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“The Business Sustainability Handbook” by Julie Urlaub, edited by Thomas Hauck

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

Congratulations to my valued client Julie Urlaub on the publication of her powerful new book, “The Business Sustainability Handbook: Growth Strategies for a Dying Planet.” Julie Urlaub is the founder and managing partner of Taiga Company, a sustainability social media consulting firm, where she assists business leaders to powerfully engage in sustainability related issues and stakeholder communications in the social media space.

In this easy-to-read manual she shows you how sustainability is not only good for the planet, it’s good for business. In Part One, Julie shows you how sustainable practices and strategies are making a difference in the global economy. She reveals how some of the biggest brands are winning with sustainability, and how sustainability is trending upwards.

In Part Two, she introduces you to specific approaches that you can incorporate into your long-range planning. Every level of your company and its activities can and should be integrated into your sustainability strategy, from your supply chain to your front-line employees and right up to the boardroom.

Part Three explores the powerful world of social media and the importance of effectively communicating your sustainability efforts and successes. This is the world that your customers live in, and by entering it your company can position itself among leaders who are forging new connections in the marketplace.

Part Four provides a selection of down-to-earth, practical ideas that you can implement in your own company.

No one in business – from the board chair at a Fortune 500 company to the owner of a small business – can afford to be without this powerful and insightful book.

The Business Sustainability Handbook

Thomas Hauck provides professional book editing and ghostwriting services for authors of both fiction and non-fiction.

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“Accountability Leadership” by Di Worrall, edited by Thomas Hauck

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

Congratulations to my valued client Di Worrall, whose new Kindle release “Accountability Leadership: How Great Leaders Build a High Performance Culture of Accountability and Responsibility” soared to number one in Kindle Business Books in the US, Canada, and Germany. It’s success is no surprise; this easy-to-read guidebook offers powerful advice and practical strategies for improving accountability and performance from the mailroom to the boardroom. The lessons are universal: anyone who is disengaged – whether on the job, at school, on the playing field, or in the family – is not going to be committed to success and will not live up to their potential. Accepting responsibility for your actions is both personally rewarding and beneficial to the organization. And in any organization, the culture starts at the top. Every CEO should read this book and then pass it down the chain to every member of his or her staff.

Accountability Leadership

– Thomas Hauck is a professional freelance book editor and ghostwriter serving both first-time and veteran authors of fiction and nonfiction.

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“Phone Busking” by Mark Alan Hill, edited by Thomas Hauck

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

Congratulations to my valued client Mark Alan Hill on the publication of his new book “Phone Busking: How the Sound of Your Voice Determines Your Success While Telephone Cold Calling.” The title pretty well sums it up, and reveals something that everyone can benefit from even if you’re not cold calling prospective clients: in any conversation, the quality of your voice is every bit as important as what you say. This is because any conversation is primarily emotional, not rational, and when two people talk, without making a conscious effort the participants will key into the sound of the other’s voice. Think about it – how many times have you said to yourself, “That guy doesn’t mean what he just said.” You believe this because of the sound of his voice. This fascinating book will help anyone become more aware of the impact of their voice and how to improve it.

Phone Busking

– Thomas Hauck provides professional freelance book editing services to clients worldwide.

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“Korea Experience” by Jeff Miller, edited by Thomas Hauck

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

Congratulations to my valued client Jeff Miller, whose new book Korea Experience: The Guide to Finding the Best Jobs Teaching English Abroad in South Korea is now available on Amazon.com. If you’ve ever wanted to teach English in Korea (South Korea – not the creepy North!), this is the book for you.

The author is highly qualified. Beginning as one of only two English teachers at a family-operated language institute in South Korea, for nearly a decade he taught in a variety of private and public sector positions, including that of head teacher at one of the country’s largest franchise institutes. He learned how to manage the many challenges of applying for a job, interviewing, and then living and working abroad.

He shows you in an easy step-by-step way that the right job will come with the right preparation, the right resources, and the right mentors. “Korea Experience” is an invaluable resource for creating and conducting your job search in South Korea. When combined with your determination, this powerful book will provide you with the insider knowledge and skills necessary to make your job search in South Korea a success.

Korea Experience

– Thomas Hauck is a leading freelance book editor and ghostwriter who helps both first-time and established authors reach their literary goals.

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How to Pay for a Freelance Book Editor or Ghostwriter with an Escrow Service – Advice from Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

Many of my valued clients come to me through my website, bookeditorhauck.com. They live in the United States, North America, Europe, and even the Asia Pacific region. One of the many questions they ask is, “How do I pay you?” There are two ways:

1. Elance.com and/or Guru.com. These are both highly reputable marketplaces for freelance services of all types. Both offer project management services including escrow services. To hire me through Elance or Guru, you need not put your book project out to open bidding; you can hire me privately for a very small fee. The escrow services offered by both Elance and Guru are very user friendly and are fully transparent. You can easily set up, fund, and even change milestones as you go along. When you release the funds to me, your payment appears in my bank account within two business days, and sometimes in one day. In the course of hundreds of jobs, I have never had a problem with either Elance or Guru. The project/escrow fees are about eight percent.

