B. Jeffrey Madoff hired ghostwriter Jody Lipper to sell his book proposal to Hachette, then worked with a professional editor to cut anything that wasn't essential. His film editing background taught him that ruthless editing matters across all creative work.
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What was that, um, like whole process, uh, for you like, meaning, um, finding a publisher and also the writing of the book? Like, how did you, uh, what was that creative process like for you to finish it?
Well, the first place it started was, uh, I realized that writing the pitch for a book, the treatment, is, you know, way different than writing the book. So I actually met somebody quite by accident that she— that's what she does. She's a ghostwriter. She writes the books, but she also writes the proposals. Oh, so, so, uh, she's— I realized when I saw— I asked to see some treatments and I realized, uh, well, this is nothing like I would write, and She said, you're going to hate the treatment because it's all hyperbolic bullshit because it's how they're going to market and sell the book. So that's what a treatment is. Why should the publisher buy this book? Because they want to buy books that sell, you know. So why will this sell? So in the case of my book, there's a number of high-profile people interviewed. So the hope is, like Damon John, who's also a friend, posted about my book. Tim Ferriss posted about my book. That gives you good PR, if you will. And again, it has nothing to do with what the contents of the book are. And the publishers want to know, well, you've got Daymond John in there, he's got a big megaphone, will he give you an endorsement? Will Tim Ferriss give you an endorsement? You know, it's that sort of a thing. So I hired somebody to write the proposal because I knew that I didn't know how to do it and that doing it would exhaust me and bore me about the whole process. And I wanted to write a book that had some real life to it. And that's where I would be best putting my energy. And you can find people at all different price ranges to do it, but it's a good thing to do. So I hired Jody Lipper, who was fantastic, who did it. And I wrote the book. And I wanted to write the book. And, you know, I know how to write. But I also know that I need a good editor. I needed an editor who could keep the path flowing. You become blind to your own work at a certain point. So you need somebody who can say, well, you know, you said this 3 pages ago. Or you said essentially the same thing 3— you know, we become blind to it. You can't— judge your own stuff. Other people have to get eyes on it and give you comments. Knowledgeable people need to do that. And so when I, uh, when we sold the book to Hachette, I hired a good editor, and it was great because I learned from her. She kept it really on the beam and kept the book focused. And so it was, it was a very good collaboration. And I ended up with a book that I'm proud of. And, you know, I don't have a problem saying, I think, you know, to the right person, I think this book would be of real value to you. I think it's got a lot of really valuable ideas, thanks to the guests that I have and all that. I'm proud of what I did. And, but that's the process, right? First is a proposal to sell it. And then when you get that, when you get the book sold, and I would say don't write the whole book and try to sell a finished book, you sell from that proposal or treatment. And then working with a good editor when you're writing the book so that it's not repetitive, it's not boring, it doesn't meander. And you need to ask yourself, and I think this is true in every creative field, ask the question, is this essential? And anything that's not essential, cut it out. And my years as a film editor really taught me just how to be ruthless in terms of, 'cause I write with velocity and the stuff that I edit has got a speed to it. And so you want to sort of shed all the ballast, and you just want to keep the things going that propel things forward. So to ask yourself, is this essential? Whether you're talking about a sentence, a paragraph, or even a chapter is critical to doing good creative work. And that's true if you're painting, if you're doing a play, if it's a piece of music. What you take out and what you leave in is critical to the creative process.
