Does My Ghostwriter Edit, Proofread, Format and Design the Cover?

A finished manuscript is not a finished book. I write the manuscript to a good, solid draft. Then I send the client to one of a couple of editors I trust, or to their own, and that editor handles the editing, proofreading and formatting. I don’t design covers at all. Some of my clients have made their own and some have hired designers, and both came out fine. For the publishing itself, I offer a separate package. (See what to get from a designer about image licenses.)

That’s how I divide it. Other ghostwriters divide it differently, and many clients don’t learn where the lines are until the box of printed books arrives with a typo on page three and page numbers that restart in chapter four.

Will my ghostwriter edit my book?

Your ghostwriter will revise and polish the manuscript. That work is a real part of the job, and it covers restructuring chapters, tightening sentences, fixing flow and making sure the book reads well from start to finish. Most ghostwriters go through several rounds of revision with you before calling a draft done.

That isn’t the same as an independent professional edit. A separate editor brings fresh eyes to a manuscript the writer has read dozens of times. They catch the paragraph that makes sense only because the writer knows what it means, the chapter that repeats a point from earlier, and the argument with a missing step. Some ghostwriters include an outside edit in their package. Many don’t. Ask.

I’m wary of any ghostwriter who tells a client their own revisions make an outside edit unnecessary. Spending months inside a manuscript blinds a writer to its problems, and the client is the one who pays for that blindness when readers find them. I leave a manuscript in pretty good shape, but I’m not an expert editor, and a trained editor is. You know how it is when you edit your own work. (More on a guide to self-editing fiction) I do, anyway: you miss things.

My article on why your manuscript needs a professional editor covers the different kinds of editing and what each one does.

Will my ghostwriter proofread my book?

Your ghostwriter will catch plenty of errors while revising. A dedicated proofreader should still read the book before it goes to print.

Proofreading is the last check: typos, missing words, doubled words, inconsistent spelling, punctuation errors and formatting glitches.

It happens after editing and ideally after the book has been laid out in its final format, because formatting introduces its own errors. Writers are the worst possible proofreaders of their own work, because the brain fills in what it expects to see. That’s true for me, for every ghostwriter I know and for every author I’ve ever worked with.

Skipping proofreading saves a few hundred dollars and a week or two. It costs you every reader who notices a typo on page three and trusts you a little less.

Will my ghostwriter format my book for publishing?

Most don’t, though some offer it or can arrange it. Interior formatting, also called typesetting or layout, is a design job. It covers fonts, margins, chapter openings, headers and page numbers, the table of contents, and preparing separate files for print and for ebooks. Keep interior graphics in black and white. You can do color, but it makes a print book much more expensive.

A professionally formatted book looks like a book from a real publisher. A self-formatted one looks homemade, and readers notice even when they can’t say why. Platforms like Amazon’s KDP and IngramSpark each have their own file requirements, and a formatter who works with them regularly will get the files approved without a string of rejections. Formatting is a tempting place to save money, and I think it’s a false economy. A book that looks homemade tells a reader, before the first page, that nobody took it seriously enough to finish it properly. If your ghostwriter doesn’t handle formatting, ask for a referral. Most ghostwriters who’ve seen many books through to publication know formatters they trust.

Who designs the cover of a ghostwritten book?

A cover designer does it. Cover design is its own specialty, and it matters enormously. The cover is the first thing a potential reader sees, in most cases as a thumbnail on a screen, and it has a second or two to signal what kind of book this is and whether it’s worth a click.

A professional designer knows the conventions of your genre, how covers read at small sizes, how to lay out the spine and back cover for print, and how to meet each platform’s technical specifications. Template covers from self-publishing sites are cheap for a reason. They make a book look like hundreds of others.

Keep your cover designer on call until the book is published. When I put a client’s cover in at IngramSpark, it often gets rejected over something trivial. It’ll say the file needs to be 300 DPI and it’s coming through as 297 DPI. The designer makes it 310 DPI, and it works fine. I don’t know why that happens. You won’t know until you publish, so don’t release your designer until the publishing is done.

