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Making Money as a Writer: Ghostwriting · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Writer Starter Kit, visit DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've been working our way through a series on making money as a writer, and on today's episode, we're talking about the primary way that I have made money over the last two or three years, and that is ghostwriting.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what is ghostwriting?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ghostwriting is essentially writing books for somebody else.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: You do the writing and they get the credit for it.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's essentially what ghostwriting is at the most basic level.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a lot of nuances to that, which I'll get into here shortly, but essentially that's what ghostwriting is.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the client is highly involved in the project, almost functioning like a co-author.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Other times the client is not very involved or they're not involved at all.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: You do the writing and their name goes on it.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever form that it takes, most of the time your name is not going to be on the book.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's why they call it ghostwriting because you're invisible.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, however, you can negotiate to have your name listed on the book cover, and they call this a quote unquote with credit.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever you see an author's name, it's so-and-so author, their name is in sort of a bigger font and it says with another name.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Underneath that in a smaller font, that always indicates that they have used a writer.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have been fortunate enough to negotiate for a with credit on a couple of books so far, including The Faith of Elvis, which came out last month, and I wrote that with actually that came out back in October, and I wrote that with Billy Stanley, Elvis Presley's stepbrother.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: There are a few reasons why I'm a huge fan of ghostwriting as a particular way to make money with your writing skills.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is ghostwriting is really straightforward.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Writing books is a pretty straightforward process once you understand how to plan a book, how to outline it, and how to draft it and do the revisions and so forth.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I like being able to explain to people that I write books for others who don't have the time or the talent to do it themselves.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's very easy for other people to understand.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, just as a little side note, whenever I was getting into uh whenever I wanted to figure out what my side business was was going to be, it really came down to ghostwriting and copywriting.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the bigger reasons why I chose ghostwriting is because it was just a lot more straightforward than copywriting.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, nothing against copywriting because copywriting is really important.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're doing any kind of writing, you're almost always doing some form of copywriting, which is basically involves sales and persuasion and so forth.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to do ghostwriting because it was much easier to explain to people the value of what I did by just saying I write books for people who are too busy to write their own books, rather than having to explain the nuances of copywriting, why it was valuable, and so forth.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Again, nothing against copywriting, but I just felt like ghostwriting was a much more straightforward kind of a thing.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I like things that are simple and straightforward and easy to understand.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one reason why I picked ghostwriting.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is that it can pay well.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: My projects have ranged from the low five figures to the high five figures per book.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And because of this, it doesn't really take many projects per year to make a decent living.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, the the higher the price of the project, the more that it takes to secure a client.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not always, but sometimes that really is the case.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you just kind of have to know that going into it is you have to be more particular about the kind of client you want to target who can afford to hire you as a ghostwriter and so forth.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, it's pretty cool thinking you only really need to have like three or four clients per year, even if you're not charging that much, even if you're on the lower range of ghostwriting professionally, you only need three or four clients a year to make uh a decent full-time living.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a pretty cool thing, as opposed to having to go out and feel like you've got to get a lot of different clients.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Number three is you can learn a lot from every project that you do.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Every book that I write as a ghostwriter gives me more knowledge and experience that I can apply to other projects.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I do a book, I feel like I'm getting a master's degree in that specific topic every time that I do a book.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's uh a pretty fun thing.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the big challenge with ghostwriting, just like any client-based work, I alluded to it a minute ago, the big challenge is finding and signing clients.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had periods where I've had an abundance of work, in fact, an overabundance of work, and I've had to hire help.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I've also had dry periods when I was a little concerned about when the next client would sign.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's really an adjustment if you're used to getting a regular paycheck from an employer.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's an adjustment to go from that then to having your own business where you have the ups and downs, like any business does, of, you know, this period of the year it's great, and this period of the year it's a little dry, and sometimes you get a little bit worried.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's really a major mentality shift that you have to kind of get used to.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that's this is all just part of being a business owner.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: You have to kind of go with the flow and learn the ebbs and flows of your industry and of different times of the year when people are more open to spending money and those kinds of things.