Other Services Related to Book Ghost Writing
Very creating and insightful work, made my ramblings make sense! I loved the added details and the way my characters were brought to life. The writer was prompt in her responses and catered to all last-minute adjustments patiently. Thank you for your help. I appreciate it. 100% recommended.
Joseph Boucher
I rarely write reviews but this goes to the ghostwriter I hired. The process, from the selection of the writer to the final submission of my book, went smooth. I` loved how he stayed engaged and concerned about my story. Thank you for giving an interpersonal touch to the story. Very quick to answer all queries. I am very satisfied with the quality of much. Way to go.
Annabell Ison
This website is the best to hire a ghostwriter for any book! I hired a book ghostwriter thinking it would be a lengthy process but to my surprise, they delivered my book in no time. Great work is done! It felt as if the writer had read my mind. Wonderful. I also got my website made by them. Thank you.
Moore W.
Here are 13 ways to save on the cost to hire a ghostwriter
Ideally, you want to to get the best ghostwriting for the least cost. Good news: the most expensive ghostwriting agency is not necessarily the best ghostwriting service. Just because somebody ghostwrote the autobiography of a former head of state or Hollywood celebrity doesn’t mean they are better than many ghostwriters who have not.
But they can charge two, three or even four times what another ghostwriter might charge. And they usually do. They get away with it because people are fooled into thinking they are getting something better. Big, shiny objects! Celebrity shine.
Newsflash: being a celebrity doesn’t make a writer better. If you want to hire a company spokesperson, sure, get a celebrity. The name recognition will rub off on your company. If you want to hire a ghostwriter, the name doesn’t matter. They are ghosts. Nobody will see their name.
On the other hand, be wary of any agency that wants to charge way below the going rate. There must be a reason their services are in so little demand that they are willing to work for peanuts. If somebody is ready to write your 50,000 word book for just $4,000, you should have really loud alarm bells reverberating in your head. Run!
If you are willing to sacrifice quality for price, you should not be hiring a ghostwriter at all. Just write it yourself. That’s how to save the most money. Presumably, you want to hire a ghostwriter who can write better than you can, right? So hire one who actually can.
TIP: Hire by the project, not by the hour. That way, you minimize the administrative costs. We hate keeping track of hours. It’s tedious. We charge by the project, so you don’t have to pay for all that administrative work.
Avoid extra fees
This is the top tip to keep ghostwriting costs under control. Ghostwriting is a pretty straightforward service. It is custom work, but it is pretty straightforward. But if you want extra work done, it will obviously cost extra money. Here are five ways to avoid extra costs:
Know what you want
Do you know who your audience is? Do you know what style of writing you want? The more you know before contacting the ghostwriter, the less time she will have to spend helping you decide. After all, time is money.
Get your material organized
You are paying a ghostwriter to write. If you dump a box of documents on her kitchen table, you will also have to pay her to organize your material. That can be a very long and tedious (labor-intensive) task. You don’t need to pay a skilled writer to do this for you.
Each writing project is different. The bottom line is this: if the writer doesn’t have to spend countless hours organizing your material, we don’t need to charge you extra to do it.
Don’t pay a babysitter
I said it before: you are paying a ghostwriter to write. If you want them to babysit, that will cost extra. We get these requests a lot for biographies, especially for elderly parents, and sometimes for small business books:
Let’s suppose it takes about two days for your grandmother or Mr. Heatherington to articulate the information for the book. As they articulate it, they can put the information in order, so that it is organized. It then takes about two hours for the ghostwriter to read it and get herself ready to write, or at least create a structure for the manuscript.
Now let’s suppose the ghostwriter comes to interview your grandmother or Mr. Heatherington. It will still take them two days to articulate the information. But now it takes the ghostwriter two days to collect it live, instead of just two hours to read it.
But wait, there’s more. All the information is in audio recording and/or scribbled notes. The audio can’t be scanned or searched, so it needs to be transcribed before it has any practical value. That will cost you extra.
TIP: The more you write down, the better. If you have snippets you want included, write them down. Even if it doesn’t save you a penny, you’ll get the manuscript you truly want.
But wait, there’s even more. After two days of interviews, duly transcribed, the ghostwriter has all the information in an unorganized state. She still has to organize it. Unlike your grandmother or Mr. Heatherington, they are only partly familiar with the material, having been exposed to it in what can best be described as a crash course. This will take a while, perhaps another day.