AI is fine for a mockup, and I’ve made covers for my own books with Leonardo AI. For a polished graphic in a client’s book, though, take the AI mockup to a professional designer or agency and tell them you want something that looks like this, only better. AI graphics tend to look like AI. If what comes back doesn’t look better, you picked the wrong company.

If you’re publishing traditionally, the publisher handles the cover, though you may get limited input. If you’re self-publishing, hiring the cover designer is your decision and your expense.

Who owns the cover design on a ghostwritten book?

You should, and your agreement with the designer should say so. Cover designs are creative works with their own copyright, separate from the book. Some designers license the design for use on your book and keep the copyright. Others transfer it fully. Stock images used in a cover come with their own license terms.

Get the rights in writing, along with the final files in every format you’ll need: print cover, ebook cover and the source file. You’ll want them for new editions, audiobook covers, marketing materials and the day your designer stops answering email.

Will my ghostwriter help me publish my book?

Many will help with the decisions, even when they don’t handle the tasks. After dozens of books, a ghostwriter knows the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing, what hybrid publishers offer and what they charge, the platforms that suit each kind of book, and where authors lose money they didn’t need to spend.

Some ghostwriters go further and manage the whole publishing process: hiring the editor, proofreader, formatter and designer, setting up the accounts, buying ISBNs in your name and seeing the book through to the day it’s available. Others hand you the manuscript with a list of trusted people and step back. Both approaches work. Know which one you’re getting.

Whatever the arrangement, the publishing accounts, the ISBNs and the book itself should be in your name. You’re the author and the owner. A ghostwriter who publishes your book under their own account, even with good intentions, creates a mess the day you want to make a change, release a new edition or move the book elsewhere. I’d tell any client to refuse a ghostwriter or publishing service that insists on holding the accounts or the ISBNs. It’s your book, and you shouldn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to change it.

If you’re aiming for a traditional publisher, ask whether your ghostwriter writes book proposals. A proposal is its own document, with a market analysis, a chapter outline and sample chapters, and it’s what an agent reads before deciding to represent you. I don’t recommend traditional publishing to my clients. The delays are long, the royalties are much lower, and you give up control of your own book. If that’s still the road you want, go in with a proposal built for it.

What’s included in a ghostwriter’s fee?

It varies from ghostwriter to ghostwriter, so ask before signing. The core of every ghostwriting fee is the same: interviews, research, outlining, drafting and revisions until the manuscript is done. Beyond that, packages differ.

Some ghostwriters include an outside developmental or copy edit. Some include proofreading. Some coordinate formatting, cover design and publishing, or offer them as add-ons. Some include a book proposal for authors seeking a traditional publisher. Others deliver a finished manuscript and nothing more.

Ask for a written list of what’s included, what costs extra and what you’ll need to arrange yourself. My article on the all-in cost of a ghostwritten book lays out every line item beyond the writer’s fee so you can budget for all of it.

What should I budget for after my ghostwriter finishes?

For a self-published book, plan on some combination of professional editing, proofreading, interior formatting, cover design, ISBNs, printing proof copies, an audiobook if you want one, and marketing. The costs vary widely with quality and length, and the all-in cost article gives realistic ranges.

For a traditionally published book, the publisher covers editing, design and printing, and your costs shift toward marketing and publicity.

Build the time in too. Editing, proofreading, formatting and cover design can add several weeks to a couple of months after the manuscript is finished. If you have a launch date, count those weeks. My article on getting a ghostwritten book done in three months covers how to plan backward from a deadline.

What should you line up before your manuscript is finished?

Line up an editor, a proofreader, a cover designer and a formatter, or one person who can coordinate all four. Budget for each, and leave several weeks between the finished manuscript and the launch date for them to do the work. Get ownership of the cover design and the final files in writing, and have the proofread happen after formatting, since formatting introduces its own errors. Authors who treat the manuscript as the finish line end up paying twice, once for the book and again to fix it after readers find the problems.

My publishing services cover the steps after the manuscript, and my ghostwriting services cover the manuscript itself. If you haven’t started yet, the Book Discovery Intensive includes a publishing path analysis.

From the author

Publish Your Book
Formatting, covers and platforms come after the manuscript. Publish Your Book is my self-publishing guide for those steps, built on what I learned from my first release in 2016 onward.

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