The second! Granted, early in my career when I was ghostwriting cheap kindle books, my clients were pretty uninvolved as they worked on volume but they'd provide me an outline and make a few notes.

At the level I work at now, where people are always paying five figures for a book, it's really involved. With non-fiction, my clients are telling me their own personal stories in as much detail as possible with hours and hours of interviews. That is something I don't think the "ghostwriting is unethical" crowd seems to grasp. Are we saying that only writers deserve to get their stories told? Because I can tell you, there are some beautiful, impactful stories that would mean nothing if written by someone with no experience. A lot of the time, it's just me taking their words and making them book worthy.

And then on the fiction side, my client and I usually collaborate very closely, they make a ton of editorial notes and changes. I also do something called book doctoring which is just line and developmental edits mixed with some writing. Nobody seems to think line editing is unethical but so often, a book is completely changed when I book doctor it. For me, it's the same concept. People have stories but writing is a honed skill.

In almost every way, I'd say it's the harder writing gig. As a writer writing their own stuff, you get to aim to be proficient in your writing style and your chosen genre. As a ghostwriter, you need to be proficient in a multitude of genres, be able to do any voice, bring the voice of your client into the work. It takes a ton of analysis and people-skills. Because my clients have often not written a book, they come to me with a vague idea of what they want and most of the time I'm reading between the lines to get that tone down. Then obviously you often do a lot more research because it may be a new topic to you or you'll research things from the life of your client. Even something as small as a hotel lobby, I'd go look that up and add in those details.

I'm trying to think of how it is easier and mostly I just don't think it is haha. I guess the one easy part is, and the reason I chose this career, is I get money in my pocket as soon as I'm done. Zero marketing, zero wondering if it's going to get published. But that doesn't really pertain to the writing aspect.

I really wish I could say yes to this haha. I do have one passion project in my head that has been in my head for years, but it just stays in the planning phase.

It is really true, in my experience, that when you make a passion your job it becomes hard to do it for the joy of it. I get paid to write now. My motivation to just sit and write has dwindled so much. I do want to make it my goal in the new year to write one book just for fun, no plans for it, no financial motivation... But we shall see...

No, not at all. As far as ethics go, I really love that I work a job where I don't have to exploit anyone below me for labor, I am not exploited by any corporation, and all my money comes from a consensual working relationship with my client. In almost any other job or any other industry somewhere along the line I'd have to be part of a system where labor is abused, which to me is the far bigger ethical issue. Nobody is being harmed if someone else's name is on my book and I was well compensated for the copyright. For me, my moral compass and any guilt I'd feel is from doing real harm in the world and this is pretty harmless.

I don't list them! Honestly, a resume of works isn't how I get most of my clients. Though my profiles speak to my experience (in vague terms) I usually consult with my client and provide them samples I believe are relevant. Sometimes I do a custom sample. The actual writing is what lands me clients.

That said, obviously when I work with literary agents they know I worked with x famous person because they were on the project. And some of that info may be passed onto other agents in the firm, etc. So, for those in the industry, they sometimes know.

Haha I’m afraid I haven’t watched Seinfeld!

But that’s an excellent question. Thankfully my clients usually come to the table pretty open. As we get to writing there may be things that felt too vulnerable that we redact. Though it does take some interview skill sometimes to tease out things they wouldn’t think to say. I can honestly say I’ve never padded a book except for with details that were real that they didn’t tell me. And by that I mean they might tell me they watched a tv program, not tell me anything about it, but I’ll go watch it and try to fill out the experience. So far all my clients have approved and know every chapter.

Not to say that it doesn’t happen or has never happened. I’m sure somewhere there was a very famous celeb who pushed a book out with minimal oversight. But it definitely hasn’t happened to me and my working relationships with my clients have always been pretty tight and collaborative, particularly in non-fiction/memoir.

Where you’re more likely to see padding would be in a researchable topic like business books or self-help, maybe. Again, I haven’t padded those genres much either though except with very appropriate amounts of research.

I do talk to my clients friends and family members though sometimes. There are incidents where a family member knows more about a specific event than my client does. My client still approves it and knows about it long before publishing though.

I personally consider myself a well-adjusted soul, but other ghostwriters identify as aimless phantoms, so it really isn’t my place to say!

Honestly, I had no plans to be a ghostwriter. I actually started in self-publishing many years ago when you could make pretty good money as a kindle author. Which was fine, I usually puled 50-70k a year doing that but it a huge grind and the marketing is exhausting.

