For reasons that should be obvious, I can't reveal the names of authors whose work I've ghosted. Other than that, ask away!
Ask the ghostwriter
For reasons that should be obvious, I can't reveal the names of authors whose work I've ghosted. Other than that, ask away!
I would love to be a ghost writer. How can I use my experience as an author to get myself that sort of gig?
I'm still swimming in harmony. I'm still dreaming of flight. I'm still lost in the waves night after night...
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Do you write for one specific area or is it wide ranging? For example a football player this time and a politician next time?
How do you find people to ghost for?
I got the first job through networking at various writers' organizations--Mystery Writers of America, specifically. I got to talking to an editor, who knew another editor who had an author who was going through a couple of family crises and who wasn't going to make the deadline and had agreed that if someone else could write it, that would be great.Originally posted by pepperlandgirl
Because I have an agent, I told her what I was doing, risking that she might hear about it otherwise and think I was doing an end run around her 15%.
She didn't, but if she had, it would have been worth it, because the next job, which was much more lucrative, came through her.
If you have an agent, let him or her know you'd like to do this. I know there are some sites up now for freelancers, like elance, and that might work to get your first gig.
Otherwise work your contacts. Your work is out there so people in the industry can see what you're capable of.
One problem, of course, is that you will probably be under the same constraints I am, i.e., that you cannot brag about the work you've done, since you did it as a ghostwriter. The editors at the publishing house know, however, and they also know who needs a ghostwriter.
I write novels. However, the first thing I wrote that could be considered ghost writing was a manual of self-defense. That was more of an extreme editing job than ghostwriting.
My first ghost-written book was a genre mystery. The second one was considered mainstream, although it, too, had a strong mystery element.
I have written political speeches in the past, though. In that case you are not so much a ghostwriter as a speechwriter.
My answer to pepperlandgirl should explain a lot. Work industry contacts if you have them; if you don't have them, develop some.
You mention the editors know who you've written for. Has this (or could it) lead to other, non-ghostwriting contracts?
It would be great if this could lead to other non-ghostwriting contracts, because I'd love to be able to walk into a bookstore and see a book on the best-seller stack and say, "I wrote that!"
And it can happen, but probably won't, for two reasons.
One, I have a lot of strengths as a novelist, but plotting isn't one of them. The novels I've ghostwritten have been completely plotted by the person whose name is on them, in one case quite intricately down to the page number where a certain thing has to happen, in the other just as part of a general outline.
Two, in the case where I made a lot of money, it's because the author has a big following. It's what the publishing industry calls a franchise. Basically, anything written by this author is going to be a best-seller. I don't have a franchise and I don't have a big name. And I don't get the credit for the best-seller, although I did get a bonus when the book hit the best-seller list. (The author got $1500 A DAY for every day the book was #10 or higher, and more if it went to #1.)
There are some guys who have ghostwritten books and gone on to establish themselves as franchises in their own right (or in their own write?). I would love for that to happen. But it's a long shot.
I can expand on this a little. Right now, I have something out, via my agent, to a book packager. There are companies that come up with an idea, usually for a series of books, plot those books, and then find writers.
One of them is the outfit that did the Traveling Pants series, among others. I think they also did Sweet Valley High.
I'm going through my agent, but in the case of book packagers I don't think you have to. I don't really know a lot about it. What I did was submitted an outline and three chapters.
I'll see if I can find out more about it. At one point I had some contact names--not people I know personally, but people whose names have been given to me by people I know personally.
What's the process of ghostwriting like? How do you go about gathering the info, planning what to write and so forth?
Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.
In one instance, the author had written the first three chapters and the last chapter. When I got the project, it came with a detailed outline, one-page descriptions of each of the major and some of the minor characters, and maps and photos from the research the author had done, for choreography.
I sat down with the outline and figured out for each chapter how to get from the beginning of the chapter to the turning point, which was always the end of the chapter. Then I reread the first chapters to sort of set the scene to myself for writing in the same style as the author.
I did one chapter at a time, then took a break. This meant that I might just do one chapter a day (the chapters were 10-15 pages apiece), or I might do two, but if I did more than one I would take a break between them and refocus.
That book was already overdue and in danger of missing its slot in the publication schedule so I didn't really have a lot of time. When I got to the end I had to recheck to make sure my prose matched what the author had written, and that I'd cleaned up all the loose ends so the chapter before the last matched the last.
Then I rewrote the last chapter, made some edits to the first three chapters, and sent it off. I had about a month and a half to do that.
The next one took a bit longer and was more work, because I didn't have as detailed an outline and I had to read a couple of the author's earlier books to get information on the recurring characters, but it was essentially the same process. Each day I tried to move from the cliffhanger ending of the chapter before to the next cliffhanger. I would start each writing session by reading the last few pages where I left off. For that one it wasn't quite a chapter a day.
A couple of times I had to go back to the author, via the editor, because some things in theh original outline weren't working.
In both cases, I believe, it went from me directly back to the original author who was the one who submitted it to the editor. (I say I believe because in the second case I sent it to my agent.)
The great thing about these ghostwriting gigs was that I didn't really have to plan what I was going to write. I used the outline--which sounded like a soap opera, if that's all you read. I hope it sounded less like a soap opera once I wrote it out.
Might just do one chapter a day? Yikes. I can't conceive of producing something creative at that pace.
How many books have you ghostwritten?
There were days when I did around 25 pages. But keep in mind that I didn't have to think anything up, just fill in an outline.
I've done three, although I believe I said earlier, one was more of an extreme editing job. Have a proposal out now for another one.
How prevalent are ghost-written books? How often or under what circumstances do authors choose to have a book ghost written?
Good question. I'd be curious to know the answer.
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