The holy grail for freelance writers seems to be earning six figures, or more than $100,000. Although this sum may seem huge, and potentially unreachable, to some writers, others have already scaled that peak and are working toward multiple six-figure revenues.

The key to earning six figures, or to earning more at any level, comes down to 5 factors.

How much do you charge?

The quickest way to hit six figures in annual income is for ghostwriters to raise their rates. If you’re currently charging $.10/word, for example, consider doubling it, to start, to $.20/word. Or, if you ghostwrite books for $5,000, consider bumping your asking price up to at least $10,000.

In doubling your rate, you’re cutting in half the time it will take to earn your current income level. Your path to six figures will be significantly shortened.

That means that if you typically write four books a year, at $10,000 each, you’re making $40,000. By doubling your rate, you’re at $80,000 without any extra effort.

One guide to market rates that writers refer to is from the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA). I have always felt that these rates are low, however, so don’t take them as cast in stone. Use them as a way to see if you’re at least earning what the EFA says you should be.

However, after you raise your rates, not all clients will be interested in continuing to work with you.

To avoid a sudden drop in clients, one option is to gradually raise your rates. Moving from $.15/word to $.18/word, for example, may not impact your clients enough to drive them to find a different writer. However, it will take you longer to increase your annual revenue by a marked amount.

Another option is to find a new target market.

What are your target clients willing to pay?

Standard rates vary widely, often depending on the client, so if your current client base is giving you pushback about raising your rates, it may be time to look for different ones.

Additionally, certain genres pay better than others, as a general rule, so you may also need to consider diversifying the type of ghostwriting you do, or the range of ghostwriting services you offer.

For example, books can pay better than blogging or article writing, because clients rarely have the expertise required to product a book-length work themselves. Speechwriting is another service that clients are less likely to scrimp on when hiring a pro.

Where you find your clients can also impact their expectations regarding pay. Upwork, for example, has a reputation for having a wide range of writing opportunities, though the average pay is on the low end. Conversely, ad agencies that go out in search of a skilled ghostwriter often understand the need to pay $.50/word, $1/word, or more, to secure an experienced ghost.

Think about where higher-paying clients can be found, and look there.

What is your niche?

Writing that requires advanced or niche expertise, such as medical or technology, generally pays a higher fee. Clients understand that finding a skilled writer who also has a medical or tech background will cost them more. Business writing also pays above average, generally.

Getting to six figures is faster and easier when you’re writing for clients who expect to pay, say, $1/word, rather than $.10. If you maintain the same pace of work but are earning 10x what you formerly were, you can see how hitting six figures will be much easier.

If you don’t currently have a niche, and believe that being a generalist is the best course for you, you may be right. Many generalist ghostwriters are able to establish a steady stream of writing work because they have a broad range of topics they are comfortable writing about.

That said, I feel compelled to try to encourage you to at least consider developing an area of expertise. Doing so will differentiate you from scads of other ghostwriters who are also generalists. For example, maybe you have a hobby or interest that sets you apart from other generalists, such as rock climbing or playing the piano. Projects involving those topics, whatever they are, should be easier for you to land and to complete, because of the knowledge you’ve amassed.

The less time it takes you to find and win more work, the shorter your path to six figures.

How fast can you work?

Another major factor, besides pay and clients, is speed.

My father, Richard C. Layton, was a talented fine artist who studied with some of the best illustrators of his time—several Wyeths, Frank Schoonover, and Howard Pyle, to name a few. I was so lucky to be his daughter, and am deeply proud of his work. His murals and paintings have been shown in galleries nationwide and are owned by numerous museums and collectors. He also charged a premium because of that skill.

However, he was never as prolific as his best friend, Andrew Wyeth. I remember my dad commenting on how quickly Andy was able to work. Dad marveled at his speed.

Although there were differences in their painting style, of course, and Andy’s well-deserved celebrity status certainly differentiated them, the fact that Andy could complete a painting in less than half the time it took my dad to finish one definitely impacted their earning potential.

