If your book doesn’t mean much to you or if it’s meant to be read by bots or nobody, you should get any ghostwriter you want for your book and be over with it. But surely, that’s not the case for you, is it?
Your book acts as a cornerstone for your business’ thought leadership efforts. In the broader context, it will influence your brand and corporate reach. You cannot outsource it to any Tom, Dick, and Harry. For you, selecting a ghostwriter for your project is a crucial matter. So, how will you go about it? Use this blog post to understand the whole process and determine your course of action.
What is Ghostwriting?
Book ghostwriting involves a person conceptualizing a book idea and hiring a writer to translate this idea into words. Other than book writing services, people also buy and sell services to ghostwrite articles and blog posts.
Note that these writers don’t get a mention in the book and if they do, they appear as co-authors. Instead of recognition and book royalties, these book writers get monetary compensation. Depending on the complexity and length of the books in question, they charge multiple thousand dollars per project. The author of a book is always the person who developed the idea whether he develops it into a book or doesn’t.
Usually, these writers specialize in one category or another. So, if you want your non-fiction book writing project completed in say personal finance genre, you will need to search for ghostwriting services that specialize in this area of study.
Procedure
Ghostwriters follow a simple procedure for collaboration with clients or authors. The collaboration starts when the author contacts them for the project and decides on the rates and scope of the project. Once these matters are settled, the author shares their detailed outline for the book. At this step, some writers and authors prefer to do an interview instead of sharing the draft.
After the writer has gotten all the information he needs, he will start writing the second draft and report the development on a pre-defined schedule. Completion of this draft will warrant another round of revision initiated by the author. The third draft usually completes the process.
Initiation
After ghostwriting, the author initiates the book editing process. In most cases, the first editor of any book is the author himself. If you have hired book writing services, don’t be tempted to hire the same ghostwriter for book editing. Best editing is done by independent editors who haven’t worked on the book previously.
How to Hire Book Writing Services?
Now that you know what is ghostwriting and how you will collaborate with your ghostwriter to get your book written. Let’s explore the foolproof method to hire the most suitable ghostwriting services for your book.
Understand Your Project
The first step towards hiring an adequate resource is knowing your needs. Get clear on your genre, the complexity of the subject, your expected input, and the frequency of reporting.
You will also need to define the goals you want to achieve through this book. Most people connect book publishing with book royalties. However, that’s not the only goal of certain influencers and brands. For many coaches and mentors, book writing is about expanding their reach and building trust in their authority in the market through thought leadership. At the same time, corporations look at book publishing as building trust among stakeholders and establishing power and authority on a subject matter.
Your goal will determine the tone you want in your book. Business-to-customer (B2C) books are engaging and easy to read. Business-to-business (B2B) books tackle technical details and are more complicated and advanced.
Define Your Budget
Like it or not, many first-time authors have to work with a limited budget. Especially if you are an individual trying to earn some recognition for your ideas, you will not have lots of money to hire an A-list writer to hire. In such situations, you should set a realistic budget that matches the lower end of the rates prevailing in the market for a book like yours.
Start Your Search
Once you have defined the parameters of your book including length, complexity, scope, and budget, you need to move to the next step. Search for the right ghostwriter. You can ask around your fellow authors or you can browse the internet to find one.
Narrow down your search to your genre. So, if you want to write a travelogue, you should search for travelogue ghostwriters. This way, you will connect with the most relevant writers to choose from. Make a list of those that seem appealing to you.
Analyze Their Achievements
At this point, you will be looking at their freelance or agency book writing services websites. Most writers and agency will have listed their best works on the site. You can also check out their work as synopsis from their pages. You wouldn’t want to work with a writer who hasn’t showcased their previous dealings with their clients.
While analyzing their past work, you should be interested in the number of books they have written. If they have produced a best-seller, that would be a plus. You can also check their previous clients from the book they exhibit on their page. Use social media channels and connect with them and feel free to inquire about how it was working with the said writer.
Get in Touch
Once you have short-listed the writers, it’s time to connect with them and learn more about their working style. Talk about communication frequency, rates, promises, delivery, refund policy, and more. At this point, they may want you to share your manuscript with them. If you feel they are a good fit for your project, go ahead.
Wrapping Up
This blog post discusses the process of hiring a ghostwriter for your non-fiction book. You see, non-fiction writing is different from fiction writing. While you have to focus on the writer’s tone while hiring ghostwriting services for fiction books, for non-fiction books, you need to check the writer’s background knowledge in the relevant field and their understanding of the culture surrounding it. Use this blog post as a guide to complete your homework to hire the most suitable ghostwriter for your book.
