A ghostwriter telling you not to hire a ghostwriter? You heard that right. In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on something the ghostwriting industry doesn't advertise: not every author needs one. The right choice could save you thousands of dollars and bring you closer to the book you've always wanted to write.

I share an honest look at who is a great fit for a ghostwriter and who is better off writing their own book. Along the way, I talk about the red flags to watch for when hiring help, and a real story of what can happen when the wrong match leaves an author with a book they can't even use.

If you've been wondering whether you have what it takes to write your book yourself, this conversation will help you find your answer. I also share the middle-ground options that give you professional support without handing over the pen, so you can put your budget where it matters most.

Whether you decide to DIY your book or bring in a pro, you'll walk away knowing which path fits your goals, your time, and your voice. Tune in to find out which kind of author you are.

Keep writing, keep dreaming, and keep creating. Your book is waiting to be born!

Ready to write your authority-building book? Book a Path to Publishing Discovery Call and take the next step to moving one step closer to writing and publishing your book!

Podcast Resources

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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.

Hey friends and future authors, this is Lynn, Eliquity Smargist, and today I am a ghostwriter telling you when you shouldn't hire a ghostwriter to write your book. Yes, you've heard that right, my friends. I'm telling you when you should not use a ghostwriter to write your book. So here, so stay tuned. Find out when you should not do this. It's going to be a great episode. All right, my friends. So here I am, a ghostwriter telling you when not to hire a ghostwriter.

The truth is the industry doesn't advertise, right? Because not every author needs a ghostwriter. Some people write their own books, which is perfectly fine. But by the end of this video, you're gonna know if you should write your own book, if it's best for you to write your own book, or if your best option is to hire it out to a ghostwriter to help you with your book. So welcome to Self Publishing for Thought Leaders, my friend. I am a ghostwriter. I have been writing and publishing content and

For my clients and myself for the past eight years. I recently published my seventh book a week ago and it's called Right to Win for how creatives can use grant money to fund their projects and how you can write a successful grant doing that. this is an honest conversation, and I want to be really frank with you on if you are a good fit for a ghost writer, because not everybody is, right? And some people are a fantastic fit, but you'll need you'll

But what I believe in is giving you the information so you can make an educated decision on if this is gonna work for you, right? The ghostwriting industry ha can be hit or miss, right? You can get wrong fit matches that produce disappointing books. A lot of those come from people who ghostwrite on the side, so to speak. So I talked to a person recently, a professional who hired a ghostwriter who was a university professor.

And they ghostwrite on the side because people hear that ghostwriting makes a lot of money. And you can make good money ghostwriting, but it is a difficult job. It is not an easy job to do. I can tell you that right now because it's not just about writing. I'm also a part therapist. I'm also a part really good listener. I'm also a part friend. So there's a lot of different pieces and aspects that go into ghostwriting that don't go into a lot of everyday jobs, right? You have to be really good with people, you have to meet people where they're at, you have to be empathetic and caring.

you have to understand what's important to the author, what's not important to the author. So these are all things I incorporate into every job that I do, whether I'm ghostwriting, whether I'm editing, book coaching, or doing a publishing consultation, right? I want my clients to have the best resources and the best information for their project that I know that I can share with them. I am not a gatekeeper for information. I give my clients the information they need to make.

their best decision based on their author goals because every author is different, even two authors that are writing the same memoir. All right. So with people who are ghostwriting, I would say never go with somebody who is ghostwriting on the side, right? They don't know the industry. They don't understand how it works. They don't understand how to write an author tone and voice. And they definitely don't understand how to position your book. Right. That's something someone that does this in day in, day out like I do.

I that's the only thing I do is ghost right edit. I'm in the publishing industry. I know how to p position your book, especially if you're writing a nonfiction book to hand out as a calling card. That is extremely important. Because that one person I started to talk about earlier that I ADD'd and kind of swerved away from for a bit, that person hired someone who is not a full-time ghostwriter. They did it on the side. They were a university professor, had some other job for their nine to five that was not publishing related whatsoever. And this person interviewed them. They

didn't let them speak to them. That's a big red flag right off the bat. If your ghostwriter doesn't let you speak to them at all. And then they gave him a book that was supposed to be a business book with personal stories in it to support their business framework. And it was a personal memoir. It was not a business book. So he literally spent thousands of dollars on a book he couldn't even publish or use, right? Like that's really sad. And so I would say obviously avoid ghostwriters who are doing it on the side, unless it's somebody.

Who has been in the industry a really long time and they're partly retired, then they clearly know the industry, right? But don't ever hire someone that is an editor or a publisher or whatever who does it on the side, right? Hire someone who does this work full-time. You have a much better chance of getting a good experience, right? So one of the reasons why people ha use a ghostwriter is self-doubt, right? Like they feel like I'm not a real writer. They overestimate the difficulty of writing a book.

They underestimate their own capabilities. Okay. And so these examples are examples of people who hired ghostwriters. And these are all legitimate reasons to hire ghostwriters. If you're not sure that you can write your book, right, you can hire me as your ghostwriter. Or there's also a medium in that. One of the things you can do is instead of hiring me as a ghostwriter, I can coach you with book coaching. So some of my clients have hired me for book coaching twice a month, where we meet on like the second and fourth Tuesday of the month or whatever date we set.

And then they write their book and I support them with book coaching along the way. So they ask me questions, they show me their work, I give them editorial feedback in that hour that we meet twice a month. We meet from one hour twice a month. Sometimes it's every week. It just depends on the client and how much support they need, right? And then they can change that up. So in the beginning, if they need more support, they can meet once a week.

