About Brooke | My Site 5

Hi, I'm Brooke

I'm a ghostwriter, editor, and book coach based in Charleston, South Carolina. I've spent more than 20 years helping smart, busy people get what they know into a book.

Most of my clients are CEOs, founders, executive coaches, and speakers. They know their field better than almost anyone. What they don't have is the time to write, or a plan for turning years of experience into books a reader will finish.

The question I hear most on a first call is some version of “Do I really have anything new to say?” You do. Plenty of people have written about leadership. None of them have done it from where you stand. Your ideas started somewhere, maybe with a bad boss or a turnaround nobody thought would work. Finding that starting point and connecting it to the work you do now is my favorite part of the job.

Writing a book is personal

I've worked on books about leadership, values, grief, and everything in between. Every one of them was personal. A good book asks you to tell the truth about what you've been through. That takes a kind of vulnerability most leaders don't get much practice with at work.

Self-doubt shows up at some point in nearly every project. It can hit at the outline stage or two weeks before the manuscript goes to print. I expect it, and I know how to help an author through it. Paying attention to what's going on with the person, and not only what's on the page, is a big part of what I do.

It's worth it. Writing a book is often cathartic, and for most of my clients it ends up being one of the most rewarding things they've ever done.

“She was not only a master editor but also someone who helped me with the negative self-talk and the obstacles I was putting in my own way. Writing a book is a vulnerable endeavor and I couldn't imagine a better editor for my book.”

Arivee Vargas, author of Your Time to Rise

It will sound like you

The other thing I'm known for is voice. I listen for the phrases you repeat, the way you tell a story, and the things you skip over because they're hard to say. Then I write the version of you that shows up on your best day. When clients read their chapters, they hear themselves.

I take on a small number of books at a time, and I do the writing myself. You see every chapter as we go, so there's no big surprise at the end. I'm direct. If something isn't working, I'll tell you, and I'll show you how to fix it.

“…the smartest version of Ricardo I've heard.”

Ricardo Mitrani, author of ALIVE (forthcoming)

I learned the business from the inside

Before I went out on my own, I was a senior editor and project manager at Advantage Media Group, which is now Forbes Books, and before that Publicity Manager at Rodale Books. At one point I had more than 90 books in progress at once, plus a team of freelance editors to manage.

That job taught me how a book really gets made, from the first outline to the final files that go to the printer. It also taught me the parts authors rarely see, like which contract terms are worth pushing back on and why a cover that looks great on your desk can disappear as a thumbnail online.

I went independent in 2014. Every client since then has come to me by referral.

What I've worked on

I've edited or ghostwritten more than 50 nonfiction books, mostly in business and leadership, plus memoir. My clients' books carry endorsements from Adam Grant, Seth Godin, Tony Robbins, Ken Blanchard, Marshall Goldsmith, and Quincy Jones, among others. They've won the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, the Goody Business Book Award, International Book Awards, and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Clients have signed with major publishers including Wiley and Palgrave Macmillan.

I've worked with solo authors and with writing teams, including one book with 36 co-authors.

If there's a book you've been meaning to write, let's talk.

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Out and About with Authors

Ryan Berman Meeting up with Headamentals co-author in Encinitas, CA.	Sherry Deutschmann Lunch with Lucy Book Launch Bash in Nashville, TN: 2 seconds before Covid.	George Stevens Celebrating a shared author, Julia Nicholson, with graphic designer extraordinaire.
Tami Holzmann Book signing with the author of C-Student in the C-Suite in San Diego, CA.	Delia Owens Fan-girling at Delia Owens' book signing at the Charleston Library Society.	The C-Suite Team First-ever "Step and Repeat" at the book launch bash for C-Suite in Malibu, CA.
Kathi Sharpe-Ross Love at first sight with the author of Reinvent Your Life in Beverly Hills, CA.	Susan Thomases 75th Birthday party for Bill Clinton's "Midnight Caller" & campaign scheduler, at Toloache in NYC.	Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn Celebrating Charcuterie with masters of the craft in I'on/Charleston, SC.