The same is true for you.

So, what can you do to speed up your writing process, or to delegate the pieces that slow down your pace? The faster you work, the more you can earn, even without raising your rates.

Can you multitask?

Related to the issue of speed, can you work on multiple projects simultaneously? Being able to juggle more than one project at a time will also dramatically increase your earning potential.

To do that, however, you need to be constantly marketing yourself. Even when you’re slammed with work, you need to stay in touch with prospects, go hunting for new clients, and take steps to connect with potential clients.

The ability to multitask comes down to your project management abilities. The better you are able to attract new work, manage existing client projects, hit deadlines, and bill in a timely fashion, the more you will earn. It’s a work cycle that you need to get started, and then keep moving at a quick pace.

Earning six figures is within your reach, once you raise your rates, pick up your pace, and master multitasking.

The post Ghostwriters: Want a Faster Path to a Six-Figure Income? appeared first on Association of Ghostwriters.

There are frequent discussions in the Association of Ghostwriters private Facebook group about how many projects ghostwriters take on at any one time and how they manage their workload. I always find it interesting to hear how members schedule their assignments and organize their tasks, so as not to be overwhelmed by taking on too much at one time.

Because, the truth is, building a steady workflow is nearly impossible as a freelancer (which is what ghostwriters are, unless they’re employed full-time at an agency).

At times, you may feel you have everything under control: you’re caught up on all your deadlines, and are waiting for clients to respond before you can proceed. That’s the time to take breath and relax while you can—unless you’re underworked and need to find more paying gigs to fill your time.

In that case, that caught up moment should be used to explore new opportunities and to find more paying work.

At other times, you may feel as if you’re watching a massive impending wave of work about to crash down on top of you, as deadlines emerge and you wonder how you’ll cram 50 hours of work into the coming week.

Whether you’re looking to fill your schedule with more paying work or have said “yes” to too many projects already, here are some tactics that may help to reduce your anxiety and get more done, efficiently.

Make a Master List

It’s always helpful to take a look at what you really need to get done and by when. Creating a master list, which can simply be a lined piece of paper with notes on it, or a snazzy Excel spreadsheet, is an important starting point.

List everything you know you need to get done at some point in the future. Clear your mind by putting it all down in front of you, either writing by hand or by typing.

I tend to break down larger projects down into smaller tasks, so instead of writing, “Finish chapter 5,” I’ll identify all of the steps I need to finish for that to happen. Those steps might include scheduling interviews, gathering background facts about people, places, or events, and then writing chunks of, say, 500 words. A project becomes less overwhelming when you see how you can make progress on pieces of the whole (at least that’s been my experience).

Sort by Date

Next, take that list and rearrange it in order of due date. Whatever is the next thing you need to deliver to clients should be at the top, followed by all of the rest of those deliverables in descending chronological order.

Estimate Time Required

Once you’ve organized your master list, go through each action item and estimate as best you can how much time each task will take. For example, emailing to schedule an interview might take 5-10 minutes, researching background statistics might take 45 minutes (depending on how obscure the topic), and drafting 500 words of a chapter might take 2 to 4 hours.

Give yourself some leeway by building in extra time if you’re not sure how long something is likely to take. If you’ve scheduled an hour-long phone interview, you know to block off 1 hour, but when writing or editing, the task can expand or contract depending on how focused you are and how complex the writing.

Assign Your Work to a Specific Day and Time

Now that you have your list of to-do’s organized by due date and a general idea of how long each task will take, you can start to add them to your schedule. I use a week-at-a-time calendar I created myself and tend to work in 30-minute blocks, so I might batch several emails into a 30-minute block, and then work for 2 hours drafting something else, followed by an hour of editing, and then 30 minutes of background research or reading.

Slot tasks according to due date, with the tasks due today or tomorrow on the schedule for today.

