By Deborah Holmen, M.Ed., NBCT, CLC Eye-level view of a writer’s desk with a notebook and pen Memoir Ghostwriting for Leaders, Clinicians, and Lived-Experience Authors Writing a memoir is personal work. It's your voice, your lived experience, your truth on the page. Sometimes the story you're carrying needs a partner who can shape it into a book that holds together and lands with the readers you want to reach. I'm Deborah Holmen — author, freelance writer, and memoir ghostwri

By Deborah Holmen, M.Ed. NBCT A doctor learning the stories of her patients. Most of the people who reach out to me have been carrying a book idea for months. Sometimes years. They're physicians, therapists, nurses, integrative practitioners, recovery coaches, parents who walked through something hard with a child. They've sat with patients and clients in their most vulnerable moments. They've stood beside loved ones in hospital rooms. They've gathered insights that could gen

Ghostwriting a medical or health memoir feels like sitting in a confessional: I’m trusted with the most intimate stories and hold them sacred until my client is ready to see them on the page. My work is to listen for the true voice beneath the facts, then shape a narrative that honors what happened without polishing away the messy middle. Memoirs still matter because they tell the human truth—clearly, bravely, and without performance.

Ghostwriting is one of publishing's worst-kept secrets. Alexander Hamilton used ghostwriters. So did most U.S. presidents. The questions I field from curious friends and potential clients indicate genuine interest in how this works. So here's everything you've wondered about ghostwriting: the ethics, the cost, the process, and how to find the right partner for your book.