Enhancing Your Storytelling with Ghostwriting

Write, Edit, & Publish Podcast

Episode 04

In this episode I dive deep into the fascinating world of ghostwriting. Listen along to unravel the secrets of ghostwriting and how it can be a game-changer for busy professionals and aspiring authors alike.

Ever wondered what a ghostwriter truly does? I explore their vital role in crafting content that maintains your unique voice and vision, whether it's for a novel, blog post, or business material. Discover the numerous benefits of hiring a ghostwriter, from saving time to ensuring a polished, professional finish to your work. I also share a personal story illustrating the importance of professional editing and how a lack of it can harm an author's credibility.

Ready to work with a ghostwriter? I cover best practices for a seamless and productive partnership, including effective communication, setting realistic timelines, and using tools like Google Docs for easy information sharing. I also delve into building a collaborative relationship to ensure your brand and voice align with your ghostwriter’s expertise.

Finally, I discuss when it’s the right time to hire a ghostwriter. Whether you’re eager to publish a book or need ongoing content for your business, a ghostwriter can be an invaluable ally in bringing your vision to life. 

(00:12) - Understanding Ghostwriting Process & Benefits

(08:33) - Best Practices for Working With Ghostwriters

(13:04) - When to Hire a Ghostwriter

Publishing Resources

Find out more about Ghostwriting at Write For You

Jump into publishing your first book at Unicorn Publishing Company

Start on your author journey today by Booking a Discovery Call

Get funded for your creative project using the book 9 Stumbling Blocks Preventing Creatives from Tapping into Grant Funds

Disclaimer: The information in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The content shared by the host, guests, and any affiliates is not intended to substitute for professional legal or financial advice or any professional advice specific to your situation. Always seek the advice of a qualified professional with any questions you may have.

The opinions expressed on the show by the host or guests are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views of Unicorn Publishing Company. Unicorn Publishing Company, the host, guests, and affiliates are not responsible or liable for any decisions made by listeners or actions taken hereto based on the information discussed in this podcast. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge and agree to release Unicorn Publishing Company, the host, affiliates, and guests from any liability.

00:12 - Lynn (Host)

Hi, future authors. This is Lynn Aliquity Smarges with another episode of Write, edit and Publish, so happy to be here again this week. And this week is episode four, and today we are going to talk about what is a ghostwriter, because I get this all the time. People know like, oh, you're a ghostwriter, that's fascinating. But they don't really know what an actual ghostwriter does. Some people do and some people don't. So this video is to explain what is a ghostwriter. That's what I do for a living I help people write their novels. But it's not just about writing novels. So today we're going to talk about how a ghostwriter can transform your expertise into published works, and we're going to dive into the mysterious world of ghostwriting.

00:51

Whether you're considering hiring a ghostwriter or just curious about what a ghostwriter does, then this episode is going to illuminate the path forward. So let's just start off with the basics. What is a ghostwriter? It's a professional who creates content under someone else's names, so it doesn't just have to be a book, although that's what most ghostwriters are known for creating books for people. But other than creating nonfiction and fiction books, a ghostwriter can also create articles, blog posts, speeches, presentations, website content, social media content, so anything the ghostwriter makes for someone else is considered ghostwritten material and that they don't put their name on it. So if you do a trade for a blog so if I were to write a blog for your thing but then instead created violence marches, then that would not be considered a ghostwritten project because we're just swapping blogs and you are crediting me. But if we were swapping blogs and you weren't crediting me and I was just making a blog for you and you paid me to make a blog, then that would be considered ghostwriting because my name was not credited on that piece of content.

01:55

So the ghostwriter's role in the creative process is to capture the client's voice and style, which is super important. I know that there are some people who have had books written and or have hired editors and they change the composition of their book so much and the style doesn't sound like their voice anymore. That's not what I do as a ghostwriter. I really work hard to retain my client's voice and style. They do some research and organization when they need to, they do writing and they revise their writing and they maintain confidentiality. So that's one of the challenges of being a ghostwriter is people ask well, what have you written? So I can really only give them pretty much my own stuff, because a lot of my clients don't want other people to know that their book was ghostwritten, which is perfectly fine. It just makes it a bit more challenging for me and my portfolio. That means I have to write more for my own stuff, for people to see different samples.

02:44

And so what are the benefits of hiring a ghostwriter? So there are several benefits to hiring a ghostwriter. It's time savings for busy professionals. So if you are a professional, an executive, a thought leader and you have a lot of stuff on your plate, you don't have time to write a book, but you can hire me to write your book for you. So another benefit is that it is a professional writing expertise.

