Jo Monroe - Ghostwriter
Bestselling ghostwriter of celebrity memoirs and crime fiction. Clients include Duncan Bannatyne, Steve Redgrave and Bear Grylls.
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Overview
I help remarkable people tell amazing stories. I have ghostwritten bestselling books for a wide range of clients including Dragons, adventurers, the world's greatest Olympian and a stripper.
I can write in almost any style, and capture any voice. I work with clients from pitch to publication, helping them shape their story, figuring out if their vision is best told as a memoir, manual or by taking a more creative approach. We also work out which shelf their title will end up on in a bookstore (or in which Amazon category) before we start work to make sure the book finds a readership. I spend time interviewing and encouraging clients to find insights they might not have had before, then produce a first draft before collaborating again on the second draft. I hold their hand all the way through the publication process and beyond. I will often conduct extensive research for my clients, producing professional, authoritative books to tight deadlines.
My clients include Duncan Bannatyne, Gerald Ratner, James Caan, Bear Grylls and Sir Steve Redgrave.
I started ghosting crime fiction in 2015 when I inherited the bestselling Ingrid Skyberg Mysteries series following the death of the author, Eva Hudson. Eva left me with an unfinished manuscript and notes for the rest of the series. The books topped their categories on release and the series has had over a million downloads. Several reviewers commented they would not have known the series had a new writer if they not been told of Eva’s death. In addition to the Skyberg series – pacy crime thrillers set in contemporary London – I have written a vintage cosy mystery series about a 1930s private detective in Hollywood.
I have comprehensive knowledge of the indie publishing landscape and am knowledgeableabout keywords, categories, platforms, formatting, cover design, mailing list management, metadata, targeting and have run and monitored Facebook, BookBub and Amazon ad campaigns, so if you want to self-publish after we work together, I can advise you on how best to reach readers.
Whether you need help with a pitch to publishers, a book doctor for an existing project or someone to take you through every step of the ghosting journey, let's start a conversation. Most collaborations start with a coffee (or a Skype call) to see if we get along well enough to work closely together for several months.
Services
Languages
English (UK)
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Management
True Crime
Fiction
Mystery & Crime
Thriller & Suspense
Work experience
Ghostwriter
Self-employed
July, 2005
–
Present
(almost 16 years)
I have worked full time as a ghostwriter since 2005 when I collaborated with the entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne on his autobiography. When that became a bestseller, I was asked to ghost the memoirs of other business leaders, and over the years my list of clients has diversified to include sports stars, adventurers and even a stripper.
I have also written commercial non-fiction under my own name on subjects as diverse as dotcoms, curry and allotments.
Portfolio (26 selected works)
How did the curry get here and how did the Brits, a nation famed for a love of bland food, end up with Chicken Tikka Masala as their favourite dish? It is a history that took curry, via the British Empire, from its Eastern origins, around the globe. This book talks to the men and women who gambled everything to make a living, who endured indifference and racism to secure an income and those wh... read more
Riding the Storm
Duncan Bannatyne
Can money buy you happiness?A few years ago Duncan Bannatyne might have said so. He was happily married and his businesses were thriving. Life was good. He couldn't have known that a storm was brewing on the horizon and that he would soon face immense personal and professional struggles, including the strain of a divorce and the impact of the recession on his business empire. Riding the Storm ... read more
![Anyone Can Do it - My Story [Paperback]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/515hH0dLdML._SL160_.jpg)
Wake Up and Change Your Life
Duncan Bannatyne
Duncan Bannatyne reveals how to set up a business and make it a great success. Having started out with ice cream van, he knows exactly how it can be done - and how to avoid the pitfalls along the way.In a series of clear and easy-to-follow chapters, Duncan removes the barriers to getting started as an entrepreneur, and helps to plan a way forward through those potentially difficult early days.... read more
How To Be Smart With Your Money
bannatyne-obe-duncan
Rare Book
43 Mistakes Businesses Make... And How to Avoid Them
Duncan Bannatyne
43 MISTAKES is Duncan Bannatyne's guide to the common traps people in business fall into, and how to stay out of them.Imagine you had your very own personal business adviser, who could give you the benefit of their expertise and help you avoid making costly, embarrassing, time-consuming and even career-ending mistakes. Duncan Bannatyne is that person and he's here to help you. 43 MISTAKES will... read more
37 Questions Everyone in Business Needs to Answer
Duncan Bannatyne
Bestselling business author and star of BBC TV's Dragons' Den, Duncan Bannatyne is back with a brand new book. 37 Questions covers all the essential queries business managers and entrepreneurs should be able to ask themselves and answer honestly, but so often fail to do so, such as: What's my most profitable line?What do my customers want next?Who's my greatest business rival?What might stand ... read more
