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You've seen the ads if you read writing mags: "Will help you get your story the best it can be. I will take your idea and turn it into a full-length novel for you. You receive the credit and royalties. Contact me today."
I once inquired of a few of these guns for hire and the prices I was quoted ranged from 20k to 40k for an average length novel of roughly 100,000 words (300 pages). For a good wordsmith with an imagination that can be a good income for writing something that you would otherwise just be writing for free on your own, assuming it had absolutely no chance of getting published (which is true) unless you went the vanity press route or POD (print-on-demand).
I haven't, personally. For me, much of the pleasure in writing is developing my own topics and stories.
Writing someone else's story can be financially rewarding as you've noted. And it is earning a living as a writer. Nothing wrong in that, making money in a profession that tends to be low-paying.
I might have a go if I got a credit as in "As told to.." or "Susie Bigstar and (me)" listed as co-authors. But many/most ghostwriters writing books for celebrities and well-known figures get absolutely no credit--they truly are 'ghostwriters.'
Wonder how that would feel--all that hard work for no recognition...? Any ghostwriters want to weigh in??
20K-40K is tough to ignore, however; no credit is hard to swallow. Does that mean you can't use your experience to land other writing jobs? Well, I guess you could, you just couldn't list the titles, right? How would that work?
Money isn't this easy...there must be something else involved. I would think the ghostwriter would have to go through the editing process as well? Very interesting idea all the way around and something I'd like to look into a little further.
20K-40K is tough to ignore, however; no credit is hard to swallow. Does that mean you can't use your experience to land other writing jobs? Well, I guess you could, you just couldn't list the titles, right? How would that work?
Money isn't this easy...there must be something else involved. I would think the ghostwriter would have to go through the editing process as well? Very interesting idea all the way around and something I'd like to look into a little further.
Well, I'll say this. The Internet has made putting your services out in the public's eye a piece of cake. Goggle "hire a ghostwriters" and check out some of the services being advertised. Used to be you had to run an expensive ad in a writing mag. No more. I'd have no trouble giving my writing efforts away for cold cash. It's a service like any other. But you can't be the kind of writer that goes over and over your work polishing and polishing the syntax to get just that finely worded phrase or you'll burn yourself out. Whatever comes out has to be the finished product if you're going to be successful and meet deadlines. Most of the time it's just vanity writing for some wannabe who wants to see his name and book title on a hardbound artsy jacket anyway.
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I guess you could, you just couldn't list the titles, right? How would that work?
You sign an exclusive rights contract whereby you promise not to claim any credit for any work you create for the client. Many of these services are complete services meaning that you arrange everything from the writing to the published product, usually through a POD publisher.
Well, I'll say this. The Internet has made putting your services out in the public's eye a piece of cake. Goggle "hire a ghostwriters" and check out some of the services being advertised. Used to be you had to run an expensive ad in a writing mag. No more. I'd have no trouble giving my writing efforts away for cold cash. It's a service like any other. But you can't be the kind of writer that goes over and over your work polishing and polishing the syntax to get just that finely worded phrase or you'll burn yourself out. Whatever comes out has to be the finished product if you're going to be successful and meet deadlines. Most of the time it's just vanity writing for some wannabe who wants to see his name and book title on a hardbound artsy jacket anyway.
You sign an exclusive rights contract whereby you promise not to claim any credit for any work you create for the client. Many of these services are complete services meaning that you arrange everything from the writing to the published product, usually through a POD publisher.
I am intrigued! I'm no perfectionist by any means, but I do like my work to be accurate, spelled correctly and displaying correct grammar. I'd definitely want something in the contract that stated a limited amount of rewrites. I can just see myself getting someone who IS a perfectionist and my work never being quite perfect enough.
I've worked in design a little doing logos and that sort of thing and people will run you in the ground tweaking a custom logo they only paid you peanuts for.
Is there any way to list your ghostwriting experience without breaching an exclusive rights contract?
*edit* I'm currently researching this prospect. I'll post back if I find anything significant. We all know that one could make more money by knocking out the middle man i.e. using a site to find the work, but then...where does one find the work. Marketing yourself would be a lot of web work, keywords, and SEO. Then there are the bidding sites like Elance...it's a huge sea to sift through.
Last edited by waxingpoetic75; 01-31-2010 at 02:21 PM..
Reason: added more info rather than creating a new post
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Is there any way to list your ghostwriting experience without breaching an exclusive rights contract?
Generally, you can list that you've worked on several projects for "major literary figrures" (IOW, no names) My best advice is read some of the websites offering these services. They get down to the nitty-gritty.
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I didn't even know there were any GHOSTS hiring. 
