WHAT TO WRITE

30 years of pulling books out of people who swore they had nothing to say. No fluff. No gatekeeping. The truth behind building your Author Empire.

EverythingStorycraftHow to Write a BookAuthor MindsetMemoir & Life StoryPublishing StrategyBook Marketing & PRHiring a GhostwriterRetreats & CreatecationsCase Studies
Not every author needs a book proposal. Some need one desperately and don't know it. Here's the definitive guide to what a proposal is, who needs it, and exactly what goes inside.

The Storykeeper’s Book Proposal: Do You Need One — And What Goes In It?

The book proposal is one of the most misunderstood documents in publishing. Some authors spend months writing one they never needed. Others query agents for years without one and wonder why no one bites. If you are a nonfiction author — a founder, a leader, a coach, a consultant, a person with a story and a methodology — the question of whether you need a proposal, and what should be in it, is one of the most important questions you will answer before your book reaches readers. This is the guide.
A Createcation is a destination writing retreat designed for the humans who think best when they leave their ordinary life behind. Here's what it is, how it works, and why some books only get written when you go somewhere to write them.

What Is a Createcation — And Could One Change Your Book?

Some books don't get written at your desk. They get written somewhere the light is different, the pace is slower, and the noise of ordinary life is far enough away that the real story can finally surface. A Createcation is a destination writing retreat designed for exactly that — the point in your book journey where immersion unlocks what structure alone can't. Here's how it works and why it might be the thing your book has been waiting for.
Book coaching is an unregulated industry. Anyone can call themselves one. Here are the 7 questions that separate the coaches who finish books from the ones who don't.

How to Choose a Book Coach: The 7 Questions to Ask Before You Hire Anyone

Book coaching is one of the most unregulated spaces in publishing. There are no qualifications required, no industry board, no certification that guarantees competence. Anyone can put up a website and call themselves a book coach — and thousands of people do. Which means that the difference between a transformative experience and an expensive disappointment comes down entirely to the questions you ask before you sign anything. These are the 7 questions that matter.
Your story involves other people. Here's how to tell it honestly, protect yourself legally, and write the people in your life with the care and precision they deserve.

How to Write About Real People in Your Book: The Complete Guide for Memoir and Nonfiction Authors

Every memoir, every leadership book, every story drawn from real life runs into the same wall: the people in your story are real. Your ex-partner. Your difficult parent. The colleague who betrayed you. The mentor who changed your life. The client who became a friend. Writing about them is not optional — they are the story. But writing about them carelessly can create legal exposure, damage relationships that matter, and produce a book that feels like a score-settling exercise rather than a genuine piece of work. Here is everything I know, after 30 years, about how to do it right.
A woman with her hands in her hair, mid shout, in front of a white wall

Traditional vs. Self-Publishing vs. Hybrid: Which Is Right for You in 2026?

You Googled "how to publish a book" and now you're more confused than when you started. Traditional. Self. Hybrid. Vanity. Assisted. Partner. The terminology alone is enough to close the tab and go back to not writing the book. After 30 years as a publishing strategist and ghostwriter, here's the clearest, most honest breakdown of the 3 real options — and the 1 question that makes the choice obvious.
A luxury hotelier. An IP lawyer. A leader who survived apartheid and an abusive marriage. Three books. Three completely different lives on the other side. These are the stories of what happened after.

What Happened After the Book: 3 Stories From Word Magic Authors

People ask me all the time whether writing a book is worth it. I never answer that question in the abstract, because the abstract doesn't tell you anything useful. What tells you something is the specific. The hotelier who had been trying to write his book for 5 years, who doubled his speaking fees within months of publication. The lawyer who wanted to be the foremost authority in her field — and became exactly that. The leader who came to write one book and discovered she needed to write a completely different one — the one she'd kept off the table her entire life. These are their stories.
Crystal Adair-Benning smiling to camera in a blue top

How Much Does a Book Coach Cost? The Complete Pricing Guide for 2026

The honest answer to how much a book coach costs is: it depends enormously — and the price alone will tell you almost nothing useful about whether the coach is worth it. A $200 hourly session with someone who has spent 30 years producing New York Times bestsellers delivers a fundamentally different thing than a $200 hourly session with someone who completed a coaching certification last year. This guide breaks down what you're actually buying at each price point, what to ask before you commit, and how to think about the investment in terms of what the book is worth to your life and career.
Word Magic Crystal Adair-Benning ghostwriter

What Is The Word Magic Method — And How Does It Work?

Most book coaching processes produce books. The Word Magic Method™ was built to produce books that change things — and the difference almost never comes down to the writing. It comes down to what happens before a single word is written. Here's the complete 5-phase process I've used across hundreds of books and 4 New York Times bestselling collaborations, and why strategy before story changes everything.