It’s clear that you’ve found your writing groove and voice.
If you’re not a natural writer yourself, donating your skills to someone who is might be a struggle.
Anyone who has attempted ghostwriting knows the challenges inherent with the genre. If you’re interested in ghostwriting but haven’t attempted it before, this article is for you.
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Who is a Ghost Writer? How to Become Better at Ghost Writing?
An individual who is “hired to compose literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other writings that are formally ascribed to another person” is known as a “ghostwriter,” as defined by Wikipedia.
Just like every other kind of freelance writing, ghostwriting has its own unique set of difficulties. As an example, writer’s block is not an option when time is of the essence.
However, most of the planning and execution phases are identical to those of freelancing.
What I’ve learnt through having others steal my words over the years is as follows.
- Find Jobs That Interest You
Since you’re already a published author, ghostwriting jobs could come your way. You only need to adjust your tone somewhat, but it can be done. Whenever I’m asked to put someone else’s thoughts into writing, I find that conducting an interview and taking detailed notes on the subject’s speech pattern is helpful. That they’re wordy is a paraphrase. Cut down on the fat and tighten up the writing.
- Understand the Person You are Writing for
One of the main goals of this game is to encourage players to actively participate in using their voices (and fool everyone else). If you want to accomplish this well, you’ll need to set aside time to meet face-to-face with your customer many times. Learn the nuances of their language and observe their peculiar habits. If your customer often appears in the media (e.g., on TV or radio), this is of paramount importance. It is your responsibility to ensure that their written voice is consistent with their spoken one.
- Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
True ghostwriters know this is a fact of the business. Your words may still be uniquely you, but your style will undoubtedly shift while working on a client’s project. Here’s an illustration: Someone I did some blogging for once used the word “candy coat” to describe something. The word “sugarcoat” immediately sprung into my mind given the scenario. To be sure, he didn’t use that particular phrase. Unfortunately, the victory went to the candy coat.
- Research Topic at Hand
Do your homework on the topic, the tone used, and the last time it was discussed before you start writing. If the work your customer wants created doesn’t provide anything fresh in terms of perspective or originality, you’re doing them a disservice.
- Have Realistic Expectations
Always keep in mind the client’s expectations as well as your own abilities. There’s no shame in saying no to a project if you feel that your writing skills or the deadline aren’t up to snuff. This was a very difficult choice I had to make once. After completing some preliminary research on my client’s topic, however, I realized that I was not qualified to ghostwrite her book. What I wanted to say couldn’t be contained in the confines of my vocabulary.
- Understand Your Worth
Both your remarks and your time are appreciated. Talk to your customer openly about what you’ll be paid. Possible compensation methods include an agreed upon hourly rate or a flat rate for the whole endeavor. To each his own, I say. The next step is to maintain a detailed journal of all of your efforts, including research, interviews, and drafts.
- You Won’t Get Credit. Know that this is okay
If you ghostwrite anything, you won’t receive any credit for it. Just the way things are in our industry. Invisible, as a matter of fact.
These are the seven tips you need to follow as a ghost writer. Now that you have chosen ghost writing as a career, where to start? How to sell your ghostwriting services?
Bonus Tip:
Always Meet Client Needs
When I see a customer in person, I am able to get an incredible amount of information from them that I just could not get from any other source. Once, I had a consultation with a customer who had a room that was completely dedicated to tennis memorabilia. I never would have guessed how significant a role tennis played in her life, despite the fact that we often referred to it throughout her book as a metaphor.
Start Building Your Ghost Writing Portfolio
You have built a portfolio and clip examples to demonstrate your writing skills. Get out there and try things. Write for others even for peanuts if you have to in the start at least for six months. But after that start increasing your rates so that you can get good projects. Learn while on the job!
Market yourself and make connections. Participate in online writing groups that might introduce you to opportunities in ghostwriting. Find others that write like you do and ask them how they do it.
Nobody will ever know you’re a ghostwriter unless you want to tell them.
And similar to the freelance world, if you get one project, others will come your way, particularly if you have a talent for it.
Get Help from Ghost Writing Experts
We know that ghost writing is hard and not everyone is fine-tuned to write perfectly. That is just fine and you don’t have to worry about it. You should know that there are ghost writing experts out there (like us) that can help you write better sentences and even craft your ghost-writing copies for you!
So, if you are still struggling to write better sentences, then the best way to move forward is to get help from ghost writing experts at WriterCosmos.
We have some of the best ghost writers onboard that will guide you to write better copies and even complete your projects for you. Contact us today to discuss your project.
Author Bio:
Mack Chris is an SEO specialist with more than 5 years of experience in promoting and marketing brands in the digital world. He loves to read and share his digital marketing experience with the rest of the community. In his spare time, he enjoys drawing, sketching, plays football, and goes, swimming.
