- Hey, I'm Julie Broad of BookLaunchers.com.
We help people write, publish,
and sell a great non-fiction book
that will build your business,
and while we have spectacular writing coaches
to help you write, not everyone wants to write their book,
which means ghostwriters can be a fantastic solution.
But, where do you find a great ghostwriter?
We talked about that right here.
Now, how do you know when you've found the right one?
This isn't as easy as you might think
because most people who hire ghostwriters
don't want you to know they didn't write their book,
so this presents a pretty big challenge.
How do you evaluate a ghostwriter's work
if they're not allowed to tell you
the books they've written?
In many cases, the ghostwriter has signed an NDA,
so they can't tell you they wrote that book or this book.
The more experienced ghostwriters
will be able to point to a few projects
they've worked on and they may be able
to give you samples of their writing,
but how do you know if they've captured
the author's voice if you don't actually get
to know who the real author is?
There's a lot of ways to approach this,
and I'd love to hear how you've done it
or would do it, but here's how I hire ghostwriters.
Number one, I put something in the job ad
that acts as a screener.
For example, I ask a weird question,
like their favorite fruit, or I request that they
do not send a resume,
but rather send a short writing sample.
If they don't follow that instruction,
I immediately eliminate them.
If they lack care and attention to detail
at the start when they should be showing their best self,
it's not a good sign for me
and it's an immediate rejection.
Number two, initially, I wanna make sure
that they've worked on similar projects.
Have they actually written several business books before?
Not just articles, but full books.
Have they done any of their own?
Ideally, I wanna check out their writing somewhere.
Assuming that the writing was decent
and they had relevant experience,
we'll move onto number three.
I send them a content editing test.
Actually, what I've been using is
the first five pages of a client's manuscript.
I ask them to read it, provide five suggestions
to make it more engaging and easier to read
without impacting the author's voice.
Number four, assuming they've identified some things
that were really important for improving that manuscript,
or maybe even offering something
that surprised me with their ideas that were valuable,
I then set up a time to chat.
When we're talking, I'm really looking for personality fit,
engagement, and dedication.
I'm not really looking for a writer
that says they really would prefer
to be doing fiction, but it doesn't pay,
so I'm going to ask about their process,
ask about their preferences.
If you like everything they're saying,
ask to talk to their past clienses.
Clienses. (laughs)
Ask to speak with their past clienses, clienses. (laughs)
Number five, if you like what they've had
to say so far, ask to speak to their past clients.
References are important, but when you talk
to the references, ask, "What was it like
"to work with them?
"What was challenging about working with them?
"What did you have to do to help them with the project?"
And then, even ask them, "What did you think
"the process was like?"
Now, before you hire them for the full project,
you may wanna do a tester.
Maybe you have them write an article for you,
see how it is to work with them,
see if they can capture your voice
before you hire them to write your full book.
Once you've hired them,
here's a few things you need to know.
The cheaper the price, the faster they're going
to need to go to get to a first draft.
This isn't a bad thing,
but know that they're making money on quantity, not quality.
You have to manage them, set deadlines,
layout expectations and provide feedback.
They're working for you, so you have to be
the boss and manage them.
You're getting a manuscript, not a book.
You still have to hire editors,
layout designers, cover creators, and more.
Writers can't give you a guarantee
because it sets themselves up for a world of pain
if they get a really picky client.
You can set a number of re-writes
or revisions in your contract,
but it will not be unlimited.
If all this sounds like a giant pain in the behind,
and it is, which is why I did it
for one of our clients,
and then decided to bring ghostwriting in house,
we now have writing coaches who help clients
to write their book, or if you prefer to have
an experienced ghostwriter do the writing for you,
we can do that, too, and we can do it
for less than it would cost
if you hired one of these amazing writers
on your own because they have guaranteed income.
No more hunting for the next gig.
We always aim to create massive success stories,
so we'll probably get it right.
Reach out if you want help.
And, if you're a ghostwriter
or you've worked with a great one,
let people know in the comments below.
Down there.
And if you want more costumes in these videos,
hit that Like button and make sure you've hit
that Subscribe button so we can hang out again soon.
And make sure you've
subscribed. (laughs)