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How to Start Ghostwriting Part-Time · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever considered getting into ghostwriting as a business, today's episode is for you.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Email subscriber Arlen Gehrig sent in a question.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Your past emails about your ghostwriting business got me to thinking.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a teacher and I love what I do, but it's ghostwriting something I could do as a part-time job.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to make money with my writing, but it's been on the back burner while my focus and mission is teaching.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Arlen, thanks so much for the question.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really funny that you should ask me this because I was also a teacher for many years.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I was a college professor before going into business full-time for myself.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I really understand this idea of loving what you do as a teacher, yet also wanting to build an escape plan or at least starting a side hustle.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So what I want to do on this episode is share with you seven actions that I would recommend if you want to start ghostwriting part-time.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And keep in mind these are not necessarily in order.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you choose, you can build it to full-time as you go, or of course, you can stay part-time if you want to stay teaching over the long term.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, I would recommend doing these seven things if you want to start as a part-time ghostwriter.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, outside of your teaching job, give your full focus to building your ghostwriting business.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's the thing, you cannot compromise on this step.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to do a bunch of other things as well, you're going to lose focus and it will take you a lot longer to grow your business.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when you build a client-based business, to be honest with you, it is not for the faint of heart.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot of grind, it takes a lot of hustle, and it's going to take some time.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So put your full focus on building your ghostwriting business outside of your main job.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, I would recommend starting with small projects, not full books.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I would recommend offering writing services like doing blog posts or newsletters, Substack articles, or social media content.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say this is because this approach is going to help you to build your client writing chops.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And also you're going to learn a lot about what kinds of things you actually enjoy writing for clients.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, these recurring services can be a great little income stream that repeats every month or however often you would bill somebody.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, I recommend writing a short, effective nonfiction book on a topic that you care about.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're probably wondering, okay, why would you do this if your goal is to write for clients?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say this is because being an author yourself is going to build your credibility and help you understand every part of the book creation process.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I see a lot of ghostwriters who are making this mistake, and yes, I'm calling it a mistake because I think if you are saying that you want to write books for other people, then my opinion is that you should write a book yourself because how can you possibly be as effective as possible writing books for other people if you have not really done that for yourself?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you do it for yourself, you're going to understand the process much better.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you're also going to be able to build your credibility as an author, as someone who has their own author platform.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to be able to explain to clients, hey, this is what it feels like to put your own book out into the world.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I just think that's a really important principle is that you want to try and experience the things that your clients are going to feel.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of reasons to be your own author in addition to writing books for clients.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, tell people that you're building a ghostwriting business.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: My ghostwriting mentor in my early days is a gentleman named Nick Pavlitas.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's a very, very successful ghostwriter and an awesome human being to boot.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he gave me this advice.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said, when you're building your ghostwriting business, tell everybody that you're a ghostwriter, which I know sounds super obvious, but for introverts like me, marketing sometimes doesn't always occur to us as a, you know, sort of a first strategy because our first impulse is always to show up and just do the work.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we forget about telling people about the stuff that we actually do.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality is that people won't know that you want to be a ghostwriter unless you actually tell them.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So ask people if they know somebody who needs a ghostwriter.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Tell them you're building a ghostwriting business.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do this enough times with the right people, you will find your first client eventually, I promise.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, do whatever it takes to get that first ghostwriting gig under your belt.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a very simple and super effective way to do this, which is doing something low cost or even free as a first project.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't mean writing a full book for somebody for free because that's not really a good use of your time, but I mean maybe writing a few articles or blog posts for somebody for free, maybe for uh if you have a pastor friend or if you have a nonprofit or someone who could really benefit from your services, but maybe can't afford it.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really, really good way to get your foot in the door.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And again, make sure you're not spending a ton of time doing it because your time is valuable.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that you've got to get your foot in the door.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the goal here is to give you some experience working with clients, give you some momentum, and also get one or two really good client testimonials.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so doing something low cost or for free that has a limited scope of engagement that's not going to take a massive amount of time is a really, really super good way to get started.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Number six, build your business in what I call the cracks of life.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that means using spare moments that you have before or after the end of the workday or on the evenings or the weekends.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: When you have an hour here, a couple hours there, it really can add up in the course of a week.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, number seven is I strongly encourage you to grow your network.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I mentioned this in yesterday's podcast, or rather, the podcast from a couple days ago, but I'm going to repeat it here.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I strongly encourage you to get Anna Ray Corter's book called Business Networking.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: It is a really fantastic book, and she has a whole system to help you build your network.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as they say, your network is your net worth.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that is really, really true, especially when it comes to a client-based business such as ghostwriting.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So here I've given you seven suggestions, and I know all of this might feel overwhelming, but the bottom line is that you can do this if you want to.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: You really, truly can.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now keep in mind, though, that it's going to take more time than you think.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be more frustrating than you think, and you're going to make more mistakes than you think that you will.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have the hustle to get started and to not get paralyzed by indecision, you can absolutely build a successful ghostwriting business.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've listened to this podcast episode this far, obviously you're interested in this topic.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have a question for you, which is this would you be interested in training or resources to start or grow your ghostwriting business?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you would, please shoot me an email at Kent at KentSanders.net.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I would truly love to know if this is something you would be interested in.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: I have people ask me about ghostwriting all the time.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if this is something you would be interested in, please let me know.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I would genuinely love to hear from you.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, as always, thanks for listening.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing, keep showing up, and I will see you tomorrow.