Ghostwriting is hiring a professional writer to create a book that’s credited to you. The ghostwriter does the writing. You provide the ideas, stories, and expertise. Your name goes on the cover. The ghostwriter’s name appears nowhere.
Everything else is detail.
I have ghostwritten 54+ books. My clients have been executives, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, physicians, and public figures. Their books have helped them raise over $30 million in venture capital, land TEDx speaking invitations, secure traditional publishing deals, and get adopted for coursework at Purdue University. None of those outcomes came from the client sitting at a keyboard for six months. They came from a professional ghostwriting process that turns expertise into a finished manuscript.
Who Uses Ghostwriters?
Ghostwriting is hiring a professional writer to create a book that is credited to you.Share on X
Most of my clients are people whose time is worth more running their business than writing a book. They have the knowledge, the stories, and the credibility. What they don’t have is six months to sit down and write 50,000 words.
Business executives use ghostwritten books to establish authority in their industry. A published book changes how people perceive you in meetings, on stage, and in negotiations. It’s a credential that a website or social media following cannot replicate.
Entrepreneurs and founders use books to document what they’ve built and why it matters. These books become business development tools that open doors to speaking engagements, media appearances, and client conversations that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Coaches and consultants use books to demonstrate expertise. A well-written book does the selling before the prospect ever picks up the phone. By the time they contact you, they already understand your approach and are pre-sold on working with you.
Public figures use ghostwriters to tell their stories in a way that holds a reader for 200 pages. Having had an unusual life and being able to write about it are two different skills, and the gap between them is wider than most people expect.
How Does Ghostwriting Work?
The process starts with a conversation, not a commitment. We talk about your book, your goals, and whether ghostwriting is the right path. If it is, I put together a Statement of Work that covers scope, deliverables, timeline, payment, confidentiality, and copyright.
Then we talk. One to three interviews per week, recorded and transcribed. These conversations are where your book comes from. I ask questions designed to get past your rehearsed talking points and find the real material underneath. The best content in most books comes from stories the client didn’t plan to tell.
From the interviews, I build a detailed outline. You approve it before writing begins. Then I write chapters and deliver them as they are completed. We revise as we go. When the full manuscript is finished, you do one final review, return your corrections, and I deliver the final version.
The whole process takes four to eight months of active work, plus a month for revisions, then it goes to an editor for final polish. Payments are tied to project milestones. Current pricing is on the ghostwriting page. Books range from 20,000 to 90,000 words. Payments are monthly and in advance.
You own everything. Copyright transfers to you. I don’t discuss the project publicly unless you give written permission.
For the full breakdown of each phase, read How a Ghostwriting Project Works from Start to Finish.
What Is Ghostwriting Not?
Ghostwriting isn’t plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking someone else’s work without their knowledge or consent. In ghostwriting, the writer knows from day one that the client will be credited. The arrangement is contractual, consensual, and compensated.
Ghostwriting isn’t fraud. The ideas, stories, and expertise in the book belong to the client. They came from the client’s life and career. The ghostwriter’s contribution is turning that raw material into a manuscript that reads well. The intellectual substance is yours. The craft is mine.
Ghostwriting isn’t a shortcut to a bad book. An experienced ghostwriter produces a better manuscript than most people could write alone, because writing books is what I do every day and it isn’t what my clients do. Understanding your own body doesn’t qualify you to perform your own surgery. You hire someone whose skill matches the task.
Every modern president has used speechwriters. The publishing industry runs on ghostwriting at every level, from celebrity memoirs to business books to series fiction. The practice is older than the printing press.
What a Book Does for Your Career
A book isn’t a brochure. A book is the most effective authority-building tool available to a professional. A published book with your name on it positions you differently than any other credential.
My clients use their books as the centerpiece of a content strategy. Articles, presentations, keynote speeches, and media appearances all draw from the book’s material for years after publication. The book becomes the foundation that everything else is built on.
Nobody I work with has made their money back on book sales, and nobody expected to. The return shows up in the opportunities the book creates. The speaking engagement you wouldn’t have been invited to. The client who contacted you because they read chapter four. The investor who took the meeting because your book was on their desk.
If you’re considering a ghostwritten book, schedule a conversation. No commitment, no pressure. We talk about your book and whether this process is the right fit.
For writers looking to improve their own book promotion, the AI-Enhanced Book Promotion Handbook covers the marketing side in depth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Two of my clients found me by asking an AI engine, and one told me I came up second on the list. How those short lists get built is in Number Two on the List.
