Tell Your Big Story

… it could be how you grew up in “Bomb City USA” (aka Collinwood), didn’t start a single football game in high school, thought of joining the Mafia, but instead became an NFL quarterback for the world champion Miami Dolphins.

Dr. Kenneth Polke contacted me and together we wrote his compelling story, “Conquering Your Adversities,” which has now launched him into a compelling speaking career after retiring as a dental surgeon.

But life isn’t all violence and transformation. Jeff and Clare Curtis’ book, “Cameron,” is a dramatic, heart-wrenching story with a happy ending about a British baby prematurely born in the Maldives during a violent Asian storm. Overcoming every hurdle imaginable, today Cameron Curtis is a healthy, happy two-year old boy who lives in Dubai with his equally happy parents. Their book has interested a London agent with hopes of becoming a movie or docu-drama.

Or maybe you’re more like my co-writer Jon Gordon, who offered a healthy, sugar-free ice cream into the American food market (called Clemmy’s), only to be crushed in an epic battle with Nestle Foods, not unlike that of Erin Brockovich (and with the same attorney).

With Universal Pictures interested and a major Hollywood actor circling, our book, “The Food Mafia, the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth,” may soon hit the big screens as a major motion picture. Check out TheFoodMafiaBook.com.

Then there’s “Flatline, the day London died,” a cyberthriller written with a former MI6 (James Bond-style) agent whose name I cannot reveal unless…well, you know the rest. His story idea teamed a British MI6 agent with an American special ops man, which is why he hired me (for the American perspective). Kevin’s idea was brilliant, as he anticipated a theme similar (and maybe more clever) than that used in the James Patterson and Bill Clinton 2018 summer bestselling thriller, “The President is Missing!”

So, you see, we all tell stories for different reasons. Sometimes to document our past for our family; other times to illustrate our achievements and inspire others; sometimes to create memorable fiction; and, occasionally, to expose a horrible wrong or injustice. No matter what your goal, I can help you write your story in your voice and from your perspective, with the distinct possibility of landing a book deal, TV series, or motion picture possibility.

You Might Call it Professional Suicide, But I’m Going to Let You in on Some Secrets About Ghostwriters. Who We are. How We Make a Living. Where You Can Find Us.

What to Look for in Hiring Us…

Different ghostwriters do it different ways, of course, because what works for one may not work for another; but as with any affair, common threads run between the cloth that binds us.

Number one secret: a professional writer pays bills by writing. If you don’t have the budget, you won’t get a professional writer to write your book unless it offers wider benefits. Those could be royalties, a television deal, or a movie deal, but unless you’re famous or the subject is hot, no professional writer can pay bills writing books on spec. So when you contact a ghostwriter, just realize that money is of primary concern (though lots of intangible factors affect the final price).

Author website: I imagine there are one or two Golden-Globe and Oscar-winning authors without one, but in today’s world it’s rare for a working author to go bare. My author website is SteveEgglestonWrites.com, yet there was a time when I didn’t have a website devoted exclusively to my writing. That was in the EggmanGlobal.com days, but back then I still had a web presence and my graphically-designed pdf Portfolios made me look pretty good (given my vast web of experiences in life).

A good website gives you a deep insight into the author than his credentials, adding glimpses of his personality, passion, quirks, and backstory. If you are writing about injustice, look for an author like me who has spent his life railing against it and has been the victim himself. I will be able to channel the molecular grain of your pain far better than someone who writes romantic comedies, though certainly the two can meet (take for example the movie Fargo).

Some authors come from a road of hard knocks, some are diverse and colourful in their interests, and yet others are highly-specialized and narrowly focused on a specific technical field. I’m a guy with a lot of sub-specialties, some highly technical, some more artistic: thrillers (especially legal), memoirs (especially inspirational ones), future and technology, health & diet (especially diabetes), cybersecurity, music (rock n roll), and anything legal – these are the stories I like to tell and that I tell best.

Personality is something that comes across better on some websites than others. I’m quite eclectic with lots of historic reinventions in my life, so on my website you’ll find a kaleidoscope of my life’s travails.

I love the quote given to me by author James Dalessandro for my first fiction legal thriller, Conflicted (as it says more about me than all my credentials): “If the law ever produced a more colorful character than Steve Eggleston himself, I’d probably be afraid to meet him.” Ha!

On paper I’m a reformed attorney and now published writer in fiction and non-fiction with lots of awards, titles, and credentials, but the stuff on my website goes beneath the tip of the iceberg which is Jimmy’s quote. This is what you’re hoping to find on an author’s website as to try to match your book to the right author. And even then, you might truthfully just go by your gut: will this guy do what I need or not?

Number two secret: All things being equal, go with diversity and personality every time, because a good musician can play anything better than an average one with a specialty.

Upwork: This is the largest freelance website on the planet. When I joined three years ago (it was ODesk back then), I was a neophyte. Like everyone else, I had no Upwork job history, no client reviews, no stars, no jobs-completed rate, and no money earned. It took me several fumbling tries to even figure out how to lock a deal, but I persevered. Today I’m a Top Rated Upworker, have countless 5-star reviews, hold a 100% completion rate, and boast $50,000+ in earnings. There are a handful of writers in my category, and you can search for us by name and speciality (ghostwriters).

What I like about Upwork is that I too can search for what I want and filter out all the rest. If I want to write a thriller for no less than $10,000, I search the “Find Work” tab for thrillers and filter out any jobs with a budget under $10,000. If someone has posted a thriller book of any kind, and the budget is right, I then apply.

To date I’ve written two 100,000-word thrillers (fiction novels) for clients who found me on Upwork, plus another 50+ articles, websites, white papers, and marketing campaigns.

Look to Upwork rating reviews (to show ability to collaborate), books written (to show capability and success), and knowledge base for the key ingredients before personality. Match all three with personality and you’ll rarely go wrong.

Global Lion Intellectual Property Management shops books for publication. The power-of-nature behind Global Lion is the literary lion himself, Peter Miller. He’s a traditional lit manager who has set up over 1500 books in his career with major publishers, repping book from Helter Skelter (the biggest-selling true-crime book of all time) to Sir Ken Robinson’s latest skein on education. I’m going to tell you the obvious because it cannot be overstated: that’s a damn lot of books, making Peter one of the wisest cats in the jungle.

In the old days, all working writers had agents and all were exclusive to their agent. At least that was the rule. Today things have changed. Agents are diversified and often represent books not the authors themselves. Even though I’ve written a dozen books, Peter only reps me on two of them (The Food Mafia and a Dian Fossey/Gorilla’s in the Mist-true crime book). He sources clients for me nonexclusively and I do the rest.

Number three secret: Very few books get published by major publishes. That’s because the publisher to take on a book from an unknown author must be convinced the book will be a bestseller – either because of the writing, the story, or the subject, and usually the later two. Celebrity sells. Disaster sells. Injustice might sell. Great literature? Maybe it will, maybe it won’t.

But you don’t care about that because you’re writing a book for a different reason and today you can self-publish for nothing (except the cost of your co-writer or ghostwriter) on Amazon’s Createspace. People write for legacy, for catharsis, to tell their stories, to make them authorities, to leverage a new career, to prove expertise, to generate business in something else – you name it.

But here’s what I can tell you: the vast majority of people who write books are glad they did.

I’m repped by legendary literary manager Peter Miller of Global Lion Management, who through the years has set up 1500+ books and countless TV shows and movies, not the least of which are Vincent Bugliosi’s “Helter Skelter,” the Charlie Manson story that still to this day is the biggest selling true-crime book of all time, and most of the incredible books written by Sir Ken Robinson, who addresses the failings of modern education like no other.