Three Reasons Why Ghostwriting May Be For You

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Three Reasons Why Ghostwriting May Be For You

When many pursue writing as a profession, they do so because they want to see their byline—their name at the beginning of the article or on the cover of the book—as the author of the piece. But did you know you could be published more often, and make more money, as a ghostwriter? Simply put, ghostwriting is taking content someone else gives you and rewriting it into publishable copy that is true to their words, reflects their voice, and goes out under their name and is copyrighted as their material. As the name suggests, you’re the invisible “ghost” behind their content.

There are many people and organizations that have messages to deliver or stories to tell but need someone to do the writing for them. They’re willing to pay a premium rate for the service. For example, the Writer’s Market Guide rate for book ghostwriting has remained at about $75 per hour for the last several years.

Why would you want to consider being a ghostwriter? Here are three compelling reasons.

1. You love to write and enjoy different styles of writing
As a ghostwriter, you could be working on a non-fiction book about any number of topics; or writing brochures or sales letters for a non-profit organization doing an incredible work for the community; or producing articles for e-newsletters published and distributed online that profile interesting individuals, tell their success stories, or share their life-changing experiences. There are many possibilities available to fit your areas of interest. And notice I said “interest” not expertise, which brings me to my second reason.

2. You love to learn new things
You don’t need to have a lot of knowledge about your topic—your client provides that for you. For example, let’s say you want to be the next John Grisham but you don’t have the legal background. Ghostwriting enough articles for attorneys will land you in a position to pick up the realistic plots, characters, and terminology you need to produce a short story or novel.

During my ten years at Family Life Communications in Tucson, I was the resident ghostwriter for the ministry president Dr. Randy Carlson. He is a psychologist and family counselor who hosts a daily nationally-syndicated program called Intentional Living, perhaps better known under its original name, Parent Talk. He is an expert on parenting and marriage skills and has excellent knowledge of Scripture and how to apply it to the issues families face today.

When we worked together is that we’d take a chosen topic, I’d interview him on that topic, and then I would write the article, teaching, or audio manuscript, doing additional research to provide supportive quotes, illustrations, and Scriptures. He then reviewed each piece I wrote and revised and approved them to be published under his name. Together, Randy and I produced a monthly newsletter and hundreds of articles. I also helped him write portions of his book Starved For Affection. In the process, I gained invaluable knowledge about parenting and marriage that I’ve since been able to parlay into my own original articles on the subjects.

3. You desire to keep your writing skills fresh
What I love about ghostwriting is how it hones my writing and keeps it sharp because I’m working on many different things at once. During a typical week, I’ll edit or ghostwrite books ranging from self-help non-fiction to creative non-fiction/memoir to fiction. Each genre has varied requirements and employs different skills. I’ll write marketing or promotional materials for companies whose missions couldn’t be more contrasting, and I constantly learn to tailor the writing to move different donor or customer bases to action. I’ll work on inspirational content for Christian non-profit organizations, giving me the opportunity to study the Bible, apply its teaching to my writing, and express my faith. I wake up each day looking forward to what I’ll be writing that day and my creativity is consistently stimulated.

Ghostwriting has been, and will continue to be, a key aspect of my writing and editing business, and it’s a skill you should consider adding to your writing repertoire. Next week, we’ll look at how to market yourself as a ghostwriter and find clients who need your talents.

I want to hear from you!
Tell me a person or organization for which you’d love to write. Why does it interest you?


2 Comments

Dave Ficere

May 9, 2016at 10:23 am

Good stuff as always, Adam!

    Adam Colwell

    May 9, 2016at 1:07 pm

    Thank you, Dave! As a news and book editor, you know the pleasure that comes from using the correctly chosen words to tell a story. Ghostwriting, of course, goes that step deeper, allowing you to dive into someone’s story and then create the words, scenes, and dialogue to bring their story to life. If you could pick one person alive today for whom you could ghostwrite their story, who would it be and why? I’ll tell you my choice when you respond…and you may be surprised.

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