***Shortlisted for the Great Outdoors Book of the Year*** Surviving in the wild takes a great deal of strength. Often faced with frozen tundra, sweltering deserts, humid jungles, perilous mountains and fast-flowing rivers, Megan Hine is no stranger to perilous conditions. Whilst leading expeditions and bushcraft survival courses and in her work on television shows such as Bear Gryll's Mission ... read more
The world-famous adventurer reveals a lifetime of wisdom and lessons learned from the planet's wildest placesLife in the outdoors teaches us invaluable lessons. Encountering the wild forces us to plan and execute goals, face danger, push our "limits," and sharpen our instincts. But our most important adventures don't always happen in nature's extremes. Living a purpose-driven, meaningful life ... read more
Made the wrong career choice? Entering the job market for the first time? Returning to work after some time out? Brilliant Career Finder provides a solid and practical seven step pathway to working out what you want from work and what you are good at and then getting a job that fits. The seven steps take you through the key stages of thought and action to make sure this time you do what's righ... read more
Forget the hype and the sexy headlines, this is where you’ll make your fortune.In this revealing new book Jamie Waller, entrepreneur and self-made multi-millionaire, shows how you don’t need to come up with some amazing new invention or app or raise millions to be a business success. What you need is hard work and determination – and you need to be looking for a business idea that is pretty un... read more
'Both a practical manual and a magical story that lifts the spirit.' Jonathan DimblebyThe Perfect Plotpaints a vivid picture of how to start an allotment from scratch. Told through the inspirational story of the Cornworthy site, it is a perfect guide for beginners. By following the successes and failures through the seasons of the Cornworthy villagers, budding allotmenteers will learn how they... read more
How to Net a Million
Josephine Monroe
With this book you can turn a good idea into a profitable e-business. It can help you not dread a letter from the Inland Revenue and give you the basics in running a small business from book keeping to registering a limited company.1) THE IDEA How to work out if your idea is any good. How to assess its likelihood to produce an income - can you charge people for it, will anyone advertise. Is an... read more
The Inside Soap "EastEnders" Programme Guide
Josephine Monroe
Neighbours : The First 10 Years
Josephine Monroe
Enduring Success: How to Stay at the Top in Business
redgrave-steve-sir-cbe
Rare Book
The fourth adventure in Eva Hudson’s enormously popular Ingrid Skyberg Mystery seriesA teenage girl disappears after witnessing a gangland murder in Chicago. Nine months later and heavily pregnant she arrives in England… only to disappear again.Special Agent Ingrid Skyberg, working out of the US embassy in London, has just two days to find the girl and get her to testify or else a brutal kille... read more
The fifth adventure in Eva Hudson’s enormously popular Ingrid Skyberg Mystery series Stockholm is under siege. A bomb has gone off, several high profile people have been kidnapped and the city is on lockdown. Unfortunately for Special Agent Ingrid Skyberg, everything is kicking off the day she arrives to complete a dangerous undercover assignment.Her mission is so secret, and so illegal, neith... read more
One man wants to buy the presidency. One woman stands in his way.A shadowy UK-based group has been trying to hack the US elections. When Special Agent Ingrid Skyberg is assigned to find out who’s funding the hackers, she finds herself up against an invisible enemy who is extremely powerful and utterly ruthless.To bring them to justice, Ingrid must go undercover and infiltrate the world of supe... read more
The Hollywood Detective
Martha Steinway
Escape to the glamorous world of 1930s Tinseltown with The Hollywood DetectiveHollywood 1939. Promising starlet, Clara Lockhart, disappears from a glittering party in Beverly Hills the night before her first big audition.Worried Clara's disappearance may prove permanent if she doesn't act fast, her roommate hires L.A.'s best private eye to save her. Spencer McCoy knows time is against him, but... read more
Lost and Foundling (The Hollywood Detective Book 2)
Martha Steinway
Immerse yourself in the glamorous world of 1930s Hollywood with these classic detective novelsFading movie star Elisabeth Clay had been hoping to adopt a baby from a Los Angeles orphanage. But when she returns to Hollywood after filming on location, she discovers her beautiful baby girl has disappeared.Elisabeth turns to the city’s finest detective agency—Spencer McCoy and Associates—for help.... read more
Dangerous By Design (The Hollywood Detective Book 3)
Martha Steinway
Immerse yourself in the glamour of 1930s HollywoodWhile war simmers in Europe, Los Angeles swelters under a heatwave. Private Investigator Spencer McCoy is called to Beverly Hills and asked to find priceless jewelry stolen from MGM’s new leading lady, Hedy Lamarr. When the gems surface quickly—far too easily—McCoy discovers the burglars’ real target was something far more valuable, and extreme... read more
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