Booksology Ghostwriter’s Memoirs are New Wealth Status Symbols
Wealthy retirees spend up to $100,000 delegating ghostwriting memoirs, saying that many “want to know how hard their children were.” Ah, ironic. This trend has become so popular that the cottage industry was born to support it, with some older people using all the comprehensive services they combine with for multiple sessions with them before handing over the transcript to ghostwriters who draw the transcript into a cohesive story. The Cleveland-based wealth management company that has been able to have more than $10 million will receive a “free” ghostwriter memoir as a perk offered “to ease clients’ fears that their heirs don’t understand the value of hard work.” If I resist the urge to roll my eyes all the way back to the back of my head while the Boomer tweeted about how he really ruined it for the rest of us, I can find sympathy for the end of life concerns about leaving behind the legacy. After all, we all want to be seen. But 100 Grand? It certainly feels excessive. And exploitative? ! Probably that too. Storyworth does this for you for $99 and I say it, this might actually be a great use case for AI.
Hank Green wants to help you focus
Are you struggling to concentrate on your book? Created in collaboration with Honey B Games, Hank Green’s new Focus Friends app is here to help. Charged for gaming an “ADHD-friendly focus timer,” Focus Friend introduces anthropomorphized beans that you want to sit in your room and knit. I named my beanuReeves.
Today is a book
Sign up today with the book to receive daily news and more from the book world.
I set a focus time of 5 minutes to 2 hours, then pick up my phone and I interrupt the knitting of the beans (I can’t believe that’s the sentence I wrote.
It’s like the animal intersection has sinned you away from Tiktok. A bean’s finished knitting project becomes a decoration for that room, and when you upgrade to a Pro subscription, the bean has more access to fancy projects (such as scarves). True to the green atmosphere, the beans even encourage when they fail.
I’ve been a longtime fan of the forest app. This is basically the same idea, but instead of supporting Bean’s creative efforts, they grow trees.
According to Goodreads, the most anticipated fall book
2025 has been a rather quiet year for books up until now, but it seems like the fall lineup is about to change everything. The most anticipated books of the Goodreads user season include the new Ian McEwan. My sister, serial killerCory Doctorow’s much-anticipated book-length meditation, about how and why the internet has become so silly, and yes, about an entire section dedicated to romanticism. What’s on your list?
