Ghostwriting Services
54+ books ghostwritten for executives, entrepreneurs, and public figures. One service. One rate. Transparent pricing. You own the manuscript.
Ghostwriting a book with The Writing King costs $1 per word, paid in monthly advances, for books of 20,000 to 175,000 words. Richard Lowe has ghostwritten 54+ books for executives, founders, and public figures, and authored 113+ under his own name. You own the manuscript, the copyright, and all rights, and the book publishes under your name.
How does the ghostwriting process work?
I ghostwrite business books, memoirs, and authority titles through an interview-based process. You talk about your work, your thinking, and your stories. I handle the writing, structure, and revision. Your time commitment is a fraction of the 300-500 hours it takes to write a book from scratch.
Pricing and Terms
$1 per word
Monthly advances
20,000-175,000 words
4-8 months
You own the manuscript completely. Pricing covers interviews, research, outlining, writing, and revision. No hidden fees.
Want a focused authority book faster and at a lower price? My AI-Assisted Books service produces a book of roughly 30,000 words from $15,000, AI handles the scaffolding, and I still write the voice by hand.
The Process
Discovery Conversation
We talk about your goals, your audience, and whether a book is the right investment for your situation. If it is not, I will tell you. This conversation is free and has no obligation.
Book Proposal and Strategy
Before writing starts, we develop a proposal that defines the book’s audience, positioning, structure, and strategic purpose. This document becomes the blueprint for the entire project.
Interviews
The manuscript is built from structured interviews where you talk about your work, your experiences, and your perspective. I record everything and extract the material that becomes the book. This is where your voice gets captured.
Writing and Structure
I draft the manuscript chapter by chapter, building from the interview material. You review each section and provide feedback. The book takes shape through iteration, not through a single draft delivered at the end.
Revision and Delivery
The manuscript goes through revision until you are satisfied it represents your thinking and your voice. You receive a complete, publication-ready manuscript that you own entirely.
Client Outcomes
These are outcomes from real ghostwriting projects. Client identities are protected where confidentiality agreements require it. Verifiable outcomes are linked where possible.
A European Fortune 50 senior manager used his ghostwritten book to secure venture funding, launch his own company, and establish himself as an industry authority. Read the case study →
A client used his ghostwritten book to land a TEDx invitation, and clients have parlayed their books into paid keynote engagements at $5,000, $20,000. Read the case study →
Richard’s own book, How to Manage a Consulting Project, was adopted at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management by Professor Richard Makadok. Read the case study →
Clients have secured traditional publishing deals, generating thousands of copies in distribution and sustained media visibility. Read the case study →
What is the ROI of hiring a ghostwriter?
The 2024 Business Book ROI study surveyed 301 published nonfiction authors and found that ghostwritten books produced median revenue of $92,500 with median gross profit of more than $43,500, four times more profitable than self-written books. The returns came primarily from speaking ($30,000 median), consulting ($50,000), workshops ($40,000), and organizational sales ($64,000). Sixty-eight percent of authors reported increased credibility. Eighty-nine percent said publishing was a good decision.
These figures are from the 2024 study “A Comprehensive Study of Business Book ROI” by Amplify Publishing Group, Gotham Ghostwriters, Smith Publicity, and Thought Leadership Leverage, surveying 301 published nonfiction authors. They represent survey findings, not a guarantee of specific results. Individual outcomes depend on the author’s industry, audience, and how the book is used after publication.
Client Testimonials for Richard Lowe
What kinds of books do you write?
54+ ghostwritten books across industries means I have worked with the range of challenges business authors face. Specific experience includes executive and business books, technology leadership titles requiring complex concept translation, coaching and consulting methodology books, memoirs and legacy projects, celebrity and public figure narratives, and fiction collaborations. Detailed case studies are available at thewritingking.com/ghostwriting-case-studies.
More information:
Case Studies · Testimonials · Code of Ethics · Full Professional Background
Straight Answers to Real Hesitations
Every ghostwriting prospect carries these hesitations. Here are the straight answers:
“That’s a lot of money for a book.”
It is, and I will not pretend otherwise. Professional ghostwriting runs $15,000 to $60,000 here, with budget options starting at $7,597. The honest frame: the 2024 Business Book ROI study found most business books return the investment through clients, speaking, and authority pricing, and my clients have used books to raise capital and land TEDx stages. If the book is a business asset, price it like one. And if you want certainty first, the Book Discovery Intensive is $4,000 for the strategy, the plan, and a sample chapter, credited toward the engagement within sixty days. Read more: What Ghostwriting Costs and Why »
“It won’t sound like me.”