03:07

So I recently purchased a book. I went to a keynote speech, really loved the keynote speaker and then that person's book. They said, oh, I have this book for sale, great. So we went on Amazon and I purchased their book. The problem is it had 27 chapters. One of them was like one page long and that person clearly did not hire an editor. There was grammatical mistakes all throughout the book. There was formatting mistakes all throughout the book, and that really, when I read that book.

03:34

When I first saw that person I thought, wow, this person is really great, they're very professional. And then I read that book and I'm like, if you're making the kind of money you're saying you're making on stage, why did you not hire a professional editor for your book? Like, that book clearly needed a professional editor because it was so choppy it was really hard to read. I finally got through it with the information that I needed to do, but I literally had to plow through that book. It was not enjoyable. Will I buy another book from that author again? No, because I know that writing is bad and they didn't hire a professional editor, which you need to do for your book. And the other thing is, is like that really lowers my respect for that person? Because if they say I'm a professional but they don't spend the money to hire an editor, then are they really professional, right? Like, or do they really do what they're supposed to do? Like, that really is a conflict for me. And so you want to make sure that you have a professional writer. Even if you write your own book, you have a professional writer. Go through it and edit it for you.

04:31

A professional writer can also give you fresh perspective on your ideas. I do this a lot for clients, so clients come to me with ideas and I say, well, how about we do it this way? You're happy to consider this? So even just sometimes, the organization of the book is really helpful for other people that make it flow better. That's one of the things people really have a challenge with is getting their work to flow really well. So that's something I help people with and give them new ideas on, maybe how to present it a little bit differently. But stay on topic.

04:57

Also, consistent content delivery a really big one, because a lot of people are busy and so helping a ghostwriter can help a busy professional get content out every week so you can be doing your thing and then the ghostwriter comes in and does art my thing and then I help you get content out every week and I write your content and then either you know I can give it to your web person to post or your social media person to post, or, if you want one of my team members to do the posting, we also offer that as well. So that's really important to get consistent content so that your people that are watching you can see you, and also consistent content on any platform is good for an out of the algorithm. So you want to do that on a regular basis, right? Like not publish for a month and then not publish anything for four months and then start publishing again. Access to industry knowledge is really important, so even if your ghostwriter is not in that industry, you can still hire them.

05:51

So, for example, I'm a ghostwriter and I have some areas of specialty like travel and any type of like business coaching, business executive coaching. I also have expertise in health and wellness field and also like science, astronomy, some other different expertise fields. So I have several different expertise fields that I can write in. But it does not have like when my client comes to me, I don't have to have an expertise in their field, so I can do research or they can just advise me on how they want the book written. Support throughout the writing process is super important. 90% of what I do is book coaching, so I help people literally walk them through their book writing part and then the other part I walk them through is the actual self-publishing part. So I walk them through on a Zoom video how to publish their book on Amazon. So I've just literally handled my clients through the whole thing. That's my specialty is that one-on-one personal touch, that high touch thing that I love to do with my clients and to just really give them the confidence in their own self-publishing and then the ability to focus on your core business.

06:54

So, of course, if you are a busy executive right and you hand off this project to myself or another ghostwriter that you choose, then you have that time to do all what you need to do. Like when I have my team members right and I hand off stuff to them, I don't have to do those tasks anymore. Those are things my team members are doing. So I'm getting way more work done hiring my team members to do it for me. Then if I were just to go off and do it all on myself now, I could do everything myself, but that would take me 20 times longer and it would take me way longer to achieve the goals I want to achieve if I'm not hiring someone else to do certain things. So one of the things I do in my business is I do a lot of the content myself and then I have my assistants help me with a client management platform and posting on social and things like that so that all those little tasks I do the out to my team members who do a fabulous job on putting that up. Because I always get compliments and people are like, wow, you put out so much content. I'm like, yeah, that's because it's not only me, so if you want to put out that type of content, you definitely need to hire a contractor to help you out with that.

07:59

All right, so let's talking about how to work successfully with a ghostwriter. Some best practices are clear communication channels. So one of the things I often get is people like, oh, I have a rough draft of this and I get their quote-unquote rough draft and it's not really a rough draft, it's an outline. So you have to really be like that's what we go through in our first Consultation call together. Once you hire me as a ghostwriter, I look at your materials. Or even in the discovery call, I can look at your materials and give you kind of an estimate on how long it's going to take to get done, based on what coaching package you pick and then how involved you are in the process.

