Cheryl Rickman biography

Cheryl Rickman writes books on the big world of business from a small village in Hampshire.

After working in editorial for three years post graduation, Cheryl joined an online information publisher and wrote a number of booklets about internet business and web marketing. In 1999, Cheryl decided to combine running her own internet business with a freelance writing career; focusing on entrepreneurship, business start-up and company growth.

What sets Cheryl apart from many writers in her field is that she has experience of starting up and running her own businesses. She started her first internet business, aged 25. WebCritique was a web usability and content consultancy which she sold in 2005 to focus on writing. Clients included Microsoft, Business Link and Motorola.

Additionally, together with her partner, Cheryl co-founded ilikemusic.com (I Like Music) in 2000, which her partner continues to run. During her time as Editor of ilikemusic.com, Cheryl spent seven years interviewing popstars and developing the business.

Indeed, from popstar Katie Melua to rapper 50 Cent; from a death row prisoner to multi-millionaire business leaders, Cheryl has interviewed a variety of incredible people with extraordinary stories to tell.

Fifteen years after beginning her writing career, Cheryl continues to bring the stories of successful people to life. She's interviewed more than 100 entrepreneurs running businesses of all sizes, from one-man bands to large corporations; equally dedicated, passionate and insightful.

Founding and running two businesses from the age of 25 taught Cheryl about survival and enhanced what she was learning as a writer. This combination of knowledge and understanding gave her the confidence to write her first best-seller, Probably the best book for Start-Ups ever written!

Cheryl's first book, The Small Business Start-Up Workbook went straight to number one in the Start-Ups category on Amazon when it was published back in 2005. It has remained in the top ten of the best-seller charts in its categories ever since. The late great Dame Anita Roddick kindly wrote the Foreword to this book.

Since then Cheryl has ghostwritten a number of best-selling books, including Sunday Times Bestseller, Tycoon, for Peter Jones of BBC Dragons' Den fame, and Born Global by Neal Gandhi of Quickstart Global. She also contributed to 1000 CEOs and recently ghostwrote From Vision To Exit: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Building and Selling a Business for Smith & Williamson.

Cheryl lives near Winchester, with her partner and their daughter.

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How I Found the Agency

All of the best service providers tend to come via direct recommendation. That's certainly how I found Andrew Lownie. I had e-mailed fellow author/ghostwriter, Andrew Crofts, known in the industry as "the king of modern ghostwriters" to ask if he could recommend a suitable literary agent. He suggested I try Andrew. So I called Andrew that day and he immediately invited me to send him some information.

We met shortly afterwards and I was impressed by his advice, his pedigree within the industry and his genuine love for books. Later that day, when I opened the Writers & Artists Yearbook to read what it said about Andrew's agency, I opened the 822 page book on the exact page that listed The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency. That was enough for me. The fact that he specialises in non-fiction and is well-respected within the industry is, of course, an added bonus.

Within a week of our meeting I had signed up to the agency, by which time Andrew had already lined up meetings for me with top publishers and provided invaluable guidance on a book proposal I'd been working on. I am bursting with enthusiasm and confident that I have found the perfect person to represent me in my career, both as a ghostwriter and an author.