You want to write a book. In fact, you’ve been wanting to write a book for years now. But still no book. Should you hire a ghostwriter?

What is a ghostwriter?

A ghostwriter is a professional writer who writes your book for you for a fee. They let you put your name on the cover. You’re still the author. But they do the writing. 

Ghostwriters are hired to do the writing for everything — from blog posts and white papers to movie scripts, public speeches, and even books. They trade their credit rights for profit and that’s usually good for both sides. You get high-quality text and the ghostwriter gets paid, but there is so much more to this relationship than just a basic trade of words for money.

Perfect solution, right? Maybe.

Some entrepreneurs hire a ghostwriter simply to get their book written. However, in many cases, the downsides outweigh the benefits. In those cases, an alternative approach might be better.

What are the benefits of hiring a ghostwriter?

There are a range of benefits to hiring a ghostwriter rather than trying to write your book yourself. These include:

Ghostwriters Save You Time

Ghostwriting is a huge time saver for C-level execs, especially those in bigger companies where tasks are multiplied drastically.

By delegating writing tasks that are a must for amplifying brand awareness, these executives can have a clear focus on where their focus should be rather than staring at a blank white screen.

Plus, many of my ghostwriting clients cringe when they have to write an email, never mind a 1,000-word piece for Forbes or the Huffington Post.

And if that 100-word email takes 20 minutes, imagine a full-length article that needs multiple rounds of edits for clarity?

You can never get time back; ghostwriters help leaders and those on a personal brand-building mission to have additional time to focus on other needed tasks. 

You don’t need to figure out how to write a book. 

One of the most common things our authors say is, ‘I learned so much from writing my book!’ This can be a rewarding experience, but it’s also time-consuming with a lot of trial and error, and often the real work doesn’t start until during the editing process when our authors finally get professional feedback on their book. Ghostwriting skips that entire process.

Ghostwriters Offer Professionalism

You’re probably an expert in your field, whether it be auto repair, home improvement, law, or whatever your area of specialty. You trust your experience and skills and produce the highest quality work. But, do you have that same experience with professional writing? Did you know there are different styles of writing that can be used to communicate different messages in different ways? Ghostwriters are experts in their field and understand the ins and outs of constructing high-quality content every time. You don’t need to worry about grammatical and spelling errors, sentences that don’t make sense, and confusing messages that require a specialist to interpret.

A Ghostwriter is Like an Idea Assistant 

A ghostwriter knows the importance of marketability and provides objective feedback on the subject he or she is writing about. The ghostwriter you hire essentially becomes a collaborator and is the first reader of your posts. Look at it like this: your ghostwriter is your content assistant. You can bounce ideas off of your writer, and your writer can provide feedback on how well your site visitors will understand the given topics. They have the skills to work your ideas into reader-friendly ways. When you hire a ghostwriter, you’re not in it alone. Having that support may inspire you to come up with more ideas for your writer to write about too.

• Utilizing the skills of a ghostwriter could be the perfect answer to blogging and online content troubles. To learn more about ghostwriters, and if hiring one could be a valuable marketing strategy for your business, talk to a web marketing specialist at Neon Goldfish today. Start enjoying your job again, and get your focus back on what’s most important to you. 

Ghostwriters Know SEO

One way I’ve always differentiated my ghostwriting from the others is by discussing the importance of writing with SEO in mind.

This is mostly for on-site content creation, but it also goes for third-party guest blogging – regardless of the published work on Forbes or Search Engine Journal, the more keywords you can rank for, the better you can fuel a searcher’s intent.

Ghostwriters of years’ past were only about the amplification of voices in major publications. When I began, it was all magazine-based, also.

• Companies today understand that not only is the voice of a CEO going to spread the message better, but that message must be found online.

Are There Any Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Hire a Ghostwriter?

Of course, with something like publishing text someone else wrote under your name, there are some issues, mostly about the ethics of the whole thing. You will meet a lot of people who will consider the whole thing unethical, but usually not from the writer’s point of view. 

• There are no guarantees for quality. When you pay a ghostwriter, you are often paying them a large sum of money with no idea of what the result might be. If you find a good ghostwriter, you might end up with a fantastic book delivered on time. If not, you could find yourself paying a lot of money for a book that runs over time (throwing out your publishing schedule) or that is subpar. (Note that this risk can be mitigated by finding the right ghostwriter.)
• The process will still take your time. One of the things I always tell our ghostwriting clients up front is that they will need to be available to work on the book throughout the ghost writing process. This may be for interviews at the beginning of the process, answering questions during the writing process, or reviewing and providing feedback on drafts. We try to limit this time, but if they are not available, the book won’t be as good as it could have been, and time frames can blow out as we wait for feedback.
• There’s no barrier between you and your audience. This can be seen as good or bad, and it depends on how much time you have to spend reviewing the content. If something in your blog posts causes confusion or sparks questions from your audience, you could always say, “That’s incorrect. I’ll tell my blog manager to fix it.” That is unless the article has your byline.

Conclusion

It can be tricky deciding whether or not you want a ghostwriter or blog author for your business. If you’re not sure, we can always discuss it with you and determine the best route.

The best part is that you don’t have to choose between the two! Many times we end up with a combination of ghostwritten articles and blog author articles. We’re flexible so that we can accomplish your goals.