Table of contents:
- The ghostwriter does all the work
- Only celebrities and famous people use ghostwriters
- Ghostwriting isn’t authentic
- AI can work just as well as human writer
- All ghostwriters are generalists
- A ghostwriter can finish writing a book in a few weeks
- Ghostwriters are inexpensive
- If you can write, you can be a ghostwriter
Ghostwriting as an industry is undergoing big changes, not all of which are positive. Unscrupulous scammers are on the rise, artificial intelligence (AI) is being explored as a possible replacement for human writing, and freelance writers flocking to join the ranks of ghostwriters don’t necessarily have the requisite experience or skills to do a good job for their clients.
However, ghostwriters — and especially book ghostwriters — have an important role to play. Understanding the realities of ghostwriting as a profession will help aspiring authors make smart choices when it comes to their collaborators.
Estimates are that between 50 percent and 80 percent of all New York Times bestselling books are ghostwritten. That’s a lot of books that wouldn’t exist in their current state without the talents that book ghostwriters possess.
More leaders and experts have already recognized the value that a ghostwriter can bring to their books, but there are also still too many people who have shied away from hiring a ghostwriter because of the myths they’ve heard.
To help demystify the process, here are nine fallacies you’ve likely heard and the accompanying realities:
Myth: The ghostwriter does all the work
Reality: Ghostwriting is a partnership — a collaboration. It would be nearly impossible for a ghostwriter to pen a nonfiction book based on an author’s expertise and life experiences without their direction, ideas, and feedback.
Although such arrangements may be common in fiction ghostwriting, where the client provides a plot and character descriptions that the ghostwriter can use to craft a made-up tale, nonfiction requires the involvement of the author at nearly every step of the way.
Myth: Only celebrities and famous people use ghostwriters
Reality: Given the price tag associated with hiring an experienced ghostwriter, it’s easy to understand how the myth that only stars hire ghostwriters would develop. However, the truth is that anyone with knowledge they want to share but who lacks time or writing skills is a candidate for a ghostwriter.
For many professionals, it is a question of whether the task is worth their time; for many, there is a positive return on investment (ROI) in handing the work over to a professional. Business leaders and subject matter experts rely on ghostwriters regularly.
Myth: Ghostwriting isn’t authentic
Reality: For many aspiring authors who haven’t done much writing on their own, a ghostwriter can help define and amplify their natural writing voice. Ghostwriters don’t impose their own writing voice — that would be inauthentic.
Ghostwriters invest significant time in learning how their clients think and speak so that they can convey ideas exactly as the author would have because it is the author’s concepts and ideas.
Myth: It’s cheating
Reality: Asking for help isn’t cheating. Ghostwriters are support staff just like speechwriters, coaches, consultants, lawyers, and accountants are. They work to improve the quality of their client’s output, but the input comes directly from the author. The ghostwriter isn’t making anything up or doing the author’s thinking for them.
Myth: AI can work just as well as a human writer
Reality: AI today relies on content it has been fed — that it has been trained on — so the likelihood of plagiarism is high. Also, AI lacks emotion, which means that its stories are flat and bland. The most popular books today have rich stories that immerse the reader in the situation.
For that reason, more platforms are beginning to award writers with certificates or badges that confirm they do not use AI to generate their work products. Working with a human writer may soon be considered a premium service.
Myth: All ghostwriters are generalists
Reality: Although ghostwriters can be generalists, especially within a particular genre, such as memoir or how-to, many ghostwriters choose to specialize. They may develop more experience in a particular genre or in a subject, such as technology or leadership.
Having that subject matter expertise often makes it possible to work more quickly, since there is less of a learning curve to overcome.
Myth: A ghostwriter can finish writing a book in a few weeks
Reality: if you’ve run across any of the ghostwriting scam sites, you may be convinced that a ghostwriter can generate a complete book in a month or two. Unfortunately, that’s unusual. It’s possible, yes, but at a premium price because the ghostwriter would have to put aside all other work to focus solely on your project. You can’t pay $2,000 and get a book in two months from a legit ghostwriter. A more common timeframe to write a book is 4-12 months.
Myth: Ghostwriters are inexpensive
Reality: Ghostwriters are actually expensive. Skilled ghostwriters with experience and bestsellers to their credit charge tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of dollars for their services. After all, they help clarify the focus and content of the book, expertly gather and organize all of the author’s ideas and stories, and package them in a cogent book.
The value of that book in terms of new business opportunities and enhanced prestige can easily reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in ROI.
Myth: If you can write, you can be a ghostwriter
Reality: Ghostwriters are at the top of the career ladder when it comes to writing ability. Not only do they need to be expert interviewers, to get relevant and useful input from their author-client, but they need to be able to adopt their client’s voice, which is a skill unto itself. That ability to mimic another’s writing voice is what distinguishes ghostwriters, in fact.
Have you come across commonly held beliefs about ghostwriting that you now question? What are they?
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