What is a ghostwriter?
A ghostwriter is someone you hire to write a book for you. You may have some great ideas for a book or you may have accumulated a lot of research but struggle with how to turn your ideas or research into a book because you lack the skills or time to do it yourself. This is when using a ghostwriting service can help you to achieve your goal.
If you decide to use a ghostwriter, you won’t be alone. From celebrities and sportspeople to politicians and professionals, many of these use a ghostwriting service to write their books if they don’t have the time or skill to do it themselves.
The process
Recorded interviews between you (the client/author) and the ghostwriter, are at the heart of a ghostwritten book. The interviews can be done by telephone, online or face-to-face. This is how a ghostwriter gets to know you and starts to build up a picture of you and the stories you want to tell. This isn’t just a simple transcription job. A ghostwriter will take your words and turn them into prose which reflects your voice (i.e. your personality, your use of words and expressions etc.).
Many aspiring authors can tell great stories and captivate an audience with their amusing anecdotes but they don’t have the writing skills or know where or how to start writing. Beyond the interviews which capture your ideas and stories, a ghostwriter will go on to manage all of the things you struggle with from structuring, writing and editing, to preparing your book for printing, publishing and finding a publisher.
There are different ways in which a ghostwriter can work a client. The ghostwriter can go away armed with all of the information they have gathered during the interviews and write a complete first draft. They then meet up with their client to discuss what needs to be changed, added, removed etc. before producing the final version. However, typically it will take a few more meetings before the final manuscript is perfect.
Alternatively, some clients might be happier if the ghostwriter shows them a couple of chapters at a time so as any issues can be addressed during the writing process.
Ghostwriting nonfiction genres
Although biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, life stories and family histories are some of the most common nonfiction genres that ghostwriters are hired to write it is not limited to these. How-to books, business and management guides, company and business histories, technical guides, social and local history, self-help guides – these are just some other examples of where a ghostwriter service is often used by people who have the ideas but lack the writing skills and experience.
Why use a ghostwriter?
If you have the ideas or you’ve done the research but don’t have the skills to turn it into a book, then look no further. I am a very experienced writer and editor and I have helped a number of clients produce their life stories and I have recently been awarded a Distinction in a Ghostwriting Business Diploma.
I am also the founder and author of the Beginners Guide to Writing website and the writer and publisher of two handbooks How to Write Your Family History Piece by Piece and Getting Started as a Writer: Practical Tips for Writers of Nonfiction.
I am happy to consider any type of nonfiction project so please contact me to find out how I can help you turn your dream of a book into a reality.
Also check out my blog Could a ghostwriter help you write your story?