2. PayPal. This reputable service has a sterling reputation. There is no escrow, so I ask my clients to send me a token deposit, usually one hundred dollars. Then I invoice you through PayPal when the milestone or project is delivered. The process is flexible and transparent. Like Elance and Guru, PayPal transfers appear in my bank one or two business days later. The fee is about four percent.

Are there options that are unacceptable? Yes. Recently a valued client asked me to use Escrow.com. I agreed to give it a try. Escrow.com is strictly an online escrow service. They don’t do anything else. You’d think that their user interface would be better than Elance. No, not even close. I found Escrow.com to be opaque, difficult to use, and expensive. They charge a $20 “wire transfer” fee per transfer, which for anything under $500 makes it more expensive than PayPal.

Here’s a true story. My valued client released an Escrow.com milestone of $500 on a Friday. By the following Thursday, the transfer had not yet appeared in my bank account. This is despite the assertion on the Escrow.com website that wire transfers take one day. I had sent emails to Escrow.com on Tuesday and Wednesday asking for an explanation. There was no useful reply. Then on Thursday I called the Escrow.com office in California. To make a long story short, the customer service rep told met that that “funds department” had forgotten to make the transfer. They forgot!

In today’s world of instant digital funds transfer, five business days is atrocious and frankly makes one deeply suspicious of the company. And unlike Elance or PayPal, Escrow.com offers no data on pending transactions. You have no way of knowing where your money is. The Escrow.com user interface is inflexible and frankly infuriating, because to get any information about the transaction you have to contact their help service.

I won’t go so far as to call Escrow.com a scam, but I will state that it ranks dead last in my choice for escrow services. The service is shoddy at best. With all of my valued clients I will make other arrangements, and I hope that Escrow.com gets its act together.

– Thomas Hauck is a professional book editor who works with both emerging and established authors worldwide.

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

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Be an Active and Engaged Book Ghostwriting Client! – Advice from Ghostwriter Thomas Hauck

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

Recently, a gentleman contacted me about his novel. He wanted to know about the differences between editing and ghostwriting, and how much it might cost to finish his 80,000-word novel. He had hired a ghostwriter to write the book for him, but it seemed as though the result was not what the client expected. Here is part of his message to me:

“Hello, Thomas. I am no writer, I got the ideas. I know what it needs, I can’t put it on paper. I wouldn’t even know how to start creatively writing, besides spitting ideas. I didn’t even know what my ghostwriter, who didn’t know what they we’re doing, was wrong. I could see something was wrong, but I had to hire another professional, to point it out. If I’m this dense on the subject, me writing it would be even worst. I just barley got through my English college courses! I have passion to do things, I just can’t do them myself. Its really aggravating, if you ask me. I appreciate your comment. Submitting proposal for this job. I am probably will try another attempt with a ghostwriter, and start from scratch. This time I have a little more knowledge and sense.”

Here is part of my reply to him:

“I understand. Please remember this one thing: Ghostwriters are like auto mechanics. You get what you pay for. If you want to build a car that will win the race, you have to make a substantial investment. This investment can be in the form of hard cash, or it can be an investment of your own time and education. There are no shortcuts.”

When you take your car to the shop, you’re in a better position if you know the difference between an oil change and a tire rotation. The same goes for hiring a ghostwriter. The most successful of my many valued clients are the ones who educate themselves about books and book writing, and who can effectively collaborate with me to make their book or novel the very best that it can be. My goal is always to produce the very best book possible, and having an engaged and results-focused client makes the process more rewarding and the book more powerful.

– Thomas Hauck is a leading freelance book editor and ghostwriter based near Boston, MA USA.

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

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The Power of Punctuation – Advice from Ghostwriter and Book Editor Thomas Hauck

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

If you don’t think that correct punctuation can make a huge difference in the meaning of what you write, consider this unpunctuated sentence:

A woman without her man is nothing.

OK? Here’s another version with the same words and different punctuation.

A woman: without her, man is nothing.

The key is that the punctuation changes the meaning of the word “her” from a possessive adjective (“her man”) to a pronoun (“without her”).

Imagine a language with no punctuation. Until the nineteenth century, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Sanskrit writing had no punctuation, and the meaning of a sentence was inferred by its context.

– Thomas Hauck is a professional freelance book editor and ghostwriter.