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the one thing that people ask me all the time related to ghostwriting is this how do you get started as a ghostwriter?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you three very specific things to help you get started as a ghostwriter if this is the direction that you're thinking about going.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here we go.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going into professor mode here, so you may want to write these down.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is you need to write a book if you haven't already written a book.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I suggest doing a short book that's around 120 pages, maybe 30,000 words or so.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do this, whenever you write a book that solves a specific problem for people or gives them specific information that's going to help them in a tangible way, this is going to give you automatic credibility as an author, as somebody that a person can hire and they know, they have the confidence that at least you've written one book and that you know how to write books.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do know ghostwriters who have not written any of their own books, who are very, very successful.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can think of one good friend of mine in particular who's written tons of books, and she's been ghostwriting for a long time, and to my knowledge, she does not have any of her own books.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that's fantastic.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with that a bit.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I would say all things being equal, you're much better off if you can go ahead and write at least one of your own books.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: That way you have something to show other people that you can at least write a book.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: So again, all things being equal, if a client is going to choose between a ghostwriter who doesn't have any books and a ghostwriter who has some of their own books, all things being equal, probably they're going to hire the person who has demonstrated ability to write a book.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I would sort of think of yourself as your own first ghostwriting client.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So carve out that time to write your own book if you haven't done so already, and that's going to be a really big help to you.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Second thing is you need to enroll in Ghostwriter School, which is a program taught by my friend and mentor, Nick Pavlitas.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is how I got started in ghostwriting, and I recommend that you do the same thing as well.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can access it by going to ghostwriterschool.com.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And third, you need to start telling people that you're building a ghostwriting business.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Don't tell them you're doing five other things on the side.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't say, well, I'm a ghostwriter, but I also build websites, I also do podcast production, I also do coaching and speaking, and I also do this and that, and I run an Amazon business, and you know, I sell wheelbarrows on the weekends or whatever it is.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just focus on this one thing.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I decided I was going to build a ghostwriting business, I followed Nick's advice.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And because one of the first things that he teaches is he says, start telling people that you're building a ghostwriting business.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So even though I was doing a podcast, even though I was working on my own stuff, even though I was blogging and I was a college professor, the one thing that I consistently told people is I said, I am building a ghostwriting business.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to become a ghostwriter, just focus on ghostwriting.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do five other things.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've got a book out there and you're going to go through Nick's training and you're consistently telling people that you're building a ghostwriting business, it's only a matter of time before you find that first client.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're a freelance writer who is doing a lot of little jobs for clients, we talked about freelancing in yesterday's episode.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a freelancer who's doing a bunch of little jobs, I want you to consider ghostwriting.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ghostwriting generally pays a lot more than freelance writing, you know, word per word and dollar per dollar.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you can focus on getting a few higher value clients than a bunch of smaller clients.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So wouldn't you rather just have, you know, if you think of, if you're going to make a full-time living as a writer, uh, you're going to have probably a number of clients as a freelance writer who's going to be doing smaller jobs like blog posts and whatnot.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, would you rather do that, or would you rather just have maybe two or three or four ghostwriting clients per year where you can focus in on those books and not have to do all these other little jobs?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to each his own, uh, but I know I would rather focus on books and just really serving a smaller number of clients really deeply than serving a larger number of clients at kind of a smaller level.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's just me though.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Again, to each his own.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you though, ghostwriting has been good to me and my family.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's how I have helped support my family the last two or three years, and I know for sure that it can do the same for you if you decide you want to do it, and if you do the work, and if you stick with it and you're persistent, and most importantly, you don't quit.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot quit and you cannot give up because there's ups and downs with this kind of work.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to sort of have the stomach to stick through the hard times when you get frustrated, when it's taking longer to get that next client, and so forth.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So hope this has given you some things to think about related to ghostwriting.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a great line of work.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned a ton from it, and I really enjoy it for the most part.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um hope this is helpful to you.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's question Have you ever considered ghostwriting and how do you think it can impact your life and your writing business?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hope this is helpful to you.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.