I needed to take a break from the marketing and other indie authors utilized ghosts so I decided I'd do that "temporarily." Obviously, jokes on me. At that level, I didn't get paid a ton, but it was enough to make a living.

This will sound ridiculous and it is, but one day I just googled what ghostwriters made and google was like 20,000-100,000 a book. And I was like, no way. But at the higher level, that was absolutely true. I'd already written a ton by that point and made it my absolute mission to be a ghostwriter at that level, focusing on traditionally published books.

Oooh, no, not yet! Hopefully one day because that would be a great selling point for me.

I do not! With a big caveat that ghostwriters need to be paid what they're worth. Tons of people doing gigs on Fiverr for pennies and in any industry, when someone is underpaid that is obviously unfair. So I rally for ghosts getting proper compensation.

But for me, and for colleagues making five to six figures a book, no. We get compensated pretty well to not get the credit. Some ghosts might still prefer some credit, and we do sometimes get acknowledged on the front cover or the acknowledgements of a book, but I see it like anything else. In most industries, you never know who designed a product.

Well, obviously, I can't say names. I can't say anyone has shocked me, though. I haven't really worked with tons and tons of celebs either to make a ton of comparisons. Mostly, I've been pleasantly surprised how down to earth my clients are for having notoriety. I haven't had any divas.

Nothing in particular I want to double back to, but tons of clients that I'd happily write another book for because we worked well together. Most of my clients, actually.

Nope! I feel proud all the time but my pride and the credit aren’t really tied together. Like if I can see people liked it, I know I did a fantastic job, what would my name being on it prove? It would just bring me attention that I really do not want haha. I’m a very private person so for me, having a book be successful and never having to deal with a press tour is a bonus.

In fiction, I often have other written work for that author which makes it pretty easy to emulate the style. And in non-fiction, we have extensive interview time where they're telling me the story from their point of view. I get little colloquialisms, their personality, how they felt about the event from how they speak. It takes a fair amount of analysis and observation, but I record all my interviews and transcribe them and read them multiple times.

Then, of course, my client goes over everything I write. I tell them if they wouldn't say something, or they feel they'd say something slightly differently, to let me know. They'll usually go through and oust anything that doesn't feel like it fits.

Obviously there is a huge range. You can get a foreign ghostwriter on fiverr for real cheap. For someone at my level, it'll depend on the genre, research involved, etc. But you're looking at 20,000+

It can be per word, or based on the project in full. Royalties are almost never part of the deal.

If non-fiction, you need a stellar book proposal in addition to a query letter. If fiction, you'll need to get together a query and some sample chapters and start reaching out to the appropriate literary agents. That is if you want be traditionally published, of course.

Just answered how I got started in another comment! And I've technically written my own novels back when I did self publishing. But do I ever plan to try and write my own novel and get it traditionally published? Never say never, I guess, but my privacy is pretty sacred to me so it's hard to imagine doing that right now. On the off chance I became a real big best-seller (small chance) I really wouldn't want to be a famous author. Fame would be stressful.

Oh, well, to be clear by the time I googled what high-end ghosts made, I already was a ghostwriter for awhile. So, I knew what I was doing and had a lot of experience. I started by cold networking with people in the publishing industry and reaching out to ghostwriting agencies, hybrid publishers, etc. it wouldn’t be something you could do as a straight beginner, but I wasn’t one.

Congrats!! Honestly if I was shopping a book around I wouldn’t even bother to network since any lit agent is simply going to want to get to the point of your pitch and move on if it’s not a good fit. There isn’t a one size fits all agent or agency, so the best one is what’s best for your book, your genre. I recommend a lot of research. You can pay for a publishers marketplace account and look up every agent by genre, see the deals they’ve gotten, see they’re ranking, etc. just set aside time for agent research and compile a good list.

My fav genre to write honestly changes all the time. One of the reason ghosting is so perfect for me! Right now, I love cozy mysteries, and I can't say why haha. I don't even read cozies. But writing them and getting into these cute little towns with mystique is just... Fun. Makes me wanna curl up by a fire. It has a real classic writer vibe. It just puts me in a really fun headspace.

I don't think of any genre as so challenging I can't write it, but I find some genres more boring and that does make them more difficult. Business books are a real slog for me. They're just very impersonal and that doesn't appeal to me. But I'll do them when I need to.

This is not the first time I've been asked this and I always feel like it's a letdown to say I've never done any fanfiction lol! I did not get my fanfiction era. Which is weird because it would've fit me well. I also have always been obsessive about the worlds I read about. Just didn't happen!

Feel like you might not get what a ghostwriter does lol