About Us

Meet Michael Levin and the BusinessGhost Team

New York Times best selling author Michael Levin is an Amherst College graduate and Columbia Law School-trained attorney whose publishing career includes a remarkable 60+ works – six novels, eleven works of nonfiction, dozens of ghostwritten books, a commissioned screenplay and the script for a DVD series.

The author of three national bestsellers, Michael’s book Making Jack Falcone, with FBI agent Joaquin Garcia, has been optioned by Paramount and producer Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovitch, Ocean’s 11, Sex, Lies & Videotape).
Michael has also written books with Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, NBA star Doug Christie, Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, Operation HOPE CEO John Hope Bryant, therapist Sarah Brokaw, and many other celebrities and business leaders.

Michael’s books have received outstanding reviews in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New Yorker, Esquire, Newsweek, People Magazine, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Examiner, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, and other publications from coast to coast. He also consults to a broad variety of authors, ranging from international bestsellers to individuals seeking to become published authors.

People frequently ask me whether I started this business deliberately or whether I fell into it. I’d like to tell you that I had a master plan, but that’s not exactly how things happened.

I received my J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1985 and went to work as an attorney in Boston. There were only two problems—I didn’t like being a lawyer, and I kept failing the Bar. And this is in Massachusetts, where the only people who regularly fail the Bar aside from me…are the Kennedys.

Two years after graduating from Columbia, I was all but unemployable in Boston’s tight-knit legal community. No matter—I was in my late twenties, had minimal financial responsibilities (aside from student loans, of course), and had already sold three books, including two novels to Simon & Schuster. I figured that if I didn’t try to make it as a writer now, I never would.

Unfortunately, within four years, at the same time that my Columbia classmates were making partners at their firms, I was a starving writer literally. I was dead broke, and actually qualified for heating assistance in Massachusetts, because my annual income was so low.

Fifteen years ago, I met a man who became my business mentor and one of my best friends to this day. A highly successful restaurant owner, he told me that he had mentored a lot of creative people and that “You can’t do your best creative work when you’re wondering about how you’re going to pay your rent or put food on the table.”

He sat me down in the Dunkin’ Donuts in Cleveland Circle and showed me how to value my time in a business sense. He suggested that I offer private writing classes, because that would keep me involved with what I loved, writing, and would also bring in enough money to pay for my life so that I could keep on pursuing my dream with making it as a published author.

I rented space in a yoga studio, bought a white board and chairs, created fliers, and traipsed around the city of Boston, sticking my fliers in every store that would let me, while listening to Steven Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” on my Walkman. I initially offered two six-week classes at $150 per student. I filled the classes, taught them, and the two classes became four, and then six, and then eight, and I was now running a successful teaching business. The best news of all was that I still had time to write, and I wasn’t starving anymore!

In addition to teaching my own private classes, I was flying out to Southern California three times a year to teach writing classes at UCLA, and before long, I received an invitation to teach writing at New York University as well. My students began to ask me to consult with them on their manuscripts, and before long, they also invited me to co-write or ghostwrite their books for them.

At the same time, my own writing career took off, and over the years, I have published a total of six novels, including three with Simon & Schuster and two with Putnam/Berkley, and nonfiction books with a variety of other publishers. My own work has been published by Simon & Schuster, Random House, St. Martin’s Press, Beacon Press, and a variety of other top publishers. Over the years, I have also written for The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and a variety of other top outlets.

I ghostwrote my first book in 1986 while still in “starving writer” phase. Since then, the writers on the BusinessGhost team, myself included, have ghostwritten more than forty books for our clients, who come from the fields of finance, entrepreneurship, consulting, health care, technology, real estate, psychology, body/mind/spirit, and other fields.

Along the way, Disney optioned and made one of my novels into an ABC Sunday Night TV movie, Model Behavior. My wife and I were on our honeymoon in Hawaii when the movie was being shot in Toronto, so we cut short our time in Hawaii, flew to Toronto, and became extras in the movie. We only appear for a couple of seconds, but it’s long enough for our kids to get a big kick out of seeing us. (It’s only ten years ago, but we look so young!)

I’ve also had the privilege of working with many celebrities and top athletes, including Dave Winfield, a member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame, NBA star Doug Christie, broadcasters Leeza Gibbons and Jim Lampley, Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, and FBI super agent Joaquin Garcia, with whom I wrote the New York Times bestseller, Making Jack Falcone.

Falcone tells the true story of Garcia’s experiences of spending two and a half years undercover with the Mafia while working four other major undercover cases at the same time. While juggling five different identities, as well as his marriage and family, my coauthor was only two weeks away from being proposed for full membership in the Mafia when the FBI pulled him off the case, mostly for bureaucratic reasons. Steven Soderbergh bought the film rights to Garcia’s story, and Paramount has green-lighted the picture for production in late 2009.

So that’s where things stand today. BusinessGhost, Inc. has come a long way from those starving writer days back in Brookline, Massachusetts. Today, we have the unique privilege of serving a fascinating variety of highly successful, deeply knowledgeable individuals. The beautiful thing about working with our clients is that we’re always learning. If we can help you with your book, we would be delighted to do so. You can contact us toll-free at 800-637-6856 to see how we might be able to serve you.

Michael Levin, CEO, Business Ghost, Inc.

In addition to the typical business duties of a CEO, Michael fulfills the role of Executive Liasion and Editor, overseeing the work of his staff, supporting the interview and editing process, and ensuring that all of his company’s clients get top quality service and results. He plays a direct and integral part in both the Be Your Own Ghostwriter Coaching Service as well as his Premium Full Service Ghostwriting. He takes great pride in the skills and experience of his capable team of writers.

Bree Barton, Writer and Senior Editor

Bree serves as the primary writing and editing point of contact for all of our Business Ghost Inc. clients, transforming their words into revenue with her adeptness in business writing. Able to bridge the worlds of business and book writing with grace and agility, she gets rave reviews from her clients.

An accomplished and versatile writer, Bree has worked on over fifteen novels and nonfiction books as an editor and ghostwriter, and her work has been published in USA Today, The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, Cape Cod Voice, Glimpse Quarterly, and McSweeney’s. Bree also writes regularly for CapeCodToday, an online newspaper, and maintains her own humor blog.

Bree specializes in the skillful use of powerful and evocative words, focusing not only on their meaning but also their feel and tempo. An admitted word junkie, she works closely with clients to tell their story in words that fit them best rather than injecting her own personality into the text. Her gift is the ability to tell your story, in your words, in the best possible way. She is known for her wit, creativity, and professionalism.

Bree has been a member of the BusinessGhost team since 2005, working directly and extensively with our highest level clients. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College.

Teresa Spencer, Writer

Teresa joined the Business Ghost team in 2008. Since then, she has collaborated on over ten nonfiction books as a ghostwriter, editor, and personal writing coach. She has worked as a researcher and writer for the Hudson Institute and contributed to The Indianapolis Star’s book review section. Her short fiction has been recognized by three Prelude Awards for creative writing. Adept with the rhythm of language, Teresa is also a classically trained actress and has worked with Shakespeare & Company, Maryland Shakespeare Festival, and Synetic Theater. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College.

Bestselling author Scott Turow says, “Michael Levin is a discerning-and kind-writing coach who has won consistent plaudits from the many persons I’ve sent his way.”

Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing Manual, says, “Michael Levin shows writers exactly what they need to do to avoid rejection and find agents and publishers. I highly recommend him.”

Please click here for a more complete listing of Michael’s works