How To Break Into Freelance Ghostwriting - Wave Accounting

What is ghostwriting

Ghostwriting is when you produce content that will be published under your client’s name. As a ghostwriter, you sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) and sign away any intellectual property (IP) rights you have to the content you produce. In return, you are usually paid more than you’d be paid if your name was on the content, for example in the mainstream media.

In general, ghostwriters operate completely in the background and the client represents the work as their own. There are also some rare cases where a ghostwriter is named as a collaborator, but this is rare and usually only done when the ghostwriter is prominent in other ways, so naming them as a collaborator could help sell the content (for example, a ghostwritten book).

Why do people hire ghostwriters?

People hire ghostwriters for a variety of reasons, but usually it’s one of three things:

Time: If someone is busy and has a lot on their plate, paying someone else to write their ideas down into a blog post, article, book, song, or something else can be a valuable use of money. Since most people can talk through an idea faster than they could structure a piece of writing, working with a ghostwriter is a great way to save time.

Skills: Sometimes a well-known person is simply not a good writer. They might be great at speaking, negotiation, singing, managing, or something else, but not writing. In this case, hiring a ghostwriter is a fairly simple choice: if they want content produced, they need to work with someone who is capable of writing.

Scalability: Sometimes a person is a good writer, but they have multiple projects on the go or need to produce a lot of content in a tight timeline. Working with a ghostwriter in this capacity is about scaling out how much you can do. For example: an author on a speaking tour might hire a ghostwriter to produce op-ed articles that appear in the local news for each stop on the tour, giving the author free time to meet fans and do live interviews.

Who hires ghostwriters?

In general, the people who hire ghostwriters have some form of public persona that they need to prop up with content. That includes:

• Politicians
• Executives
• Athletes
• Influencers
• Creators
• Public figures
• PR agencies hiring for a client
• Literary agencies hiring for a client

Common types of ghostwriting

Ghostwriters produce all kinds of content, depending on their client needs:

• Speeches: For politicians or celebrities.
• Books and ebooks: For authors or someone who wants to be seen as an author.
• Blogs and op-eds: If someone is a blogger but wants additional writing support.
• Articles: Both fiction and nonfiction ghostwriting.
• Community management posts: To drive word of mouth marketing for a brand or celebrity.
• Announcements: For things from business books to parties.
• Interviews: For sharing someone else's story.
• Songs: Music publishers might pay ghost writers to write songs for famous singers.‍

This isn’t to say that all ghostwriters produce all kinds of content, though. For instance, a book ghostwriter might write some articles, but probably won’t write songs. Similarly, a script writer may also write songs, but probably doesn’t write blogs or op-eds.

The difference between freelance writing and ghostwriting

Ghostwriting is a form of freelance writing. The best way to think about it is that freelance writing is an umbrella term that encompasses ghost writing and multiple other forms of content writing such as books, songs, blog posts, website copy, or case studies.

Key benefits of ghostwriting

There are a lot of benefits to ghostwriting, both from a career and personal perspective:

Money

Ghostwriters earn great money because they are producing content and often managing the process. It’s not uncommon for a ghostwriter to earn well over $100 per hour when you calculate out project costs. This means you can earn a six-figure salary working less than 20 hours per week.

Experience

You get to learn about a huge variety of topics as a ghostwriter. You’ll interview executives and other smart people on whatever’s on their mind, which could mean you learn about AI, healthcare, tech innovation, early childhood education—anything, really. The sky's the limit when it comes to the experience you get as a ghostwriter.

Connections

Perhaps one of the coolest elements of ghostwriting is the people you meet. Because of the nature of who hires ghostwriters, you’re regularly interacting with people that have huge demands on their time. You’re casually getting to sit down with CEOs or politicians that hundreds of people would kill to speak with for two minutes. And what’s even better is you’re being paid to make these connections, many of which will last far beyond the project is done.

Relationships

As a ghostwriter, you don’t just network with people. You dive into their brains and souls, learning deeply about what they think, believe, and understand. If you’re someone who is naturally curious about other people, ghostwriting is one of the best opportunities in the world. Your whole job is to intellectually prod and poke some of the smartest and most successful people in the world, just for the sake of understanding what’s going on in their head.