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

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The Cost of Editing Your Novel – Advice from Ghostwriter and Book Editor Thomas Hauck

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

Many of my clients are novelists who have a work in progress. Sometimes they’ve got 20,000 or 40,000 words written and they need to get to the next level. What they’re looking for is a combination of a ghostwriter, editor, and muse. But since many novelists are not wealthy people, they are concerned about the cost of professional services.

As far as the budget goes, the number one rule is this: editing is cheaper than ghostwriting. The scale is wide. For example, if you asked me to do a line edit of a completed 60,000-word novel, it would cost as little as two cents per word, or $1,200. If you asked me to ghostwrite an entire 60,000-word book from scratch, it would cost at least ten cents per word, or $6,000. Prices for heavy and developmental editing range from three cents to six cents per word. So the more that you can do yourself, the more money you will save.

I always provide a binding quote in advance, so you always know what rate you’re paying. And we work in sections, and you only pay for the section we’re focused on. There are no binding contracts and you can cancel whenever you want.

Many of my fiction clients pay me a higher rate for the first 10,000 words. Then, using what they have learned from my edits and comments, they put me “on hold” and work on the manuscript themselves. Then we move ahead with more editing, and because the writing has improved, the rate is lower!

You can also hire me to do a critique, where I read what you’ve got and provide you with a tough review.

– Thomas Hauck is a Boston-area book editor and ghostwriter serving both first-time and established authors.

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

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Before You Hire a Ghostwriter for Your Business Book – Advice from Ghostwriter and Book Editor Thomas Hauck

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

Many of my wonderful clients are businesspeople who have come to the decision that they need to write a book about their area of expertise. A business book generally serves three purposes: to provide useful information to the reader, to establish the author as a thought leader (branding), and to generate new clients. Earning a profit from sales of the book is often not a consideration.

Having then decided to hire a ghostwriter, the next and most important step for my clients is to get organized. A book is a project, and the businessperson whose name will appear on the cover is the project manager. The ghostwriter works under the direction of the project manager. Therefore, clarity is essential. There must be clearly defined goals and milestones, and a clear mission to be accomplished.

Outline Your Book Project

Before a single word is written, these questions need to be answered:

– Who is the audience for the book?

– What’s the projected length (the word count)?

– What’s the tone – casual, academic, or even storytelling?

– What specific resources does the ghostwriter have from the client (blogs, notes, research, a rough draft)?

– What’s the call to action (that is, what do you want the reader to do)?
Is there an existing book outline? You cannot begin a book without an outline. It’s like getting into a taxicab and saying to the driver, “Please drive me somewhere.” You need to be more specific.

– Is there an outline or other structure already created?

– What’s the budget?

– What’s the format (Kindle, traditional paperback, free pdf)?

This may seem like a lot of planning, but it’s absolutely essential for success!

– Thomas Hauck is a New England-based ghostwriter and editor of fiction and nonfiction books.

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

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How Much Editing Is Necessary Before You Publish Your Book?

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Thomas Hauck

For first-time authors, publishing a book can seem like a mysterious and risky process. You want your book to be the very best that it can be, but once you reach a certain point in its development it’s hard to tell what “the very best” means. This is because once you arrive at a professional level of execution, the book business becomes highly subjective, while experts who want to take more of your money lurk at every corner.

I have more than one client who has submitted their completed manuscript to a self-publishing company. Very often the file is returned with a “test edit,” in which the in-house editor announces that the book is in dire need of professional editing, and if the author doesn’t pay for more editing the project will be a disaster. The “test edit” shows some very minor changes in punctuation or (more often the case) changes that reflect a choice of style rather than literary correctness.

I follow the Chicago Manual of Style. There are many other style guides including the Associated Press Stylebook, the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, the APA Style Handbook, the MLA Handbook, and of course “The Elements of Style” by Strunk & White. All of these manuals offer sometimes conflicting guidelines, and the books and magazines that follow these various rules often sell by the millions.

For example, I subscribe to “The New Yorker” magazine. This venerable pillar of literary correctness follows some rules that I personally find mystifying. For example, in stories about President Obama they capitalize the word “Presidential,” an adjective which in the Chicago style you would never capitalize.

I have many clients who receive messages from editorial services providers who pronounce doom and gloom unless the client makes certain changes. In one sense this is legitimate: one foolish typo can make your reader close the book. But much of grammar is debatable and in fact is hotly debated. The only important question is, “Does my reader know exactly what I’m saying, or can there be confusion?” Every author needs to be able to ask themselves, “Is this a question of grammar or my writing style?”

My clients often ask if further refining is necessary. The only honest answer is that a book is never set in stone. It can always be refined and new ideas added. Your 40,000-word book could become 100,000 words if that were your intention. It’s simply your choice when to say, “I’m done. Let’s roll the presses!”

– Thomas Hauck is a professional freelance book editor and ghostwriter who serves both first-time and experienced authors.

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

Thomas Hauck, Ghostwriter and Book Editor

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