Member Spotlight: Jami Kelmenson

How did you land your first book ghostwriting project?

It was a happy accident! I was working as a full-time content editor at a healthcare tech startup and our PR agency suggested our co-founder write a book. I stepped up and said I would LOVE to help him because I wanted to get some experience in book publishing and knew the subject matter pretty well.

At one point I questioned what had I gotten myself into because I was basically working a lot of overtime for no extra pay, but it paid off in that I was brave enough to ask for (and get!) my name on the book cover in the form of a “with” – which opened doors to paid projects later on.

What is your favorite type of project or client?

I gravitate toward “prescriptive memoir,” which Marcia Layton-Turner describes as “memoirs, but with an added bonus — explicit advice and step-by-step recommendations for how to avoid a similar fate, or how to implement the takeaways from the life lessons they impart.”

Topics that interest me include technology (AI!), healthcare, mental health, leadership, starting a business/entrepreneurship, life coaching, personal and professional improvement, dating/relationships, spirituality, and women’s issues.

What’s your favorite question to ask clients during an interview?

It’s not so much a generic question I ask, but when a question leads to an evocative answer, I know I have done my job. For example, I asked one author about how he felt when his wife died and all I got was… sad, It was terrible, I was upset. When I probed more about the details of her funeral, he told me he couldn’t attend because he was in the hospital with pneumonia. The sentence that made it into the book was, “I was glad I couldn’t go to her funeral because I wouldn’t have wanted all those people to see me crying like that.”

What are the best parts of this career?

I grow as a writer and a person each time someone trusts me with their story enough to tell it to the world. I love the flexibility, getting to meet one-to-one with certain clients, and the ability of technology to make it just as effective to write for someone in another country as in the same town.

Waking up without an alarm, boiling water for the French Press, and opening my laptop on my balcony overlooking the water is an awesome way to start my workday, but I paid my dues to get here!

What’s one thing clients might be surprised to know about you?

As a side hustle, I dog sit in people’s homes. You might say an author with a dog who loves to travel is my best client!

How can people reach you?

This link to my contact form on my website goes directly to my email, plus I hope you’ll poke around to see my portfolio of work while you’re there!