About Crystal Adair-Benning
I've written 4x NYT bestsellers.My name isn't on any of them.
That's the job. You get the book and the byline. I get the NDA and a lot of very good stories I'm never allowed to tell at parties.
The straight answer
I'm Crystal Adair-Benning, a 4x NYT bestselling ghostwriter & book coach based in Victoria, BC. I've spent 30 years in books and coached 200+ authors across 12 countries, mostly memoir and business books. I ghostwrite, co-write and coach through my Word Magic Method™, and I run Createcation™ writing retreats for 6 writers at a time. My first NYT bestseller came at 15. I was paid in dog food.
How this started
My first bestseller paid in dog food
Not a figure of speech. I was 15. Someone needed a book written, had more dog food than money, and asked if that would do. It did. The book went on to the NYT list, and I went on to feed the dogs.
That was 30 years ago, which I know because I am 45 and the arithmetic is unforgiving. 3 more of those lists have happened since. The job hasn't changed: somebody brilliant has a book in them and no earthly idea how to get it out, and I get it out.
I've done it for founders, CEOs, coaches, a hotelier, a nonprofit director, and a man who wrote his manuscript by hand from a prison cell. Business books, memoirs, thought leadership, the occasional beautiful mess that needed rescuing. Different rooms, same job.
What I actually do
4 ways I get a book out of somebody
I write it
Ghostwriting. You talk, I write, your name goes on the cover. This is for people who could absolutely write the book themselves, if somebody would only hand them a spare decade. 2 clients a year.
How ghostwriting worksWe write it together
Co-writing. You bring the stories and the voice and you draft the page. I rework and polish it until it sparkles. You still write the book. The difference is that my hands are actually on your pages, fixing them. 4 spots a year.
How co-writing worksI coach you through it
For the ones who want their own hands on the keyboard and are tired of starting over every January. I show you exactly what is wrong and how to fix it. The fixing stays yours.
How coaching worksI take you somewhere beautiful
Createcation™. 4 days, 6 writers, one coastline, one framework. Nobody finishes a book in 4 days. What you leave with is the spine of one: the shape, the voice, the first honest pages. That is the part everyone gets stuck on, and it is the part I will not let you leave without.
See the CreatecationsNo, it doesn't sting
People always ask whether it bothers me — someone else's name on a book I wrote. It doesn't, and here's the honest reason. I never wanted to be the person on the cover. I wanted to be the person that person calls at 11pm because chapter 7 has stopped making sense.
That's the better job. It pays better. And I have never once had to do a book tour.
Fair warning
Things I'd rather you knew now
I'd rather lose the enquiry than the 6 months.
I get this excited about other people’s books.
The face of a first draft.The rest of it
Assorted true things
Office hours. Maldives.
The glasses. Told you.
Everybody talks by dessert.
What people in the business say
Crystal guides writers from the first brainstorming session through detailed outlines to polished manuscripts. Entrepreneurs, leaders, and mission-driven speakers often dream of writing a book—Crystal is the spark that turns those dreams into reality.
Crystal is an amazing mentor and coach. She has helped me find my writing voice so I am able to share my training information on breaking into the Industry as an actor, entrepreneurship and leadership with the world.
Stay wild. Write more.
Change the world.
That's the motto. I mean it, and I'd quite like it on a t-shirt.
So — what's your book?
30 minutes, free, and you’ll leave knowing where you stand. Tell me what you're sitting on and I'll tell you straight whether it's got legs, and which of the ways in actually fits.
