The Ghostwriting Process … What to Expect When You Hire an Expert to Write Your Book

Create your best book by hiring an expert … and save all that time to focus on what you do best!

So, you want to become an author but don’t have the time or know how?  That’s okay … that’s why a lot of people hire a ghostwriter.   

You don’t need a brilliant book idea.  You don’t need even a partially-written manuscript.  That’s my job.  What you do need is a real CARE for what you want to share with the rest of the world. 

Do you know how much attention a book in your name will bring you? 

It’s the ultimate business card – a real door-opener for media interviews and speaking engagements.  Some people use books as effective lead magnets, too, even setting up second businesses online off the back of them. 

 The biggest thing that holds people back from writing a book is time.  It takes a LOT of it – far more if you’re intent on doing it properly. Hiring a ghostwriter saves you precious time to focus on what you do best … and it will end up better written.   

 Have you tried to write but were disappointed with the way your words came out?  Some of writing well is down to talent … but a lot is down to know-how.  Creative writing is a learned craft.  It’s my belief that EVERY form of writing should be ‘creative writing’.  If it isn’t, it will end up being ‘unread writing’.

 First off, I’ll ask you a few fact-finding questions about you and your idea and introduce myself.  I am an author, writing mentor and speaker with a background in media copywriting, theatre and teaching creative writing at university.  I blend persuasive writing with reader-gripping, storytelling techniques.  There are too many half-baked business books out there … yours must not be one of them.

 We should be a good “fit”:  ghostwriting a book is a creative collaboration – a two-way street, even though you’ll only need to commit a couple of hours a week to it for about three months.  In contrast, I could spend up to a couple of days a week on it over six to nine months.  If you’re happy with that and your budget, then we can move to the next step and book a proper briefing. 

The creative briefing is when we discuss your book idea in depth:  your target market, what you want it to achieve for you, your voice, preferred tone and style, how many pages you want it to be and so on. 

 We’ll also set up a regular, weekly one-hour call for the first few months.  This is where we share information and feedback, and one of the main ways I get to know your voice.  I have a background in theatre and use my ability to get into character in my ghostwriting … one of my clients has remarked how eerie it was to hear his voice for the first time from the pages of a book.  Not many ghostwriters achieve this convincingly: it’s a skill that I’m proud of.

Along with the weekly call, you’ll send me voice clips, emails and notes on research, memories and anecdotes – the material that I can’t make up.  All of these provide me with the bones of the book enabling me to structure it carefully over the first several weeks. 

 The structure can take up to a third of the time scheduled for creating your book.  It’s the ‘roadmap’ for the journey … not entirely set in stone, but giving a solid idea of where we’re going, by what time and what we’re going to see when we get there.  Once that’s done, the first draft can happen quickly.

 This is when the magic happens. 

 Writing a good story takes craft as well as talent.  Even if your book is factual, I apply fiction-writing techniques to your narrative that add the ‘zing’ and really bring it to life.  Theme, characters, dialogue, pacing, setting and atmosphere … knowing how to work with these turns your non-fiction book into a thriller or a favourite bedtime story.  Your readers will LOVE you for it.

It takes around seven drafts to get this right – sometimes more.  Have you ever wondered why some non-fiction books are so dull?  It’s largely because the authors write the first draft and think that that’s it.  Just because someone is an expert at their job does NOT make them an expert writer. 

It takes time, patience, talent, knowledgeable crafting and in my case, over thirty years of professional experience to get it right.  For a book of between 150 to 200 pages, most authors typically pay a ghostwriter between eight and twelve grand.  It depends largely on how much research and initial work you’ve done and how much you need me to do.

I hope that this gives you a clearer picture of how the ghostwriting process works … and that you feel a lot closer to getting your book written well … the one with your name on it.

Jo C