A while back I quoted a client a fair price for a 60,000-word book on technology and leadership.
His counter was a tiny fraction of what the book would cost. My tea nearly did a spit-take. He’d had a lifelong dream of writing that book, big ambitions, the kind of thing that sits on a bucket list for decades, and his idea of what it should cost wasn’t close to reality. He could have found a low-priced ghostwriter, no question.
The main question was whether he’d end up with a book he was proud to hand to family, colleagues, and clients. Almost certainly not.
That conversation is where most confusion about ghostwriting starts.
When somebody asks what a ghostwriter does, I sometimes start with a joke. I tell them I go out into the forest and catch ghosts, tie them down and then ride on top of their ghostly skin. By then they’re laughing, and it’s a funny way to start a conversation about the work.
What does a ghostwriter do for you?
When you hire a ghostwriter, you’re hiring someone who wears several hats at once. People who describe the job as typing up somebody’s thoughts have it wrong, because a book built that way reads like a transcript. Crafting a book is an enormous project, and the writing is only part of it. Sometimes I write the book for the client and sometimes with them, and other times I’m only an advisor. It depends on how they want to use me.
A ghostwriter is a project manager, planning and coordinating every stage so the book stays on track and inside its scope. A ghostwriter is a content strategist, working with you to define the book’s direction, structure, and message so it connects with the readers you care about. A ghostwriter is a researcher, digging into your ideas and your field to build narratives that hold up.
People who describe the job as typing up somebody’s thoughts have it wrong, because a book built that way reads like a transcript.
And a ghostwriter is an interviewer, pulling the book out of your head through conversation, because most experts carry a book inside them that they’ve never had the time or the method to get onto the page. The writing is the visible part. The rest makes the writing possible.
Writing is the visible part of a ghostwriter's job; the other roles underneath make the writing possible.
Why is ghostwriting the secret behind so many thought leaders?
Ever wonder how the busiest thought leaders manage to publish books, articles, and posts while running hectic lives? The answer is usually a ghostwriter. It saves their time. That’s their scarcest resource. It builds their credibility, because published work positions them as an authority. And it opens doors, whether that means speaking invitations, consulting work, or new clients.
The cynical view is that ghostwriting just puts someone else’s name on a book.
I think that gets it backward. The ghostwriter captures your voice and personality, researches your ideas into an absorbing narrative, and shapes content that reads like you at your most articulate. The ideas and the authority are entirely yours, and a writer who starts slipping in his own opinions has forgotten whose book it is.
How much should a serious ghostwritten book cost?
A serious book represents months of skilled work, and the price reflects that.
You can read more about the numbers in my breakdown of ghostwriting costs, but the short version is this. A quote far below the going rate is a warning sign. Someone who can’t afford to give it the time it needs writes the cheap book, and you feel that on every page.
A quote far below the going rate is a warning sign.Share on X
The cheap book does its damage unseen. It gets handed to a board member or a prospective client, it reads thin, and nobody ever tells the author why the calls didn’t come. I’d hate for anyone to learn that with their own name on the cover.
What does a ghostwriter do from week to week?
In my own practice the job opens with an hour-long kickoff meeting, where we settle the book’s direction and I give the client one rule: don’t tell me anything you don’t want in the book. Then come the interviews, lots of them, by Zoom, phone or in person, every one recorded with the client’s agreement. After each session I send a summary document, produced from the transcript with AI’s help, so the client can see what we covered.
From the interviews I build the outline, and once it’s approved I write the chapters myself and send each one as it’s finished. The client reads, corrects and steers.
If the book needs to grow past the “up to” word count in the contract, we agree on a change order before the extra chapters get written. When the manuscript is done, it goes to one of a couple of editors I trust for editing, proofreading and formatting. Project management runs underneath all of it: schedules, reminders, and the occasional note to a client who has gone quiet for a month.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Kickoff | An hour-long meeting to settle direction, plus one rule: don’t share anything you don’t want in the book |
| Interviews | Many sessions by Zoom, phone or in person, each recorded with agreement |
| Session summaries | A summary document from each transcript so the client sees what was covered |
| Outline | Built from the interviews and approved by the client |
| Chapters | Written and sent one at a time; the client reads, corrects and steers |
| Change order | Agreed before extra chapters if the book grows past the contract word count |
| Editing | A trusted editor handles editing, proofreading and formatting |
| Project management | Schedules, reminders, and follow-ups run underneath every stage |
My take
If you’ve put off the book, cost isn’t your real problem. A ghostwriter manages the project, does the research, runs the interviews, and shapes it all into your voice. It takes months of skilled work. A quote far below the going rate means someone can’t afford to give it that time, and you’ll feel it on every page. The cheap book does its damage later, when you hand it to a board member or a prospect. Pay for a writer who’ll give it the time, and finish the book.
What does a car wash have to do with hiring a ghostwriter?
During a calm stretch in the middle of a hurricane, around eight in the evening, I decided to wash my car.
It sounds ridiculous. I got a stepladder to reach the roof and scrubbed it by hand with a sponge. Lightning flickered in the distance and a light drizzle was falling, and it took forty-five minutes to get the baked-in spots off, because I’d put the job off so long the drive-through wash could no longer touch them.
Hiring a ghostwriter is like that. You can put it off forever, and there’s always a reason that sounds good in the moment.
Too expensive. The timing is wrong. The economy. Your job might be at risk. But you’ve carried the dream of a book for years, and it’s still sitting there, unwritten. Sometimes it’s simply time to get the thing done.
I spent decades running operations, including 20 years as Director of Computer Operations and Technical Services at Trader Joe’s. That work taught me how to keep a large project moving under pressure and hit the goal without drama, and it’s exactly what I bring to a book so you don’t have to handle it alone.
If a book has been on your list for years, the next step is a conversation. Start with my complete guide to ghostwriting, look at the ghostwriting service itself, and visit the Ghostwriting Hub for everything in one place. The book won’t write itself, and the spots only bake in harder the longer you wait.
The worst outcome is the book that never gets written. Someone sits on it for twenty years, the stories fade, and the colleagues who’d have read it retire. Even a call that ends with a price you don’t like leaves you knowing what the book needs, and that’s worth more than another decade of someday.
Now that you know the scope of the role, The Ghostwriting Advantage shows how the process unfolds. I wrote it to explain how to get your book written for you.
