Ghostwriting Pricing
Real numbers, published openly. A professionally ghostwritten book at The Writing King runs $30,000 to $90,000 depending on the project, and this page explains exactly what moves the number.
The honest numbers up front
Full ghostwritten books at The Writing King run $30,000 to $90,000 depending on type, length, and research load. Book proposals start at $4,000. Most projects finish in three to six months, and I take on six to eight clients per year, which is why each book gets the attention it needs.
If those numbers are outside your budget, that’s useful to know before a call rather than after one. Book coaching ($2,000–$3,000 per month: you write, I guide) and the DIY path cost less and are honest options for the right project.
Ranges by project type
| Project type | Published range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Memoir / personal history | $40,000 – $80,000 | 60,000–80,000 words from structured interviews. The full method is on the memoir process page. |
| Executive / business book | $35,000 – $70,000 | Framework and thought-leadership books. Price scales with research depth and source verification. |
| Fiction | $30,000 – $90,000 | Novels developed from your concept, outline, or partial draft. Genre and length drive the range. |
| Celebrity / public figure | $30,000 – $90,000 | Books for people whose name is the platform, with the confidentiality that work requires. |
| Coach / consultant book | $30,000 – $60,000 | Turning a coaching framework and client results into a book that brings in clients. |
| Book proposal | from $4,000 | The agent-facing sales document: overview, market analysis, chapter summaries, sample chapter. |
These are the same ranges published on each service’s process page. Every project gets a fixed written quote before work begins.
What moves the number
Length. A 40,000-word business book and an 80,000-word memoir are different amounts of work, and the fee reflects it.
Research load. A book built entirely from your interviews costs less than one requiring verified external research, citations, and fact-checking against primary sources.
Source material condition. Clean interviews are the fastest input. Decades of journals, prior drafts, and scattered documents add organizing work, which is real work.
Timeline. Three to six months is standard. Compressed schedules, where possible at all, cost more.
What does not move the number: haggling. The quote is a real price for real work, per the Code of Conduct: no bait pricing, no vague fees appearing later.
How payment works
Payment is due in advance of services rendered, on a monthly schedule for word-rate projects. Fees and terms are documented in a written Statement of Work before any writing starts. Either party may terminate in writing; you receive all completed work and owe nothing beyond work in progress.
Copyright transfers to you on final payment. No royalty share, no credit expectation, no residual claim. The book is yours.
Why the cheap options cost more
Content mills and offshore services quote $2,000 to $8,000 for a “book.” What arrives is typically unusable: template prose, invented facts, no voice. Clients then pay a professional to redo it, having spent the mill fee for nothing. The full analysis is in Why Ghostwriting Costs So Much and Why Cheap Writers and AI Content Are Like Discount Parachutes.
For the industry-wide picture of what ghostwriters charge, see The Complete Guide to Ghostwriting Costs and What Ghostwriters Charge.
Get a real quote for your specific book
Ranges become a fixed number after a discovery call: your material, your timeline, your word count. The quote you get is the price you pay.