Try to gauge what is reasonable to complete in a day. If you have assignments to get done in the next week that total 30 hours, don’t plan to get 10 hours’ worth of work done tomorrow. Spread it out more, unless you can’t because of due dates. Try to limit your work to 6 to 8 hours in a day, mainly because some tasks will take longer than you expect. Be realistic, and don’t berate yourself if you fall a little behind.

Reassess at the End of the Day

To keep yourself on task and to ensure you’re working on the most important project for the moment, keep your list in front of you. As you finish tasks, cross them off. Then move on to the next most important item to complete.

If you can’t move ahead until you hear back from someone or receive needed information or resources, I tend to check that item off, rather than crossing it off entirely, to remind myself that there is still something I have to do once I receive what I need.

Then move on to the next task. Keep checking your daily list to confirm you’re focused on the most important item on your schedule. Try not to be distracted by other items that are scheduled for later in the week. Stick to today’s action items.

At the end of the day, review what you needed to get done, what you did get done, and then move anything you didn’t complete to the next day.

Communicate with Clients Often

If one of the tasks you needed to get done today hasn’t been completed, you need to let your client know. Likewise, if you’re having trouble reaching someone you need to talk to in order to deliver a project in the next week, tell your client that you’ve reached an impasse; they may be able to step in to clear the bottleneck.

If you don’t tell them that your progress has been stalled, they will be expecting you to deliver what you promised, on time. So as soon as you know that your schedule will need to shift, tell them.

That includes falling behind because you got sick, were suddenly called out of town, receive notice of jury duty, had a tree fall on your house and knock out electricity for several days, or any other unexpected event that is getting in your way of delivering your project on time. Keep in touch with your client—more communication is always preferred to too little.

Determining How Much Availability You Have

After you’ve slotted all of the work you currently have onto your schedule, you can add up how much time you’re expecting to spend on that work. That tells you how much availability you have, on a daily and weekly basis.

So if you see that next Thursday you’ve only scheduled 3 hours of work, you know you have time you could spend on another project. You can pursue other opportunities with that hole in your schedule in mind.

Likewise, if a client asks if you can take on a rush project, to be done in the next 5 days, you can look at your schedule to see where you could possibly fit this work in. And if you see that you’re already overloaded, with 8 hours of solid work already scheduled every day for the next week, you can either choose to work extra long to get the work done, or you can ask if there is any flexibility with the schedule, so that you can put it on your schedule for the following week. Depending on your client’s response, you can decide whether to take the work or not.

Successful ghostwriters manage multiple projects at once, to ensure they’re maximizing their available time, but without overbooking themselves to the point of losing sleep. It’s a fine line and most ghostwriters have faced situations from time to time where they had to put in extra hours, or work weekends, in order to get the work done they committed to. I hope this process can help you multitask and avoid overwhelm.

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My Summer Reading List

Yes, I know summer is more than half over, but as I look ahead to my upcoming vacation, I’ve set aside a few books to read or finish during my getaway that I’m excited about. In case you’re looking for ideas for books to read during your spare time, I thought I’d share my pile.

These books are not specifically for ghostwriters, or even freelance writers, but will probably be most useful for people who run their own businesses.

We Should All Be Millionaires

This debut book by my coach Rachel Rodgers at Hello Seven is an important read for anyone who feels like their income has stagnated. I’ve actually already listened to this book through Audible a couple of months ago, when it first came out, but I want to go back through it to savor the key points when I’m able to slow down.

One of Rodgers’ biggest points is differentiating between Million-Dollar Decisions and Broke Ass Decisions. Meaning, there are decisions we’re making that are holding us back from earning what we could be. She’s right, and reading this has helped me start to identify things I do that take too much of my time unnecessarily.

Doesn’t Hurt to Ask

My friends have undoubtedly heard me talk about the power of questions, and how I’m working on a book on the topic. Granted, I’ve been “working on” it for years, so no surprise that someone else beat me to the punch. Anyway, I had to pick up this title to see what the author has to say about questions.