08:33

A lot of times I'm just waiting for my clients to get their work done so I can get their work done so. Sometimes the clients are a little behind and so you know we have to adjust for for that. But it's really good to make sure that you communicate that. Especially if you're gonna go on vacation, that communicate that with your ghostwriter so they know and they're not like waiting for you and they don't know why they're waiting for you. Okay, regular feedback sessions I do this with all my clients once a month.

08:59

We get together, we talk about their book, what their book needs, what looks great in their book, and then we both have homework. So I have homework as their ghostwriter and then my client has homework to do whatever it is they need to do that we just talked about organized information sharing, so I keep all my clients information in google docs and then we just literally work off the same sheets all the time, which is super convenient, it's super efficient and I love doing it that way. And then, if my client needs any help with showing them how to make a comment on a Google Doc or showing you how to highlight or underline something, I can also do a little technology training too, included in my ghostwriting package. It's not just ghostwriting and book coaching. I typically help my clients with showing them how to use Google Docs, just the basics, because that's pretty easy, all right.

09:43

Setting up a realistic timeline? That's pretty easy, all right. Maybe setting up a realistic timeline? That's really important because you want to make sure that you have a timeline that your client's going to reach. Now I usually don't pick a date. I usually pick like a season or a month, like maybe by the end of March or by the end of April. So that way, if you know, the date's a little bit flexible, so it gives you a little bit of play time in there.

10:03

All right, my friends, we're going to pause right here, but when we come back we're going to talk more about hiring a ghostwriter and working successfully with a ghostwriter and some best practices as well. You, hi, friends, lynn Smart, just back for the second half of what is a Ghostwriter, and so we just started talking about a little bit about working successfully with a ghostwriter. Really, you need to make sure that you know what you're doing with your book and communicating. And so we just started talking about a little bit about working successfully with a ghostwriter. Really, you need to make sure that you know what you're doing with your book and communicating that clearly. So if there's a section you don't like or there's something the ghostwriter wants to do that you don't like, make sure you express that with your ghostwriter, because what I do with my clients is I give them all the options they have that I know of and I give them my professional advice on what's the best option to go with, and then they are the decision makers on what they're gonna do with that.

11:21

Alright, so you need to understand how many revisions that you get right in your package, is it? It's usually not unlimited. Some people do that. I don't do unlimited revisions, so it just depends. So my ghostwriting and coaching package is set up on a time basis. So they want more revisions? They can. It's just they're using up more of their time that they paid for for that month.

11:42

All right, building a collaborative relationship. Now, this is really important. I tell everybody this when you do your discovery call and your ghostwriter should offer you a discovery call like I offer a 15-minute free discovery call, which you can click in the show notes below, um, I go over, like what the clear expectations are for the book. How long do you think it's going to be? Um, you know all of those things because I want to make sure that we're good on a collaborative level.

12:05

Your personalities really do need to click. If you're talking to a ghostwriter and the personality is not clicking and your instincts like, uh, I don't know, don't go with that person, you're going to regret it because they're going to be your best friend. They're going to be like stuck to your side for the next six months to a year to a year and a half. So you want to have somebody who you really click with and get along well, really well, really well with All right. So, recap, to talk about what we did, is we talked about you know what is a ghostwriter and the benefits of hiring a ghostwriter, how to work successfully with a ghostwriter and building collaborative relationships. All of these are so important and it's really important to know all of these things when you are hiring a ghostwriter.

12:49

The ghostwriter isn't just somebody you hire just to write work. It's somebody you collaborate with to make sure your brand and your voice are on the right track and that everything sounds consistent. So that's super important. All right, my friends.

13:04

Thanks again for tuning in to Write, edit and Publish. Remember when you want to share your expertise through a book or if you need consistent content creation. A ghostwriter is probably your perfect partner to bring vision to your life and your business content. Until next time, keep creating and make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button, because next week we're going to talk about, on episode five, when to hire a ghostwriter. So these are going to be topics that like hey, I would see this. This is when I should hire a ghostwriter, and remember to definitely hit that like hey, I'm gonna see this. This is when I should hire a ghostwriter, and remember to definitely hit that like and subscribe button. All right future authors. This has been great chatting with you today and I hope you have a great week and I will see you next week on the write, edit and publish podcast.