Bio
Melanie Votaw has been a full-time professional book author, ghostwriter, editor, and book coach for more than 20 years. She specializes in self-help books, memoirs, and book proposals as a coach, ghostwriter, and developmental editor. Literary agents and publishers regularly recommend her to authors as a ghostwriter, editor, or coach.
She has written 43 nonfiction books – 11 on a variety of subjects under her own name (six published by Running Press/Perseus Books) – and she has ghostwritten an additional 32 books, which have been published by such houses as Macmillan, Hay House, Perseus, New World Library, Little Brown, and Hyperion, among others. These include 11 books ghostwritten for Hay House authors.
Melanie has also developmentally edited another 75+ books that have been published by Penguin Random House, Hay House, and others, and books that she has ghostwritten or edited have won 50+ awards, including the Best Beach Books Festival Grand Prize. Three of these books have been on The New York Times Best Seller List.
That’s a total of 100+ books that Melanie has authored, ghostwritten, or edited!
Book proposals that she has ghostwritten and edited have gone into auction and sold to publishers such as Penguin Random House, Hay House, New Harbinger, and Little Brown.
She frequently ghostwrites and edits for psychotherapists, life coaches, doctors, entrepreneurs, and executives.
Melanie works with authors who want to write their own self-help books in her robust Finish Your Book Group Coaching Program and Finish Your Book Proposal Group Coaching Program, teaching them best practices for structuring and writing their books and helping them stay motivated from the first page to the last page.
Read what people are saying about Melanie and her work.
View Melanie’s full resume.
Books that Melanie has worked on have been endorsed by big names like Ken Blanchard, Marshall Goldsmith, Marianne Williamson, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Kris Carr, Caroline Myss, Doreen Virtue, Gabrielle Bernstein, Denise Linn, Kate Northrup, Nick Ortner, Iyanla Vanzant, Sonia Choquette, Dr. Barbara De Angelis, Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., Robert Holden, and more. Melanie’s work has also appeared on The New York Times Best Seller List.
She primarily focuses on self-help, popular business, psychology, spirituality, medicine/health, and nutrition/food.
Melanie is a magna cum laude college graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in English. She is a member of the Authors Guild and the Association of Ghostwriters, as well as four travel writer organizations.
Melanie at the Nubian Village in Aswan, Egypt. One of the first things they do is plop a baby crocodile on your head and take a photo. Melanie felt sorry for the crocodile, but it did result in this funny photo.
5 Fun Facts About Melanie
- She’s a travel writer and bird watcher who loves to see the world. To date, she’s been to more than 50 countries on 6 continents. Her travel adventures have included riding a microlight over Victoria Falls in Africa, taking a yodeling class in Switzerland, looking for a rare hummingbird at nearly 12,000 feet in Ecuador, attending a waltz ball in Vienna, taking a yacht cruise in the Galapagos Islands, and wearing period clothing in Quebec City.
- As a New Yorker, she hasn’t been behind the wheel of a car in many years. In fact, she’s thinking of taking driving lessons again.
- Melanie moved to New York from Kentucky to become an actress/singer/dancer before deciding she wanted to be a writer instead. She still performs now and then.
- She’s brave about a lot of things, but don’t ask her to ride a rollercoaster or most other amusement park rides. This is where she draws the line.
- She once gave up chocolate for several months but hopes to never do that again!
“Melanie is a total pro and a pleasure to work with. My clients have truly benefitted from and enjoyed collaborating with Melanie on book proposals and books that sell.”
~ Wendy Sherman, Wendy Sherman Associates, Inc. Literary Management
“Melanie has been incredible to work with. She has such depth of knowledge when it comes to wellness and mindfulness that I felt as though she understood me, my story, and my method of teaching… I can’t recommend her enough!”
~ Erin Stutland, author of Mantras in Motion
“There are not many things in this world that are all they are cracked up to be. You, Melanie, are all you are cracked up to be and more.”
~ David King, book author and personal trainer
“Melanie is warm, friendly, talented, accessible, and quick-minded. She is so well-versed in the publishing industry that she’s able to easily convey ideas and offer suggestions. Oh, and here’s the other thing she offered besides all her nuts-n-bolts expertise: she gave me tons of support! That meant so much to me as I was in the writing process. I would definitely work with Melanie again!”
~ Sherry Richert Belul, celebration book artist, author, and awareness coach
Journalism
As a journalist, Melanie has written for Best Self Magazine, Woman’s Day, Business Insider, and a variety of other publications. She also maintains a travel blog called Trip Out on Travel, and she covers film, television, theater, dance, and music as an entertainment correspondent / reviewer for Broadway World and Reel Life With Jane.
Fiction and Poetry
More than 50 of Melanie’s poems have been published in the literary magazines of six countries, including The Lullwater Review, American Writing, and Folio. She has also won poetry awards and served for years as a volunteer workshop leader for the homeless under the auspices of the New York Writers Coalition. Her fiction has been published in such book anthologies as “Five Minute Erotica” and “More Five Minute Erotica.”
Speaking
Please visit the APPEARANCES page for more information about how to hear Melanie speak or book her for your group or event.
Photography
Morocco’s Sahara Desert by Melanie Votaw
Melanie is an accomplished travel and nature photographer whose work has appeared in the books Hummingbirds: Jewels on Air, The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure, and The Ultimate Bird Lover. Her images have won awards, have been exhibited, and have been used in marketing materials. Her photograph of the Amazon River was turned into a mural at the Texas State Aquarium for their rainforest exhibit. Watch for her upcoming Photoshelter site to see her work, which can be purchased for use in publications, marketing materials, or as fine art prints.
Singing
In addition to her work as a writer, photographer, and speaker, Melanie is a trained singer with a background as an actress and dance instructor. She occasionally performs in solo cabaret acts in New York City.
View Melanie’s full resume.