developing many of the skills that would help him become one of the most sought-after collaborators in publishing. Join us for an engaging, insightful conversation on what it takes to pivot from journalism to the journalism-adjacent field of ghostwriting. Learn more about Mark Dagostino: by Payam Zamani Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/30308298
info_outline
Episode 59: Douglas Preston
02/27/2024
Episode 59: Douglas Preston
“What really amazed me here was that so many of the authors who submitted stories wrote something completely outside their genre,” reflects best-selling author Douglas Preston, one of the project editors behind the dynamic new collaborative novel . “This book is full of all kinds of weird stories.” Yes, it is. And so is podcast guest Douglas Preston, co-author of dozens of New York Times —a shining example of what it means to write in collaboration. In all, Preston has published 39 books of fiction and non-fiction. In addition to books, Preston writes about archaeology and paleontology for the New Yorker. He has worked as an editor for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University and is the recipient of numerous writing awards in the U.S. and Europe. He served as president of the Authors Guild from 2019 to 2023. Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days turns on a narrative frame written by Preston, with contributions from a disparate collection of contemporary writers, headed by fellow project editor Margaret Atwood. In addition to Atwood and Preston, the novel features the “voices” of Charlie Jane Anders, Joseph Cassara, Jennine Capó Crucet, Angie Cruz, Pat Cummings, Sylvia Day, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, John Grisham, Maria Hinojosa, Mira Jacob, Erica Jong, CJ Lyons, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, Mary Pope Osborne, Alice Randall, Ishmael Reed, Roxana Robinson, Nelly Rosario, James Shapiro, Hampton Sides, R.L. Stine, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Monique Truong, Scott Turow, Luis Alberto Urrea, Rachel Vail, Weike Wang, Caroline Randall Williams, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, and Meg Wolitzer. All proceeds from the book will be directed to the Authors Guild Foundation, the charitable and educational arm of the Authors Guild, dedicated to empowering all writers, from all backgrounds, at all stages of their careers. Learn more about Douglas Preston: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/30101928
info_outline
Episode 58: Sarah Tomlinson
02/13/2024
Episode 58: Sarah Tomlinson
“Sometimes the truth is just too much, and sometimes it’s not enough.” That’s a line from Sarah Tomlinson’s new novel, , the story of a young ghostwriter scratching at the truth that threatens the legend of the fictional rock band of the title. A veteran journalist, essayist, music critic, ghostwriter, and memoirist, Sarah’s work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Review of Books, Marie Claire, Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, and Huffington Post. Her new novel puts an exclamation point on the maxim that says writers should write what they know: Sarah has covered the recording industry and the music scene for years, writing for Spin.com, Billboard.com and penning a local music column for the Boston Phoenix. She’s even written band bios for record labels like Virgin, Red Ink/Columbia, and MySpace Records, and contributed to the electronic press kits for artists on Warner Bros. Records. As a ghostwriter, she has helped to write more than a dozen books, including three New York Times best-sellers and the forthcoming , co-authored with the iconoclastic actor, dancer, choreographer Russ Tamblyn. Join us for a candid conversation on what it means to pick up a pen on behalf of someone else, and then to set that pen down to tell the tale of a ghostwriter looking to make sense of the senselessness and sensibility of a rock ‘n roll life gone sideways. Learn more about Sarah Tomlinson: Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/29891963
info_outline
Episode 57: Bethanne Patrick, Missing Pages 'Ghostwriting Non-Fiction The Literary Chameleon'
01/30/2024
Episode 57: Bethanne Patrick, Missing Pages 'Ghostwriting Non-Fiction The Literary Chameleon'
“How do you tell someone else’s story, but make it authentic?” That’s the question at the heart of this episode of As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast, which is really a repurposed, repackaged edition of a recent episode of , the critically-acclaimed investigative podcast hosted by renowned literary critic Bethanne Patrick—known to readers across social media as “The Book Maven.” Bethanne and her production team at , a leading producer of original podcasts, pull back the curtain on the lucrative culture of non-fiction ghostwriting, and offer a compelling take on the art and practice of writing in collaboration, and the role “literary chameleons” have come to play in the telling of high-profile tales. Along the way, Bethanne looks at the evolution of the practice, and interviews ghostwriting veterans like Jon Sternfeld and Dan Gerstein, both former As Told To guests, as well as cookbook author J.J. Goode. She also spends some time chatting with As Told To host Daniel Paisner, who weighs in with a hard-won insight or two. This special crossover edition of As Told To is being presented with the permission of the Podglomerate team, and Bethanne Patrick, and is intended to further the conversation among writers and creatives who continue to write and create in service of someone else’s voice or vision. Also listen to Part II of the two-part Missing Pages exploration of the ghostwriting trade: “” Learn more about Bethanne Patrick and Missing Pages: Bethanne’s memoir, Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/29673238
info_outline
Episode 56: Kevin Anderson
01/16/2024
Episode 56: Kevin Anderson
Kevin Anderson is one of the publishing industry’s leading authorities on ghostwriting and editorial development. As the founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of , a Manhattan-based firm that specializes in developing collaborative projects, he is uniquely positioned to weigh in on what it takes to write a best-selling book. His firm represents over 200 widely-published writers, and relies on the editorial and publishing expertise of more than a dozen former Big 5 acquisitions editors. “A client who hires a ghostwriter is still the author of their book,” Anderson once told The Washington Post. “With the exception of some research-based projects, the content, ideas and concepts for ghostwritten books come directly from the client… A ghostwriter is an interpreter and a translator, not an author, which is why our clients deserve full credit for authoring their books.” Join us for an informative conversation on how many of our collaborative books are conceived, and how they fight their way through the publishing process and onto our bookshelves. Learn more about Kevin Anderson: Norman Ollestad's Scott Cawhon's Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/29466568
info_outline
Episode 55: Andrew Crofts
01/02/2024
Episode 55: Andrew Crofts
“I’m quite good at detaching and passing the tissues and just listening,” says Andrew Crofts, one of the world’s most prolific ghostwriters, on his ability to help his clients share their most intimate, most harrowing, most traumatic experiences in the pages of their memoirs. As the author or co-author of more than eighty books, including a dozen Sunday Times best-sellers, Andrew is well-known in England for his work behind-the-scenes with top television personalities, footballers, politicians, and ordinary individuals caught in extraordinary circumstances. He is also well-known among publishers for his willingness to take on any subject, and to collaborate with any celebrity, as long as the project comes with the promise of a good story. “Extremes of evil are as interesting as extremes of goodness,” he writes, of his ability to work with heroes and villains alike. In fact, he once told a reporter for The Guardian that he is grateful he was not born early enough to pursue this type of work during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. “I have a horrible feeling that if I’d got the call from Germany in the 1930s,” he said, “I would have hopped on that plane like a Mitford.” Learn more about Andrew Crofts: Links to some of Crofts’ collaborations discussed in our interview: , with Dr. Emmanuel Taban: , with Hyppolite Ntigurirwa: , with Zana Muhsen Please support the sponsors who support our show: Daniel Paisner's Daniel Paisner's (PODCAST) | 30% discount (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton podcast (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order (PODCAST) | 30% discount (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount
/episode/index/show/astoldto/id/29295663