The book is built from recorded interviews, your stories, your phrasing, your judgment, and you review every chapter as it is written. Early samples get tuned until the voice is right before the bulk of the writing happens. After 54-plus ghostwritten books, holding a client’s voice across a manuscript is the part of this work I am best at. Read more: How a Ghostwriter Captures Your Voice »
“Will you secretly use AI on my book?”
A fair question in 2026, and it gets a written answer, not a verbal one: my AI policy goes in the contract. Your book is written by me, AI serves as a research and checking tool only, and your material never trains anything. Mills that generate manuscripts and charge professional rates are exactly why you should demand this clause from anyone. Read the full answer: Will My Ghostwriter Secretly Use AI? »
“How do I know you’re not one of the scams?”
You should not take my word for it; verify what cannot be faked. I have 113-plus books under my own name you can read tonight, a hundred-plus podcast appearances you can listen to, named case studies including a book adopted at Purdue, and reviews attached to a checkable identity. The mills cannot produce any of that. Read the full answer: How to Vet a Ghostwriter »
“Will I lose control of my book?”
You own the copyright outright under work-for-hire terms, you approve the strategy and outline before drafting, you review every chapter in sequence, and every disagreement resolves in your favor. I advise with candor; you decide. Read the full answer: Will I Lose Control of My Own Book? »
“What happens after the manuscript is done?”
A manuscript is not a book; editing, cover, formatting, publishing path, and launch remain. The publishing conversation happens during strategy, before a chapter exists, and production support is an available continuation with scope defined in writing. Nobody hands you a Word document and waves. Read the full answer: You Have a Manuscript. Now What? »
Go Deeper on Any of These
What Ghostwriting Costs and Why
Professional ghostwriting runs from $7,597 at the budget tier to $65,000 for full executive engagements, and the full article breaks down what actually drives the number: the hundreds of hours of skilled labor, the interview and revision process, and what separates a professional quote from a mill’s teaser price. It also frames the investment against what the book is for, because a business asset and a vanity purchase should not be priced with the same math. Read the full answer »
How a Ghostwriter Captures Your Voice
Voice capture is the craft at the center of ghostwriting, and the full article shows how it actually works: what gets extracted from the interviews beyond facts, how early samples calibrate the sound, and why clients’ readers consistently fail to detect that a professional was involved. Read the full answer »
Isn’t Using a Ghostwriter Cheating?
The direct answer is no, and the full article does not stop at the assertion. It works through the distinction that matters, authorship versus typing, why the ideas, stories, and judgment in the book make it yours, how a century of publishing has always operated this way, and where the genuine ethical lines sit, the ones my published Code of Ethics draws in writing. Read the full answer »
Will I Lose Control of My Own Book?
Some prospects arrive with this exact bruise from a previous writer who treated the outline as their territory. The full article maps every control point of a professional engagement: work-for-hire copyright that makes the book yours outright, the five approval gates from strategy through final sign-off, and the working rule that keeps candid professional pushback from ever becoming a grab for the wheel, because every disagreement resolves in your favor. Read the full answer »
How to Vet a Ghostwriter
The better a ghostwriter is at the job, the less evidence they can show you, and the scam operations exploit that gap deliberately, with fake writer profiles claiming the same unverifiable bestsellers real writers cannot prove. So you vet around the NDA wall instead of through it. The full article walks through what cannot be faked, the writer’s own published books, years of public history, named case studies, the questions only working writers can answer, and the red flags that should end a conversation on the spot. Read the full answer »
What Will People Think If They Find Out?
This is a different question from whether ghostwriting is ethical, and it survives after the ethics are settled: what happens at the conference when a colleague finds out. The full article covers who actually finds out and how, what the observed reactions are among professionals, the numbers behind professionally assisted nonfiction, the Agassi precedent, and the consistency test worth running against everything else you already delegate under your own name. Read the full answer »
Frequently Asked Questions
Ghostwriting Library
The questions every ghostwriting client asks, answered in depth:
- ✓︎ What Ghostwriting Costs and Why
- ✓︎ How a Ghostwriter Captures Your Voice
- ✓︎ Questions to Ask a Ghostwriter About Voice
- ✓︎ Isn’t Using a Ghostwriter Cheating?
- ✓︎ Will My Ghostwriter Secretly Use AI?
- ✓︎ How to Vet a Ghostwriter
- ✓︎ Will I Lose Control of My Own Book?
- ✓︎ What Will People Think If They Find Out?
- ✓︎ What the Interviews Are Actually Like
- ✓︎ You Have a Manuscript. Now What?
Start With a Conversation
I will tell you honestly whether a book fits your goals and what the investment looks like for your specific situation. No pitch. No pressure.
Wondering about budget? Here is what ghostwriting costs, with real numbers.