Want to learn how to hire a ghostwriter for a book? Read this!
You might not be superstitious, but there’s a type of ghost that lurks everywhere, especially in the creative industry. From music lyrics to books by some of your favorite authors—they are ghostwriters and you too can hire one for your book.
If you’re searching for how to hire a ghostwriter for a book, then you probably already know who they are, but for those who might not fully understand the concept of ghostwriters, the next part of this blog post is for you.
What is a Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a person hired to work behind the scenes to draft a manuscript for a book or write music lyrics for songs, or any other work of art. The main thing that separates ghostwriters from the authors of the book is that, a ghostwriter is paid to transfer all rights, including the rights to claim the project as their own to the client/person who hired them.
Since this article is about learning how to hire a book ghostwriter, here’s a simplified version. A book ghostwriter is someone hired to write a book for an author. Once the book is written and payment is made, the ghostwriter relinquishes any rights to the book. He cannot publish it, or even tell anyone he had any part in the creation of the book. Most importantly, he do not share in the profits made from selling the book afterwards.
So, basically, a book ghostwriter is a ghost behind which authors who face some challenges during writing process lean to solve and help make their books better.
Why Hire a Ghostwriter
There are many reasons why you should hire a ghostwriter for your book. But since working as a ghostwriter since 2020, I’ve come to realize that this simple reasons are why most clients hire ghostwriters for their books.
You don’t have the time to dedicate to your project
Writing requires a lot of commitment. For instance, writing a short story, can take anywhere from a week to a month, depending on how long you’ve been writing, and how much you know about writing stories.
But for most authors who have full time jobs, committing to a project that long can become a difficult or impossible task, you find yourself procrastinating and by the time you sit down to even get the first 500 words out, the year has gone by, and your dreams of becoming a published author going with it.
Ghostwriters like us stop this from happening. We have the experience, and delivering your project is basically our main focus. So, while you deal with every thing else, we make your dream come true.
Not very good at writing
As someone who grew up reading great authors, I sometimes envied them and their abilities to put words together. Out of curiousity, I tried to do the same, and I was able to. I realized years later that not everyone was fortunate as I was and grew up with that same intrigue and dream of being authors themselves but have not been able to put in the words like their favorite authors do.
Which is why I’ve sort out people like me with the keen interest in helping readers who want to be authors but do not know how to write through ghostwriting.
Need someone with experience and understanding of market trends
Another popular reason why people need ghostwriters is because they are relatively new to the industry, and while they might have ideas of what they want in their stories, they are not quite sure what is common or popular among readers today.
I mean, if you really think about it, authors want their books to sell. Whether you’re publishing on Amazon, Gumroad, or any other platform, having people read and enjoy your book is the dream behind every story and for that, they have to first buy your book.
Romance has numerous tropes but every now and then, one or two particular tropes are in more demand than others, and since the competition for indie authors is fierce, leveraging these popular tropes and market trends put authors in the best spotlight to sell more books.
Looking to build a consistent career
There are many aspects to building a career in publishing books than just writing a good book. If you’ve ever heard the saying don’t judge a book by its cover, it tells you that there are already people who wouldn’t open your book to judge it.
Building a career in writing involves managing the whole process, from creating book cover to promotion materials, down to running ads, and managing sales, or book signing—if that’s your thing.
But with all of these, it can be difficult to focus on the writing process or do everything yourself. A ghostwriter is there to help you write the book while you focus on other aspects of building your career.
How to Hire a Ghostwriter for a Book – Step by Step Guide
Now that we’ve cleared why people hire ghostwriters, it’s my belief that your reason for being here falls among one of the four I’ve mentioned, if not, just leave a comment letting me know, or send us a message.
But how do you hire a ghostwriter?
Hiring a ghostwriter for your book is simple.
Decide What Type of Book You want to Write
Before you decide you need a ghostwriter for your book, you need to decide what kind of book you want to write. Most ghostwriters—or at least the ones worth their shit—specialize in a particular type of book.
At Lets Write for You, we specialize in writing romance stories for authors looking to become romance authors.
But the truth is, you need to decide what kind of books you want to publish. Once you’ve decided on your book, you can move on to…
Create a Budget for Writing
Writing involves having your ghostwriter pour their creative intellect into the book they are writing and selling that book to you. So, of course, you’d not expect them to do it for free.
You need to allocate a fixed amount of money to writing your story. Once you have a budget, you can determine the ghostwriter who falls within your price range and ascertain the quality of their work.
Find a Ghostwriter
There are many places to find a ghostwriter for your book. You can find writers on popular platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, or even Reedsy or you can search on Google for the kind of writer you need.
If you’re searching for a romance ghostwriter, then you don’t need to go further. We are here for you.
We are also on Fiverr and have completed over 100 orders with 4.9 rating.
The good part of choosing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork is that whatever you pay remains in escrow until you are satisfied with the results of your project before the money is released to the ghostwriter.
Interview/Review Ghostwriter Portfolio
Once you’ve chosen the platform you want to use, and found writers that you like, the next step is to make sure they are actually good at what they do.
You want to make sure you avoid writers who do not have any sample projects related to what you’re looking for, and are unwilling to create at least 500 words of test sample for you to see their writing style and if it matches your desires.
You should also do a test project with a couple of ghostwriters, and see which one matches and delivers your project well.
Sign an NDA
Once you’ve chosen your ghostwriter, it’s time to have them sign an NDA. Any ghostwriter who refuses to sign an NDA either drafted by you or them, might have something fishy up their sleeves. So, once the project is ready to begin, and you’re ready to turn over your ideas completely, have the ghostwriter sign a contract that restricts them from sharing information about the project to anybody outside of their team.
Assign Project to Ghostwriter
Congrats! You’ve found your ghostwriter. It’s time to place your order. Here at Lets Write for You, we take a downpayment of 50% upfront before beginning work on the project and the second 50% is paid after we’ve completed the project and showed you up to half of what has been done.
Alternatively, we use Fiverr where you make full payment and it’s kept in escrow, and only released to us completion of the project.
Do you need a ghostwriter
Now you’re an expert in both finding and hiring a ghostwriter for your book. Do you need one? Send us a message.
