How To Ghostwrite - Confidentially

Today I am thrilled to share a guest blog post from Karen Cole, Executive Director of Ghost Writer, Inc. 

When Karen and I were discussing topics, instead of asking for a "how-to" blog post, I asked her about her motivations for ghostwriting.

"I have always wondered why writers would choose to ghostwrite for someone else, the benefits of ghostwriting, and how (if ever) a ghostwriter can build a resume without breaking confidentiality." 

Her response has given me quite a bit to consider. As a writer, this is always a good thing.

How to Ghostwrite - Confidentially

By Karen Cole

I chose to be a freelance professional ghostwriter for a lot of different reasons. But mostly, the money is good, the clients aren’t overly demanding, and I get to learn something new from each new writing or editing project I undertake. Each client has fresh new ideas, and these cover a wide variety of subjects. I enjoy writing for someone else, because it can be hard to come up with your own writing ideas, and this way I have a readymade set of someone else’s ideas from which to work. It makes it fairly easy to sketch out a framework of strictly pure writing, and to fill it in with the client’s main plot and idea structures – with my own professional twists on them.

The benefits of ghostwriting are many, including the ones I mentioned above. A lot of people mention the money. In the field of freelance writing, ghostwriting is probably the most lucrative form of a steady living of writing; most long-term professional ghostwriters make over 100K per year, usually by taking on only two or three writing projects over a year. I myself like to work with new writers, who typically have lower budgets, and I also mainly do copy editing lately, being semi-retired. I have other writing income, so I don’t have to worry too much about money, but in ghostwriting it is good enough to make a steady career out of it.

Any ghostwriter can build a resume simply by taking on some writing work where they are allowed to mention their name, such as writing articles and getting these published online, contributing to literary arts magazines, writing journalism news and entertainment or “op-ed” pieces, etc. You can always list those on your resume, but if you need to list ghost writing pieces to show these to your incoming clientele, the best method is to get permission from your ghostwriting clients to at least mention their projects in general terms, with no names traceable to the clients. Also, you can ask some of your clients to list you on their book covers. There are ways to do this, such as using the infamous “As told to…” method. You can also ask to be a coauthor with your clients, and get listed as one of the actual authors this way.

Finally, you can even field out some of the ghost writing work you get to other people. I recommend arranging for a website to advertise your services, and if you do this, you will probably find more work coming in than you can handle by yourself. This happened to me when I first started having a website; over time I have amassed a huge team of ghostwriters and editors, plus marketing and promotions personnel, to handle all of the incoming work. It helps supplement my writing and editing income, and I feel like I’ve gained a lot in management skills by fielding out so much work to other writers and editors. And I can always take on the “choice” projects myself, too.

Ghost Writer, Inc. has your ghostwriter! GWI features affordable ghost writing for you, including book, memoir, script and screenplay marketing, promotions, sales, and publishing or optioning assistance, all for some very reasonable, inexpensive prices.

I Finished My First Draft...Now What?

As an editor who is also working on a first draft, I am well aware that writing the first draft is by far the hardest part of the process. Once the first draft is finished, an author sometimes feels like they should go ahead and send it to an editor to "clean up" for them. Don't do this. I repeat, DO NOT DO THIS - DO NOT SEND ANYONE YOUR FIRST DRAFT. Often, an author is hurredly trying to write their ideas down before they are lost forever. The resulting "first draft" is usually a jumbled mess of ideas, misspelled words, and fragmentary sentences. Occasionally two character names are the same, or very similar; sometimes locations change unexpectedly. Blond-haired beauties toss their raven locks dramatically. This is bad, especially if you are paying someone unfamiliar with your story to try to sort it all out. What should an author do at this point? 


1. Reread your manuscript. This will take a bit of time, since you will invariably need to make changes. Go ahead and make them.

2. You probably typed the manuscript into a word processor. Use the built-in tools to your advantage. Run a spelling and grammar check. If you are using Word, Microsoft provides the Readability Statistics for your document once the spelling and grammar check is complete. The report gives you counts for words, characters, paragraphs, and sentences. It give you averages: sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, and characters per word. Most importantly, it gives you the readability information: percentage of passive sentences, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. This information is very important, especially if your writing is age-specific. The higher the Flesch Reading Ease score and lower Flesch-Kincaid Grade Levels, the easier a document is to read. Lower Flesch Reading Ease and Higher Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores indicate more complex text. 


3. Have someone that you trust to give you brutally honest feedback read the manuscript. Make sure you are clear about what you want when requesting this read-through. Some things to have them look for are consistency, clarity of ideas, and logical flow. If your subject deals with technical details not familiar to the general public, make sure to clarify terms and concepts. I discovered the importance of this when I sent out copies of "The Fear Below" to my beta readers, all of whom were science fiction or horror fans, but two of them were non-scuba divers. They pointed out that I had used scuba-specific acronyms and ideas that were completely unfamiliar to the general public. Remember, the readers that seem harsh and critical are often going to give you the best advice. If it is too painful to your ego to dwell on their criticism (it always is for me) skim through their response (assuming it is written), then don't look at it for a few days. When you look at it again, you will be more prepared to hear what they are saying.


4. Make all of these cumulative changes before you ever even consider sending your manuscript to an editor. 


If you follow these steps, what you will be turning over to your editor will in actuality be a second or third draft free of typos and glaring errors. Your editor will thank you.