I’ll be frank: A lot of potential authors get scared when we talk ghostwriting cost. They can’t quite pull the trigger on the investment, so they put off the decision. Unfortunately, that means a lot of potential authors remain just that: potential authors.
If you’re searching for a ghostwriter, you’re probably not super-familiar with the writing and publishing world. That’s fine; it just means you don’t have much context. Let’s try to change that so you can find the best way to get your book into the world.
What Does Ghostwriting Cost?
This isn’t a recipe blog, so I won’t tease you with lots of information before we get down to brass tacks. Let’s talk real numbers for a minute.
For most books, the cost of ghostwriting depends on the experience of the ghostwriter and the value the author places on the service. For instance, there were rumors that Hillary Clinton’s ghostwriter for What Happened received a high six-figure fee. That’s probably partially true, but most ghosts know better than to hold out for those kinds of fees. Nonetheless, it demonstrates that confluence of an experienced ghost and an author who placed a high value on the work.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you may find sites advertising ghostwriting services in the low thousands or even for mere hundreds of dollars. It’s possibly there are experienced ghosts at work, there, but I can’t imagine they have great respect for their work or their clients. Nor can I imagine those authors greatly value the work.
Expect any self-respecting ghostwriter to give you a rate with three to four zeroes in it. I’ve got about a dozen ghostwritten books plus several dozen edited books under my belt, with many satisfied clients proudly selling their books on Amazon and through their coaching and speaking platforms. I believe I am an expert writer, but in terms of experience, I consider myself a mid-career ghostwriter. Thus, my fees begin around $21,000 and go as high as $50,000, depending on the project.
If you poke around a little, you’ll find those are pretty standard rates outside of the content mills. I’m a pretty reasonable guy, I think, so I often allow clients to break up the fee into several payments over several months or according to project milestones. So far, it seems to work; I’ve never had a client complain they paid too much. Sometimes they say the got more than they paid for.
Why Is Ghostwriting So Expensive?
Why, exactly, does ghostwriting cost so much? Or perhaps you’re asking, how can I justify charging so much?
Consider this: Most book projects take some 60–100 hours to complete. As many as one-fifth of those hours may be consumed by interviewing you (the author) and anyone else you think has relevant perspective or information as well as doing other research. Then there are editorial meetings in which we discuss the direction of the project and then review each draft. Depending on the contract, we may go through two, three, or four drafts to get it where you want it.
But don’t get caught up in the per-hour-equivalent, here. You’re not hiring me to spend such-and-such amount of time writing your book. You’re hiring me for my brain.
What You Get For What I Charge
What do you get for your money? Well, I hold bachelor’s degrees in psychology and philosophy and a doctorate in English. I have over a dozen years experience tutoring and teaching people in writing from grade school to university. I have a portfolio of fiction, poetry, journalism, essay, and creative nonfiction publications in print and online. I used to run an internationally distributed literary journal.
My grandfather told me when I was ten years old that I had a talent for writing, and I won a short-story radio context when I was 13. I read books named Writing for Story, How to Write a Poem, and Story because when I’m not writing here or helping people write their books, I’m working on my own writing.
Or trying to. I have a tendency to get deep into my client work, constantly rethinking the organization, the chapter titles, the through-line, the sentences. Sometimes I wear myself out, and I’ve had to learn to set boundaries. There’s such a thing as diminishing returns in revision.
The point is not that I’m the world’s greatest writer. I’m above average, I think, but I know there are phenomenal talents above me. The point is that I know writing. Writing is what I have always done and what I think about and strive to improve as a skill. When you hire me, you get access to this brain that wants to write you the best book we can write. You get someone who will do extra research because he had an idea for how to make this chapter stronger. Someone who stops typing and takes out a yellow notepad and begins jotting down new outlines and ideas because something isn’t quite working and he wants to break through this roadblock.
How much is that worth to you?
Is Hiring a Ghostwriter Worth It?
No.
That is, if by “worth it” you mean, “Will I recover my investment?”
