Today we’d like to introduce you to Barry Fox and Nadine Taylor.
Barry and Nadine, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Barry: As a college student, I really wanted to be a Broadway playwright. But while studying playwriting at USC, I began writing health articles for my father, a physician. I honestly never thought of being an author until Dad and I got a contract to write a health book for Simon & Schuster and I coauthored what, to my surprise, became a national bestseller.
Although I still wasn’t thinking of pursuing a career as a nonfiction writer, I continued to write articles and books with Dad, and soon had a very nice resumé as a coauthor. Striking out on my own, I moved into other genres, including business, memoir, and, of all things, clowning. Yes, way back when I edited two books on clowning!
Then one of my books, The Arthritis Cure, became a New York Times #1 bestseller. My career blossomed and I was offered the job of coauthoring a memoir about Princess Diana’s last days, Diana & Dodi: A Love Story.
Since then, I’ve focused on business books, political books, and memoirs, working primarily as a ghostwriter. But happily, I often don’t work alone! For the past many years, I’ve worked on numerous projects with my wife and partner, Nadine Taylor, which makes everything a lot more fun.
Nadine: Like Barry, I never thought of becoming a nonfiction writer, or any other kind of writer, even though ever since I was a very little girl my teachers had praised my writing. Much later, as a Registered Dietitian with a master’s degree in nutrition, I thought my future lay in counseling clients and working in a hospital. But when I met Barry shortly after graduation and we turned one of my nutrition papers into a magazine article that paid $1,000, I thought, “Hey, maybe there’s something for me in the writing field!”
I got my first book writing assignment when Kensington Publishing asked Barry and his father to write a book on the health benefits of green tea for such a small fee that they had to turn it down. Since I was more than willing to do it to get started, Barry made a deal with the publisher: If they didn’t like what I wrote, he would rewrite it until they did – for free. The publisher went for it. I wrote the book and Barry didn’t have to change a thing. Eventually, Green Tea: The Natural Secret for a Healthier Life sold 80,000 copies!
Since then, I have written numerous books as sole author, co-author, or ghostwriter, most of which have focused on women’s issues or memoirs by women.
Where We Are Today: We are chameleons, and enjoy “becoming” the people we ghostwrite books for. Nadine recently ghostwrote a business book for the founder of the #1 business seminar company in the U.S., as well as a family history/memoir for a rags-to-riches couple who built a $2 billion oil business. Barry is currently wrapping up a memoir written by two survivors of apartheid, and delving into a book on company culture for the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. One of his favorite assignments was writing a book about living your best life with the former COO of Toys ‘R Us.
A surprise benefit of ghostwriting is we get to travel quite a bit to conduct research for our projects, and our travels have taken us to some very interesting places including steel plants, fabulous art museums, Norwegian fjords, Russian cathedrals, and even geisha performances in Japan!
Has it been a smooth road?
As with most freelancers, our major challenge has been keeping the clients coming. The publishing industry has changed radically over the past two decades, and we’ve had to constantly reinvent ourselves to stay current and appeal to as many clients as possible.
In addition, most clients are one-timers; that is, not many come back for second and third books. This means we have to continually find new clients, and change our ways of doing so. For example, early on our business came through literary agents, while today it comes almost entirely through the internet. In days past, we dealt only with mainstream publishers, while today, many of our clients ask us to handle self-publication for them. Our business is constantly progressing, so we, too, must continually learn and grow.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are authors and ghostwriters of highly-praised memoirs, business books, art books and more. Our collective resume includes New York Times and international bestsellers.
For us, ghostwriting a book is like mining raw ore and turning it into precious metal. It takes some digging and exploration. It also requires the ability to recognize beauty in its early form before turning it into something more valuable and significant. That’s what we do – and that’s what we find most fulfilling.
We love helping people explore their thoughts and push past what they absolutely know to find the hidden truths. We love building philosophies or plans on behalf of our clients. We also enjoy re-imagining memoir story arcs in various ways, always with the goal of grabbing the readers and making them really care.
We think of ourselves as confidential “pens for hire” who turn ideas and experiences into exciting, thought-provoking books.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We love L.A.! But as far as the business of ghostwriting is concerned, we don’t think it matters where we are. Our clients are spread all across the U.S., and many have been located abroad. In fact, at the moment, we’re writing books for clients in Switzerland, New Orleans, and San Diego. Part of our service is to go to where the client resides for several days of discussion – we’ve gone as far as Finland and Japan to do so! The rest of our work is done via phone, email, Skype, WhatsApp, or whatever.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://barryfox.us/
- Phone: 818-917-5362
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barryfoxghostwriter/
- Twitter: @BarryFoxWriter
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryjfox/
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