The two things I believe have helped me the most in life and in business have been my love of reading and my willingness to ask questions. I’ll ask questions to improve my comprehension of something, to explore a potential solution to a problem, or to inquire about new opportunities. In many cases, I don’t think we recognize opportunities to ask questions, and we end up not obtaining the best possible resolution or situation.

I’m excited to pick up some new question-related skills.

Built to Sell

One of the challenges that professional writers have is that since their income is based on their personal skills, it can be hard to build a sellable business—an asset. In most cases, they can’t separate themselves from the business without a negative impact. Those types of companies are considered “lifestyle businesses” and they aren’t worth much.

Establishing a writing business that can sustain itself without the founding writer is the challenge, and I’m curious to learn if it’s possible to do that without setting up an editorial agency.

Maybe this book has the answer?

Art for Money: Up Your Freelance Game and Get Paid What You’re Worth

Once of the most popular topics among members of the Association of Ghostwriters is figuring out what to charge. What’s a fair rate? What’s the market rate? What are clients expecting to pay? These are all discussions we’ve had many, many times.

What to charge comes up so frequently because there’s really no right or wrong answer. Each ghostwriter has to consider for themselves what their time is worth. However, I frequently see that writers are charging less than they could.

So I’m intrigued to see what the author advises about improving business practices and charging what you’re worth. First, I want to know how to assess that.

The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

If you’re like me, you’re a Seth Godin fan. His books are always thought-provoking and easy to read, often because they’re short and consist of tips. I think this book is likely to follow in that same pattern and won’t take much time to finish.

I’m frequently asked about my creative process as a ghostwriter, so I was drawn to this title in the hopes of learning how to tap into my creativity more easily when my clients need it most.

In addition to these books, I also have a couple of works of fiction, including Kate White’s The Fiancée and TJ Newman’s Falling.

I’d love to hear what you’re reading and which books I should add to my Fall reading pile.

The post My Summer Reading List appeared first on Association of Ghostwriters.

The 3 Questions Ghostwriters Need to ask Prospects to Know if They’re a Fit

With demand for ghostwriters on the rise, thanks to marketers’ unrelenting reliance on content, many writers are finding plenty of opportunities to work. Eager to get past the feast-or-famine lifestyle that freelance writers frequently contend with, many jump at opportunities before considering whether those clients are truly a good fit for their business and interests.

When clients are not a fit, it’s easy to get bogged down with writing assignments that are big time sucks, in an area you’re not familiar with, and paying peanuts. And once you’re overloaded with such low-paying work, it’s hard to break out of the cycle.

Fit is the difference between enjoying the work you’re doing and being paid fairly and the aforementioned dissatisfaction with topic, pace, and pay. Fortunately, there is a way to assess fit early on.

The three questions you need answered in order to judge client fit have to do with budget, background, and expectations.

Budget

Before you commit to spending too much time on a phone call or Zoom meeting with a prospect, find out all you can about their budget. What are they expecting to pay you for your work?

You need this information so that you can decide if you want it.

For example, a client who wants to pay $100 for a 1,000-word blog post requiring multiple interviews and several hours of work isn’t a fit for a writer whose minimum fee for such a post is $500.

Or a client who wants a 60,000-word memoir ghostwritten and has set aside $5,000 for the task is not a fit for a ghost whose minimum fee is $20,000.

You can potentially save hours of time by getting to the money question quickly. If you ask about budget and get a question in response about your rates, throw out a minimum or a range that you’ve charged for similar work. If the prospect indicates that figure is within their budget, continue to gather information so that you can provide an official quote for the work they need done.

Background

Once you know that the work being discussed offers pay that is acceptable, it’s time to evaluate whether the work fits your interests and experience.

