Table of contents:
- The Authenticity Misconception
- How Amateur Writing Actually Obscures Authenticity
- How Professional Ghostwriters Amplify Your Voice
- The Professional Parallel
“I plan to write my own book because I want it to be authentically mine” is one of the most common objections I hear from aspiring authors about working with a ghostwriter.
Some business leaders, CEOs, business owners, entrepreneurs, and experts are under the impression that working alongside a ghostwriter will somehow make their book less authentic, less theirs. That by working with a ghostwriter, the resulting book would be an inaccurate or artificial representation of their message.
The opposite is actually true.
The Authenticity Misconception
Some aspiring authors seem to equate the physical act of taking notes or typing on a computer keyboard with authenticity. That unless they personally peck the keys, the words that appear on the page do not represent their own thinking or experiences.
That understanding of authenticity is inaccurate, or at least flawed.
Think back to middle school or high school when you encountered a subject you struggled with. For me, it was geometry. My brain loves algebra, but geometry? Not so much.
To help, my parents hired a tutor to work with me weekly. She sat next to me, asking questions to figure out where I was getting confused and then showed me alternative perspectives that helped me grasp the concepts.
When I took the tests in that class, the answers were all mine. No one would ever claim that the answers I gave belonged to my tutor, right?
The same is true in ghostwriting.
A ghostwriter can help you clarify and refine your thinking, organize your core message, and draw out memories and stories you may even have forgotten, but which are perfect for some of the lessons you want to share.
They work alongside you, asking questions, pushing back, or playing devil’s advocate to be sure that you’ve considered all aspects of your topic, and then assist in explaining your ideas or message clearly.
The ideas are yours, as are the words.
The same is true of speechwriters. Speechwriters work alongside CEOs and leaders to refine keynote speeches and presentations, but the speeches themselves are always attributed to the person who gives them. There’s rarely any question of authenticity there, so I’m always surprised when it surfaces with respect to ghostwriting.
How Amateur Writing Actually Obscures Authenticity
What gets in the way of authenticity, of you revealing your best self, is amateur writing.
Let’s face it, most business leaders are not professional writers. Yes, they may be brilliant strategists and skilled negotiators, but that doesn’t automatically make them adept communicators. Unless they routinely write as part of their job, what they create on the page is likely to be less eloquent than they’d like.
Many non-writers focus so much on the mechanics we learned in English class that the resulting material is forced, even clunky. Trying so hard to be grammatically correct with accurate punctuation can lead to writing that is awkward or dry.
Of course, what makes writing effective is emotion and expressive language. Sometimes writing is more evocative when the rules of the English language are thrown out the window. Ghostwriters understand this.
Unless you’re confident your writing skills are on par with well-paid professionals, meaning ghostwriters, it’s likely your book will be underwhelming if you write it yourself, without support. It will be authentic, certainly, but it may not be worth reading in that case, and it may not help you achieve your ultimate objective (the reason you wrote your book in the first place).
How Professional Ghostwriters Amplify Your Voice
A ghostwriter’s job is to amplify all of your best qualities. Not to cover them up or hide them, but to shine a spotlight on how you communicate.
The best ghostwriters pay close attention to how you explain concepts, which words and phrases you rely on heavily, as well as your cadence and style. That’s what makes them ghostwriters. They reach a point at which they think like you, too.
Their job isn’t to put words in your mouth, which is probably what you’re most afraid of, but to translate what you’re saying into an even better version of what you’ve shared. They may take out the pauses or the tangents you like to go on when you’re explaining something, and bring the message back to what you most want to say. And they write it just like you would say it.
It’s your message in your words, only maybe a touch more organized.
The Professional Parallel
Working with a book ghostwriter is very similar to working with a public relations firm on a press release you want to issue about a new initiative or a big announcement. You want to share a message, but you rely on professional communicators to capture the essence of what you want to say.
If you use a PR firm, you probably also rely on a marketing communications team to design PowerPoint slides for presentations. You provide the key talking points and main message, and you leave it to them to organize and supplement it with graphics.
The same is true with speeches, as I pointed out, and other documents, such as white papers or submitted articles.
The ideas are yours, the words are yours, just amplified and improved.
Does that make them any less authentic? I don’t think so. They’re still all yours.