Ghostwriters

Ghostwriters
You should consider a ghostwriter if you are someone who doesn’t have the time or interest, or writing talents to do the work yourself. It is perfectly legitimate to consider using the services of a ghostwriter to do the writing for you.

A ghostwriter is someone who actually writes your ideas in book form for a fee, and, when the book is published, your name alone will appear as the author.

Ghostwriting is a perfectly valid way of getting your book written. It is legitimate because your ideas are those expressed. It is similar to running your own company, with your name on the sign outside, yet delegating a good number of important tasks to many other people. Consider that politicians and many others use the services of speechwriters, and it isn’t considered to be ”cheating.”

There are many good reasons to decide to work with a ghostwriter. Sometimes, an author with good ideas is too busy do the work involved in writing. In other cases, a person just isn’t interested in writing and researching but wants her ideas professionally recorded. Finally, many people recognize that their talents and skills just aren’t in written communication.

When you choose someone to work with in developing and writing your ideas, you want to consider his or her professional credentials and successful past ghostwriting projects and, equally important, your own intuition about working with this person.

Here are some questions you may want to ask as you interview a ghostwriter:

·  How do we get this project off the ground?

·  How many clients do you have at any one time?

·  What are your pet peeves about other authors and/or non-writers who want to publish? How can we best work together?

·  Are you interested in this subject matter? Do you have any of your own feelings about this subject?

· How long do you expect it will take to write this book?

It is imperative to clarify your expectations of the process, such as crediting your writer. For instance, will the work be authored by you with a credit such as “with (ghostwriter’s name)” on the cover, or will you thank this person in the acknowledgements? Or is no overt credit given?

Consider the ghostwriter’s:

● Background. The ghostwriter should be proud to share with you his or her past projects and successes, but in a confidential manner. The material that’s to be ghostwritten should be similar to what you want written.

● References. The ghostwriter should be able to provide you with some sort of references so that you can talk with others who have firsthand knowledge of his or her work.

● Past work. The ghostwriter should provide you with a number of written samples so you can get a feel for his or her style.

● Connection with you. You will be spending hours with this person. So you should decide whether you two get along and he or she likes your subject.

Meanwhile, the ghostwriter will be asking you the right types of questions to bring out the best you have to offer.

When you first talk with the ghostwriter, you will discuss the overall topic and get into enough specifics for that writer to create an outline and estimate the time and cost of doing the work. He or she will also approximate the final length of the book and use any notes you’ve developed to do this analysis.

The second part of the process once you’ve approved the outline is this: The ghostwriter interviews both you and others and begins to research documents. Interviews with you are often recorded so that the ghostwriter uses your own words as often as possible.

The next and longest part of the process is the writing itself. The ghostwriter should send you an initial couple of chapters as soon as they are written so you can make any early corrections in style or subject before most of the work is done.

Finally, the ghostwriter will edit (usually subcontract someone else to edit) the work and put it in a format ready to send to publishers.

Tanyab 23:14, 7 November 2008 (UTC) Brought to you by | www.publishing-store.com