Overview
I am a Wall St. Journal, Publisher's Weekly, and Barnes and Noble bestselling ghostwriter and author. I have written or ghostwritten over 25 print and eBooks, and several hundred articles and blog posts. Non-fiction is my passion; I can and have written on just about any topic. However, my preferred genres are business, memoir, biography, corporate history, food, travel, and humor.
PLEASE NOTE: My current fee starts at $1 USD per word. So for an average size book, that is $75,000 USD.
Built Not Born—A Self-Made Billionaire’s No-Nonsense Guide For Entrepreneurs, which I co-authored with Tom Golisano, was a Wall Street Journal and Publisher's Weekly bestseller and was a number one bestselling business book with Barnes and Noble and Amazon. I also worked with Golisano on his autobiography, The Italian Kid Did It, which will be published by Harper Collins, February 2022.
Fire From The Sky – A Diary Over Japan won a silver medal for the best military memoir of 2005, awarded by the Military Writers Society of America.
As an author in my own right, Harper Collins Leadership published my two books How Not to Manage People, and How Not to Sell, in 2021.
I have more than 40-years' experience in mainstream and custom book publishing, and for the last twenty-one as a writer.
I am a rarity among ghostwriters – a writer who has extensive general book publishing experience. I understand the process from the ground up – from concept to delivery of the printed (or electronic) product. My over four decades of experience in the writing and publishing world has given me the ability to know what makes something readable, what entices the reader to enter your world and react positively to your words.
“Mike listened to me talk about my life for hundreds of hours and was able to accurately transpose my words and thoughts to the written page. His commitment to helping me find my “voice” and tell my story was invaluable.”
Tom Golisano: Multi-billionaire author of Built Bot Born and The Italian Kid Did It!
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"In my 20 years of experience as a published writer, editor, and ghostwriter for clients that include Google, L’Oréal Paris, The Week, and Paramount Studios, I’ve worked with very few professionals that meet their marks and consistently generate thoughtful, thorough, and engaging material. Mike Wicks joins only one other writer in my orbit who stands strong in such rarified air. When I managed his projects at a NYC ghostwriting agency, I had only to provide him with the project framework and he’d create diamonds out of coal. Our clients were extremely pleased with his work—and his work ethic—and he remained a writer of constant request during his time with the agency."
Shelley Moench-Kelly: Author of Here's Your Pill Kitten.
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"You're not only a great writer but a consummate professional that clients love. I wish we could figure out a way to clone you!"
Ian Corson, Kevin Anderson and Associates.
Services
Non-Fiction
Languages
Awards
- Silver medal, best military memoir. Military Writer’s Society of America
Work experience
Self-employed
Over the past 17 years I have written more than 20 books and training manuals and hundreds of articles and blog posts.
I also have more than 40-years' experience in mainstream and custom book publishing, working at many of the great publishing houses including Random House, Michael Joseph, and the Pearson-Longman group. I founded one of the industry’s first special publications divisions, publishing corporate sponsored books and specialist publications. I subsequently became managing director and part-owner of two custom publishing houses.