26Feb
The Art of Ghostwriting: Tips and Tricks Uncovered

Ghostwriting is certainly an interesting field. While you don’t get to put your name on your work, it gives you the opportunity to make money by helping other authors with their publishing goals. It can be a great way to make a living, but it does come with some challenges.

Whether you are an active ghostwriter or looking to begin your ghostwriting journey, this article will provide you with some great tips to make ghostwriting easier to navigate. Before we get to the tips, let’s take a quick look at what it means to be a ghostwriter.

What is Ghostwriting?

 

Most people don’t realize it, but ghostwriting is everywhere, from popular blogs to books. But what exactly is it?

To explain it in simplest terms, it is when you’re writing any piece of content under some other author’s name. This means that you don’t get any form of authorship credit for that content. The person who commissions the content piece owns the copyright to it, and they have the freedom to republish and modify the content as they see fit.

There are many reasons why people might hire a ghostwriter –

  • Maybe their business has grown significantly, leaving them with very little time to write their own content.
  • Maybe they have some exciting story to tell, but don’t possess the necessary skill to put that into words.
  • In some cases, people may want to share their stories or ideas, but prefer to do so anonymously. Hiring a ghostwriter allows them to do this while maintaining their privacy.

So, what is it that ghostwriters exactly do? They might be tasked to –

  • Edit or expand on the rough draft of a content piece.
  • Take rough notes from a blogger to transcribe them.
  • Put together functional blog posts.
  • Write an entire post or article on a topic, taking into account the client’s writing style and voice.
  • Come up with article ideas, followed by writing the post.

As you can see, ghostwriting is not as easy as it seems, especially when you’re running your own business. From negotiating contracts and fees to meeting the client’s expectations, and maintaining confidentiality, there’s a lot that needs to be done. To protect your ghostwriting business from any risks, it would be useful to get insurance for writers. Writer liability insurance can provide your business with protection against legal issues, accidents, and injuries. Visit this site to find out more.

Get More Success Through Ghostwriting: Top Tips

1. Respond to ghostwriting requests timely

This point might seem obvious to the experienced ghostwriters out there, but timely response is everything in this business. If you consistently get late with your responses, you can end up losing out on the best ghostwriting projects. Be on the ball and provide your clients with samples of your work promptly. Once you have their attention, you can demonstrate how you would be the best writer for a project.

2. Voice guides for ghostwriting projects

Make sure you create a voice guide for every new ghostwriting project or new client. A voice guide contains all the guidelines regarding the language, sentence structure, and voice a client prefers to use. With the help of this guide, you can ensure consistency with every piece of content across the project.

When you’re creating a voice guide, also note when it is appropriate to use your own voice, and when it is not –

  • Client’s voice: Main ideas, data points, signature words, and phrases
  • Your voice: Transitions, necessary explanations, outlines

3. Ensure realistic client expectations

 

Your success as a ghostwriter largely rests on meeting the client’s expectations. And if the client has unrealistic expectations from the project, no matter how hard you try, you wouldn’t be able to deliver on client satisfaction. So, it’s always a good idea to provide the clients with a sense of reality from the start.

4. Keep a sample of your own creative work

 

Outside of your regular ghostwriting jobs, try to create your own creative work too. This can be used as a sample to showcase your skills and level of expertise to any potential clients. It tells the clients what they can expect from hiring you as a ghostwriter.

5. Ensure flexibility on the client’s end too

Being flexible is an important part of the ghostwriter’s job description. But to achieve success with a ghostwriting project, the client should be accommodative of your needs too. Ghostwriting projects usually require a significant time investment, and if you don’t have good chemistry with your client, it could turn into a disaster. Make sure that the client seems receptive to any input.

6. Insist on feedback

 

While working on a ghostwriting project with a client, make sure to ask for feedback as often as they can give you. Feedback is crucial to nail the tone, voice, and other specifications requested by the client. When you have sufficient feedback early on, it’ll save time and energy with the editing later on.

Wrapping Up

 

This covers the top tips for building a successful ghostwriting business. By employing these tried and tested tips, you’ll be able to ensure a greater success rate with your ghostwriting projects. Just remember never to underestimate your value.