If you’re a romance writer and the client needs help with a technical white paper, which you’ve never done, there may not be a fit. Or, conversely, if you’re a technical writer and a prospect wants to write a memoir, your skills may not be aligned with the task at-hand.

Getting clear about your skills and abilities is an important first step here. What have you written in the past and what would you like to write in the future?

Just as important are your areas of interest. If you’ve written so many business books that you’re sick of them, don’t take any more on. Instead, look for projects that play to topics you’re passionate about or interested in.

Answers to those questions will allow you to quickly qualify prospects as they come in.

Expectations</h2

Finally, you’ll want to understand what the prospect expects in terms of work process, deliverables, and deadline.

How do you prefer to work? What does your process look like? Will that work for this client and project?

In what form does the prospect want the writing delivered and are you comfortable with that? For example, does the client need a blog post, a speech, a video script, a white paper, or a book? Have you created similar documents?

And when do they need the work done? Can you meet their schedule and deadline? For example, a client who needs a book produced by the end of the year may seem very reasonable when you’re speaking to them in February. However, if you are speaking with the client in September and their deadline for completion in December, you may or may not want the work.

The clearer you can be in your own mind, based on the type of ghostwriting work you want to be doing, the easier it will be to assess client fit and to avoid projects that don’t feed your bank account or your curiosity. And while all writers fear turning down paying work, lest it be the last assignment they’re ever offered, demand for ghostwriting makes that scenario less and less likely.

The post The 3 Questions Ghostwriters Need to ask Prospects to Know if They’re a Fit appeared first on Association of Ghostwriters.

Bob Bly’s latest email to his Direct Response Letter subscribers about how to stand out in a crowded market reinforced something I needed to remind myself. It’s a message I also try to articulate to other writers.

That is, we shouldn’t be so worried about competition. We all have competitors. No matter what your writing focus, whether it’s business books, YA fiction, ghostblogging, content creation, speechwriting, Wikipedia editing – whatever – there are almost always other people offering the same service.

Don’t be Afraid of Competitors

This fact makes some writers downright anxious. The concept of competition puts them on edge. They worry that they’ll have to fight it out with others in order to win business. They get nervous when they hear that others are specializing in the same niche or writing on similar topics.

And they shouldn’t be. Because competition isn’t scary.

The truth is, no one can do what you do exactly the way that you do it. You are unique, and that can be a source of competitive advantage – what helps you come out on top in the hunt for clients.

Be Generous with Your Expertise

Now, while Bly presents nine ways to stand out, I offer my own list of three ways to gain a competitive advantage:

1. Have an abundance mindset. That is, believe and accept that there is enough work for everyone. Refer work to others when opportunities that come your way aren’t a perfect fit or aren’t of interest, secure in the knowledge that in doing so, you’re attracting work that makes better use of your skillset. This is in contrast to grabbing every single assignment that lands in your inbox, for fear that you’ll never get another one. That’s a scarcity mindset, which can lead you to jump at every potential project, thereby filling your schedule with work you don’t love, so that when the perfect gig comes along, you’re too busy to take it.
2. Share what you know. Similar, or related, to Bly’s recommendation to establish yourself as an authority, by sharing your expertise you position yourself as a leader in the field. You may develop a reputation for your knowledge, which can attract clients. Being generous with your advice and sharing what you know will endear yourself to other writers, many of whom will want to return the favor in some way. That can lead to new connections and new work.
3. Focus on one or two niches. As Bly also advises, developing specialized expertise in 1-2 topics can serve you well. By becoming well-informed about a couple of topics, you can research and write about them faster than generalist writers. You are also able to generate pitches that are timely and relevant, because you stay active in the subject area. And the assignments are more profitable for you because you don’t need to do much background research to get up-to-speed. You have a running start when you get an assignment in your area of expertise. Earning a reputation for being an expert in an area will attract clients in need of content in that same area, and will encourage colleagues to refer related work to you when they hear about it.