The honest truth is that many if not most authors will not recover their ghostwriting investment through book sales. Bookselling is a tough business. Relatively few people will make it onto that New York Times bestseller list (though it means different things to be on different lists). Most authors I know are happy if they sell a few thousand copies of their book.
Why, then, should you invest so much?
You have to answer that for yourself. Maybe it won’t be worth it for you. I don’t know. I can only tell you what my authors have told me about why they want to write their books and why they chose me:
You Want to Become an Author
Some people have a great idea for a book but don’t have the skills to write one. So, they hire someone like me to help them get the words out of their heads and onto the page. The cost of ghostwriting is worth it to hold up that book and say, “This is mine. I made this happen.” They honestly don’t care how much they sell; becoming an author was a personal goal.
You’re a Coach or Public Speaker
This is the most common reason people give. They have a coaching or speaking business or some other platform, and they want to distill what they do into book form so they can broaden their reach as well as attract new clients.
These authors believe ghostwriting is cost-effective because they don’t plan to make back their investment on book sales. They plan to use their book to establish their authority and to meet people. The book becomes the beginning of a relationship that can lead to online classes or coaching or gigs. Speakers can as much as double their rates overnight if they publish a book.
When these authors consider my rates, they don’t think in terms of upfront costs. They think, “How many new clients or gigs do I need to land to pay for this book?” It’s usually not that many when you consider the lifetime value of that book.
You Want to Become a Thought Leader or Leave a Legacy
I lump these authors together because they tend to come from high-earning backgrounds and are more accustomed to spending more to get something of value. If you’re in this group, you have found success in some industry or role and you want to share that with the world. You may want to become a thought leader and do some public speaking or build a consulting career or simply increase your influence. Or you may want to reflect on your life and leave a legacy behind in the form of your collected wisdom from decades doing what you do best.
Authors in this camp don’t usually think in terms of recovering their costs as much as how they can increase their impact. Because of your success, you are probably also pretty visible in your world, so it probably won’t be difficult to land some speaking gigs and make significant sales.
What if I Find a Low-Cost Ghostwriter on Fiverr?
God bless you. I mean, I won’t pretend that there aren’t probably quality writers on some of these platforms promising low fees. However, I know from my own experience that when I underprice myself, I have to work harder to take the project as seriously as it deserves. Sometimes I begin to feel resentment toward it, or I don’t give as much attention to my client.
You’re a good fit for me as an author if you believe you deserve attention, respect, and my best effort. You’re a good fit if you want expertise, not just someone who can type quickly. Sometimes I joke that the sign of a good ghostwriter is that they’ll fight you about your decisions. You want someone who cares enough about creating a great book that he’ll disagree with you on the basis of his experience and make a case for another way to go.
What Factors Affect the Cost of Ghostwriting?
The last thing I want to say on this topic is that sometimes I negotiate contracts with clients for services that fall in between editing and ghostwriting. These contracts generally have lower fees, accordingly.
Typically, the author comes to me with a draft of a manuscript or with part of a draft and wants help completing it and polishing it up. I call this “ghost-revision,” since I end up writing some new content as well as revising draft content. This is how I prefer to ghostwrite fiction, since the original author takes most of the responsibility for character, plot, and hopefully tone.
This is a great arrangement for people whose draft manuscript represents several months’ or a year’s worth of brain dumping. Now you have 150,000 words and you know you probably need to cut it down to 70,000. I can be verbose, myself, but I’m pretty effective at getting word counts down when I’m given the go-ahead.
It’s also great for authors who aren’t writers (an author is an origin). You’ve gotten your story or your ideas down, but you’re aware they need organization and clarification, and you know you don’t have the knack for it, yourself. Ghost-revision may be the solution.
If you’ve made it this far, then you’re serious about finding a ghostwriter to help you get your book into the world. You know that whatever ghostwriting costs pales in comparison to the cost of not producing your book at all. Let’s talk and see if we’re a good fit.
Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash
