Before You Say Anything: The Untold Stories and Failproof Strategies of a Very Discreet Speechwriter

Speech ghostwriter Wellman blends career memoir and public speaking advice in her colorful if cursory debut. “It used to be presumed that speaking in public required confidence and charisma and was a skill exercised only by the elite.... But all that has changed. The technology revolution has raised the stakes for everyone,” she writes. As a result, eloquence has become increasingly important because social media amplifies everyone’s “personal manifesto.” She recounts a variety of entertaining anecdotes about speeches she’s helped her clients write: there’s a woman who wanted help writing her eulogy while she was still alive, a porn star preparing to speak at a university, and an astronaut giving a talk at a famous planetarium. Wellman’s writing is humorous and candid (“Dick Clark can s*** it,” she writes), but she’s oddly short on specifics about what can make or break a great speech. Her chapter on delivery, for example, focuses mostly on punctuation and typography and relegates such fundamental public speaking aspects as volume, rhythm, inflection, and projection to one-word mentions. Readers looking for some speech-writing nitty-gritty will find it here, but those in need of help taking it in front of an audience may be left wanting. (Apr.)