Q: What is ghostwriting?
A: Ghostwriting is the act of creating written materials using someone else’s ideas, intent, and perspective while maintaining that person’s particular voice, color, and style. Ghostwriting comprises a distinct craft, encompassing but extending beyond standard writing craft. It requires specific skills, techniques, and underlying theory unique to the occupation.
Ghostwriting is a vocation rather than an avocation, a profession rather than a job. Ghostwriters can readily utilize their skills to write their own books; writers cannot as easily exploit their expertise to ghostwrite for other authors.
Q: What’s the difference between writing and ghostwriting?
A: Writing is all about putting one’s thoughts, emotions, and soul into words. A writer can put your ideas into the best words and strongest, most compelling voice possible. They know how to create nonfiction books and novels that capture and hold the reader’s attention, so the final draft they produce for you will be strong and effective. The downside? It will also read as if they wrote it in their own words, because they probably did. Writers know how to write, so if you hire one, expect your manuscript to sound like him or her.
Ghostwriting is all about putting someone else’s thoughts, emotions, and soul into that person’s words for them. Ghostwriters arrange your ideas in your words and voice so your nonfiction book or novel reads exactly the way you would want it written if you had the time, experience, and training to write it yourself. They have the objectivity to uncover deal breakers before, during, or after the writing process, and the skills to correct those stumbling blocks while maintaining your voice, your intent, and your perspective. They know how to ghostwrite, so if you hire one, expect your manuscript to sound like you.
BTW: a collaboration between colleagues does not produce the same results as working with a collaborator. Collaborators, for the most part, are not professional writers or ghostwriters. Rather, they tend to be aspiring authors looking to break into the writing business by using your book as their training ground. This is the reason they work “on spec,” or for a percentage of the book rather than for a flat fee or fee plus percentage. Most of the time, they just don’t know any better.
Q: How does ghostwriting work?
A: When you’re starting with just an idea, the process begins with you and the ghostwriter getting together (in person, on the phone, through email) to talk about what your story, your theory, your experiences, your opinions, or whatever else you want to share with your readers. From those discussions, the ghostwriter creates a chapter outline, which you review and change as you feel necessary—you are in charge; the ghost is there to guide, draw out the information, and weave the pieces into a manuscript. Once you’re satisfied with the chapter breakdown, you and the ghost record everything you want to say in chapter one. The ghost writes the chapter based on the recording’s transcript and sends it to you for review and changes—any and all changes you want. It’s your book. The ghostwriter facilitates your creation. This process is repeated until all the chapters are finished; then the ghost puts all the material into one long document and does a full-manuscript edit on the entire work. The resulting draft is then sent to a cold-eye, third party for proofing. After the ghost corrects everything the reader finds, the final draft is delivered to you, ready for submission to literary agents, e-publishers, publishing services, or design houses for self-publishers.
If you already have a manuscript, the ghostwriter first performs an Analysis & Recommendations to determine the work’s strengths and uncover any and all potential deal-breakers: those issues in the first 3-5 chapters that might stop a literary agent, acquisition editor, or trade reader. Based on the A&R, you and the ghost decide which suggestions to act upon: i.e., the best way to rearrange, cut down, strengthen, or tighten up what you’ve written so the manuscript says exactly what you want it to say the way you want to say it. Once those decisions are made, the process follows the same order as above, with recorded interviews necessary only for that material or pieces of the story you and the ghost have mutually determined need to be added.
Q: How long does it take to ghostwrite a book, and how much does it cost?
A: In the broadest, most general terms, nonfiction takes between four and ten months; fiction takes between 10 and 14 months. Memoirs require at least six months but can take as long as 12.
Unless the project takes less or more time than noted above.
As to expense, nonfiction can cost in the $20-45,000 range, fiction between $35,000 to $75,000, and memoirs anywhere from $30,000 to $75,000, depending upon the life being chronicled.
Unless the manuscript requires less or more work than the average range.
Here’s the hard truth: anyone who quotes a price or a time frame before they’ve looked at your material or sat down and talked to you about your unwritten project is an amateur. And anyone who charges significantly less (or more) than the above ranges is likely just getting started in their career, dabbling in ghostwriting as a sideline, or unwittingly demonstrating a lack of knowledge about their chosen profession.
Professional always read before they quote. Always.
Q: If a ghostwriter writes my book for me, doesn’t that mean it’s not mine anymore?
A: No. If a writer, collaborator, or bylined author writes you book for you, more than likely it won’t feel like yours anymore. If a ghostwriter writes your book for you, it means the ideas are yours, the story is yours, the words are yours, the intent is yours, the perspective is yours, and the proposed audience is yours. Traditional ghostwriters do not put their voice in the text, their byline on the cover, or their name on the copyright.
Q: How do I know you’re not going to steal my material?
A: If you’re talking about a screenplay, your concerns are understandable. Deserved or not, Hollywood has a terrible reputation for playing fast and loose with people’s ideas.
If you’re in the academic or scientific world, once again you may have cause for concern. Tales, if not actual incidents, of professional plagiarism and even outright theft are sadly rampant.
But these problems are rare in the book world, especially when you work with professional ghostwriters. They’re not looking for ideas to write their own books; they make their living writing books for other people. It’s a different mindset. It’s a professional lookout. It’s a standard of the ghostwriting industry.
And it’s another reason to confine your search for help to certified ghostwriters, for whom ghostwriting is a profession, not a sideline or hobby.
It’s that complexly simple.