To gain a natural advantage over your competitors, simply put a stake in the ground, so to speak, to claim your niche – the topic that you’re going to know more about than any other writer.

Then, pass along leads that aren’t a good fit for you. That might be due to the subject matter, the pay, or the project scope. If it’s not a good fit, give it to someone for whom it is.

Know that there is work out there and other writers can’t deliver the same quality product that you can. What makes you different makes you better.

Make sure the market understands that and you’ll have a bulletproof competitive advantage.

Hallmark holiday movies are sappy and formulaic, and we love them anyway. On Sunday, November 10, 2019 Hallmark premiered a new addition to the Hallmark Christmas movie line-up, titled “The Mistletoe Secret.” (If you don’t want any spoilers, you may want to stop reading right now.)

In this story, the protagonist, Aria, runs a diner in Midway, Utah, which has been struggling because tourists increasingly decide to spend time at the bigger ski resorts nearby. A hunk who quietly comes to town is Alex, long-time ghostwriter for Sterling Masters, the star of a TV travel show, “Masters of Travel.”

Chaos ensues when Sterling decides to experience first-hand all the charm that Midway has to offer.

It’s a fun movie and Hallmark fans will certainly enjoy it.

However, the movie’s producers seem to have a number of misconceptions about ghostwriters and ghostwriting that I feel compelled to point out and correct.

1. Ghostwriters don’t usually write whatever they want, without client input.

A true professional ghostwriter relies on input and direction from their client when creating content in the client’s voice. They don’t go off on their own and craft material without the client’s involvement or approval, as Alex does in the movie.

For example, the fact that Sterling has no knowledge of what Alex wrote in an article about Midway he published under Sterling’s byline would be practically unheard of in real life, since a ghostwriter delivers a draft to the client and then the client, in this case Sterling, would choose what to do with it.

In most cases, the client indicates what they want the ghostwriter to write, or the client and ghostwriter brainstorm together what content would be most appropriate for the client to publish.

There are very few opportunities for a ghostwriter to go rogue and just start publishing pieces in their client’s name online without someone first approving it. That’s just not how the client-ghostwriter relationship works.

2. If there’s a confidentiality agreement, the ghostwriter can’t reveal their role – ever.

When Alex arrives, he doesn’t tell anyone his role in “Masters of Travel” because he is prohibited from doing so. He’d be sued, as is mentioned early on. So he keeps quiet. However, when Sterling shows up unannounced, their professional relationship becomes harder to keep under wraps.

Alex makes up several stories to explain why he’s in Midway, what he’s writing, and how he knows Sterling (initially claiming he doesn’t), going to great lengths to hide his ghostwriter role. And that’s how it should be.

At the end, when he tells Aria that he should have told her up front that he was Sterling’s ghostwriter is where Hallmark gets it wrong.

Until and unless his client notifies him in writing that he is permitted to tell anyone his role, Alex can’t. Ever. Sure, Sterling may decide he doesn’t mind if others realize he has a ghostwriter, but the truth is that Alex needs that in writing. What if Sterling’s TV producers tell him Alex needs to stay behind the scenes? They could be the ones to sue Alex, even if Sterling thinks it’s no big deal.

3. Ghostwriters spend most of their days working on client assignments, not going on sleigh rides.

Looking at how Alex spends his time, you would think that ghostwriting is 99 percent inspiration and 1 percent writing. And that’s where Hallmark gets it wrong.

Few professional ghostwriters that I know have time to sit all day drinking hot cocoa or eating pie or going on sleigh rides. I have to believe that even travel writers, who go on-site to check out a destination, spend time experiencing the area and then go back to their hotel rooms to create an article or craft a chapter of a travel guide.

Sure, ghostwriters take breaks, but during the work week, many of my colleagues are seated at their desks, or in front of their laptops at a table somewhere, writing.

And then in the evening, they are more likely to take a break, grab a hot beverage, and sit in a comfy chair to enjoy a Hallmark holiday classic.