- Ghostwriters are everywhere.
(camera shuttering)
But, if you wanna hire one to write your book,
where do you find the right ghostwriter for you?
That's what we're talking about in today's video.
Stick around. (rock 'n roll music)
Hey, I'm Julie, the book 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.
I'm a big fan of writing,
and I think there's tremendous value
in being the one who actually sits down
and hammers out your book, but it's not for everyone.
You don't think Sarah Palin, Beyonce,
Pamela Anderson, Lance Armstrong,
and Nicole Richie actually wrote their own books?
As one celeb said,
"I don't do my own typing."
(beeping) As one celeb said,
"I don't do my own typing.
"I don't do my own typing," I don't know. (laughs)
A lot of famous books were written by ghostwriters.
Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
was written with Ken Shelton,
Richard Branson in Losing My Virginity
acknowledges Edward Whitley,
Howard Schultz in Onward with Joanne Gordon.
The list is long, in fact, many of the top-selling CEO
and celebrity books are penned by someone else,
but the thing you need to remember is,
the book could not exist without the author.
The ghostwriter provides the words,
and sometimes some supplemental research,
but not the expertise,
not the story or the advice in the pages.
That's all you, the author.
So, if you hate writing, don't have the time
to do it, or you just know your aren't
the best person for the job, a talented ghostwriter could
be the right solution for you.
Where do you find this great ghostwriter?
First, get as clear on your project as possible.
The more you know what you want,
the easier it will be to identify a writer
who can help you.
Things to consider, style of book,
size of book, the goal of the book,
who you're writing to and what level
of expertise they will have,
what you have existing already
from materials to work with, like blog posts,
podcasts that you can transcribe,
videos that you can transcribe,
courses that you've already created.
That's all material that can be used.
How much research do you need the ghostwriter
to do to add to the manuscript?
These are all important things to figure out.
Then, you're gonna go find one.
Here's ideas of where you can find them.
Number one, you can ask your author friends.
Some may disclose they worked with one,
others may say something like,
"Oh, I have a friend who worked with one.
"A friend."
Number two, check out writing groups
on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Many of the groups are closed groups,
but if you write the admin and let them know
what you're looking for, they just might put
up a post on your behalf.
When I was hiring a ghostwriter for Book Launchers,
I received about 20 highly-qualified applicants
from a writers group one of the people
on my team is a part of.
It was an absolutely fantastic source.
Number three, Google business ghostwriters.
I connected with a few ghostwriting service companies
when I was trying to find a very specific,
skilled ghostwriter for one of our clients.
The starting rate was $18,000 for a basic project.
Not too bad, considering experienced ghostwriters
are typically charging a lot more.
Four, post a job where you might hire other freelancers,
like Guru.com,
Upwork.com, or Scriptd.
S-c-r-i-p-d,
t-d, whatever.
But, having had mixed results on those platforms,
I ultimately ended up going to Indeed.com
and posting a want ad, and truthfully,
they're not the highest paid ghostwriters in the country,
they're looking for work online, not through referrals,
but I did find a plethora of decent writers.
I must warn you, though, I was overwhelmed with responses.
I received more than 150 applications in under 48 hours,
and half of them were very qualified on paper.
Now, my job posting did have the appeal of steady work,
which is something most ghostwriters long for,
which would make it more likely to attract more responses
than if you were just hiring for a one-off job.
But still, you may find the responses overwhelming
to sort through, which leads me to the next question.
How do you know when you've found a good ghostwriter?
We'll discuss that in the next video.
Make sure you're subscribed
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hit that thumbs up button.
Makes me happy, tells me to shoot more videos
and wear more ghost costumes.
See you next time.