And then maybe after three or four months, they only need to meet twice a month for book coaching, right? So I offer that as a great intermediary. So if you are feel you are a decent writer, but you would love that support. And so that way when you get your book rough draft finished, it doesn't need a ton of editing because you've already had someone helping you along writing it as best you can, right? Then it's not gonna need a ton of editing. So that's gonna save you money on the editing side as well as time spent with editing, okay?

So that's one option and one reason to use a ghostwriter. Another reason to use a ghostwriter is someone who has no time available for writing, right? So, like if you don't have time available for writing, that's a great reason to hire a ghostwriter. But if you have an extra eight to 10 hours per week that you can write and you enjoy the writing process, right, you have basic writing skills and you've written articles or blogs or professional articles.

white papers before and you know you're a good writer, then you probably don't need a ghostwriter, right? You can develop your own author voice for future books if you need assistance with that. Again, I provide book coaching. But if you love writing, if you have eight to ten extra hours in your week, you like the writing process and you have that extra time, your budget is better spent on editing, design, and marketing than ghostwriting. Okay. So

Writing your own book in this case might be better because you have a deeper connection to the material, right? You can you you are obviously writing in your voice because you're writing it and you have more budget for the other publishing services that you'll need. So, when you do commit to writing your book though, you do want to commit to a realistic writing schedule, which is at least 30 to 45 minutes at one time. Okay. So if you do that three times a week.

You'll make progress. If you do it daily, you'll make it even more progress. But you want to make a writing schedule that fits your lifestyle. So one of the things I do in my book, From Idea to Outline, is I help people with time management in this. That's this my book from Idea to Outline is the same process I go through. It's my FIDO framework, F-I-T-O.

And this is the same framework I with with my ghostwriting clients. So if you feel like you are a good writer and you don't need to hire a ghostwriter to write your book, definitely grab my book on Amazon. It's called From Idea to Outline. This is the same framework I use with my clients to set up before we were at the rough draft. So once you get through the five chapters, very small chapters in this book, because it's not I my book is only it's very, very small. It's 68 pages, not even 100 pages, not even big enough to have a spine.

So once you get through the 68 pages in this book, you are ready to write your rough draft. So if you don't need to hire a ghostwriter because you've checked off all those four or five boxes I just talked about, go on Amazon, grab my book from Idea to Outline, DIY it yourself. And then if you need assistance, my contact information is in my book. You can reach out to me. But if you feel like you're a good writer, grab the FIDO framework book, do it, DIY it, and then you can be ready to write your rough draft. I would definitely recommend on any

In any way, definitely joining my author support community, which is called Self-Publishing for Leaders. You can find it on school, which is S K-O-O-L. So it's very like regular school, but take out the C H and put in a K. So it's a play on words. So school, S-K-O-O-L. Go on school.com and just look up self-publishing for leaders, and you will find me sitting there in my desk on in my dress with a light color background, and you'll see self-publishing for leaders on school.

Join the community today. That will definitely help you. We've got lots of author support going on in that community, and that's why I created that community. All right, my friends, but once you pick if you want to DIY it or you want to ghostwrite it, commit to a realistic writing schedule, clear up your book structure, which I go over in my book from idea to outline. Okay, you can use professional support, like I said earlier, strategically, like book coaching. Okay, so you get the support, but you don't need the full ghostwriting package.

So, book coaching, developmental editing. Then you'll also, after your developmental editor, you'll need a line editor, then a copy editor, then a proofreader. Definitely check out my other episodes on here where I talk about the 22 questions to ask your editor and the four types of editing you need. Those are really great episodes that talk about editing and why you need an editor and how to pick an editor. Okay. You can also, if you want to write it yourself in DIY, it leverage tools that make writing easier. You can dictate into your phone.

And make audio of your content that you want, and then take that and transcribe it. Take that transcription and rewrite it into your book material, great. Because you can't just copy and paste a transcript and it's good book material. You need to rewrite it because how we talk is a little bit different than how we read. All right. So you can join my writing community and get feedback on your work. You can post it up there. You can redirect your ghostwriting budget to other publishing services, like I said earlier. And again,

When to reconsider and hire a ghostwriter is if you're DIYing it and you get super stuck or you're DIYing it and you're like, you know, I I have got this big project coming up. I have this deadline, I'm gonna speak. I can't finish my book, right? If you have a half-finished book, I can work with you to get to the end. If you have, you just started out with an idea, I can finish it to get you to the end to self-publish your book on KDP. No matter where you're at, my friends, if you get stuck on any part of the DIY process, I'm here to help.

So make sure that you reach out to me if you do need that assistance and you do need to reconsider hiring a ghostwriter, even if you started out DIYing it. All right, my friends. So remember, not everyone needs a ghostwriter. And this episode explains to you when you need a ghostwriter and when you don't, make sure you join the self-publishing for leader school community to get the information support to write and publish your book. Okay. It's

the link is right underneath this video and it's in the show notes if you're listening to the audio. All right. So remember, my friends, I'm so glad you came to listen to this episode today. This is Lynn Eliquity Smargis, ghostwriter and editor at Write for You Self-Publishing. If you're ready to get the support you need, then come join me inside the Self-Publishing for Leaders today. Join my community. It's lots of great support. Until next week.

This is Lynn Eliquity Smart, just reminding you to keep writing, keep dreaming, and keep creating. Your book is waiting to be born.