If you have money to burn, why not burn it? Hire a ghostwriter as a babysitter. But if you want to save on ghostwriter fees, don’t pay for an extra three days of labor, plus transcription fees.
Avoid travel costs
There are times when you simply cannot get all the information down, or when it is worth the cost to have the writer interview people. So you might ask the ghostwriter to travel to meet you or the people you want interviewed. Travel costs include:
Of course, the inevitable request is then to “get me a writer in my city”. Stop for a moment and think about the logistics. Do some math if you like. Think about how many cities there are around the world.
Just a few weeks ago, a gentleman in Brisbane, Australia, demanded a local writer. Hmm. We have a strong team of a dozen top-quality writers. Guess how many of them, all based in the USA and Canada, were local to Brisbane?
My single-focused job is to get you the best writer for what you want written. Location is not a factor. Some of my best friends are maps, but this is business; geography is not my goal.
Don’t rush
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Ghostwriter?
The price for ghostwriting services depends on many things. The first and most important factor is the length of the text. The price won’t be the same for a blog post with 800 words as for a white paper, or a book! Writers may start as low as $10 per article (but beware, the quality can be really bad when the fee is low!) and can go over $1000.
Another impact on pricing can be explained with the basic supply and demand rule. The more work a ghostwriter is doing and the busier he/she is, the higher price they will give you.
Some ghostwriters will charge you by the project, whereas those you are hiring more long-term may ask to be paid monthly. These are things you should discuss with a ghostwriter and put in a contract.
Are There Other Solutions?
If you are not sure you want to use a ghostwriter, there are other options you could consider. When it comes to writing and publishing blog posts regularly, you could try doing it yourself. If that doesn’t turn out to be good, try assigning someone at your company who will do all the writing as an employee. On the other hand, if your budget allows it, you can hire an agency to do the work for you.
Ana Grasic is a growth hacker whose expertise range from SEO and SMM, copywriting and content marketing to more in depth dealing with customer acquisition and retention. She and her colleagues founded WeGrowth, a marketplace for professional Marketers and business owners that are looking for their services. Ana’s goal is to share her knowledge with other growth hackings enthusiasts and teaches the readers of her articles some growth-boosting tricks.
Hiring a ghostwriter can help in producing more content. But you also have to consider that you will somehow lose control of the quality because you hired someone else to do your writing.
Hi Aira, thanks for your interest for my post! Yes, I agree with you that one of the cons of hiring a ghostwriter can be the lack of both, control and quality. My advice to ones who opt for hiring ghostwriters is to try to be a good manager and think as if a ghostwriter is a team member that needs to be mentored and monitored. Like I wrote, hiring ghostwriters has its good and bad sides and your comment certainly makes a point!
You’re absolutely right, Ana. In my experience as a ghostwriter, when the communication with the client is good, the whole experience is better for everybody. If you want a ghostwriter that you can just “set and forget,” you are risking losing control, but when your writer becomes one of the team, you can be confident that what is written will match your intentions.
Great article, Ana, though I think it’s important to distinguish between experienced, professional ghostwriters and lower cost writers-for-hire who focus more on quantity than quality. Professional ghostwriters work hand-in-hand with clients to help them more clearly convey their own message in their own voice. Members of the Association of Ghostwriters, for example, have to apply and demonstrate a level of experience and professionalism before being admitted. That way, we can assure clients that the work to be produced will be of a high quality. The client doesn’t lose control of the project, because they have the final say regarding whether the content produced will ultimately be used, but I certainly agree that there may be a wide range of quality levels, often depending on how much the client is willing to spend. Thanks for writing about ghostwriting!
There are several sources of ghostwriters. One Ghostwriting Gurus. Another is the Association of Ghostwriters. There is also a book I wrote: How to Find and Work with a Good Ghostwriter which is available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible. As a ghostwriter, as well as the author of over 100 books under my own name, anything I do as a ghostwriter belongs to the client, and they have full control over the final product. I use their own voice in writing the blog, book, script, or whatever I am writing for them. So there is no loss of control. It’s a work for hire, and when I provide suggestions, it’s up to the client whether to take them or not, though most do.
Resource:
https://www.ghostbookwriters.org/
https://thgmwriters.com/blog/save-money-ghostwriting/
https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/03/hiring-a-ghostwriter.html