Three Tips for Finding a Ghost Writer

If you’re looking for a ghost writer, the following tips can ensure you’ll get the trained professional you’re looking for, rather than a charlatan who would ruin your chances for success.

Tip 1 – Make Sure the Ghost Writer Has a Good Track Record

Check out your prospective ghost writer’s website and see how many testimonials they have. If you’ve found a good ghost writer, you’ll be able to read several testimonials from a variety of happy customers. Satisfied customers are pleased to share a testimonial.

When you’re reading their testimonials, ask yourself if the praise these people offer is watered down and general, or specific and detailed. Detailed testimonials are a sign of heartfelt thanks, whereas general testimonials are the sign of a client who is being polite but not able to give a glowing review.

Tip 2 – Make Sure They Work With a Team

Solo ghost writers often do good work and, if you’ve done your due diligence on them, you can be confident that they will give you a good product. Unfortunately, though, if the ghost writer doesn’t work with a team, the finished manuscript will only be a raw manuscript rather than a completed book. Leaving the many important phases of the book writing process to just your ghost writer would be like asking one person to cover all positions of the infield or outfield of a baseball team. It is an impossible endeavor to have one individual do what minimally 3 must absolutely do with separate, particular talents and skills.

Add that to the fact that if you decide to seek individuals for your team, you will have to expend a great amount of time and energy going through all of the steps you took to find a ghost writer. It’s just not practical, if only because you open yourself up for pulling in the criminal or “aspiring writer” who knows not what they do as far as bestseller books go.

Also, if you find a ghost writer who is part of a professional team, you can delegate the worry, hassle and technical aspects of getting your book polished and ready for publishing. This is because often, such a company of professionals will have connections with the publishing world. This gives you a smooth bridge from the book writing and editing phase over to the production/publishing phase. After all, most aspiring authors are left holding the bad, so to speak, once their manuscript has been written. They have an unpolished work and uncertainty as to what to do next. But in the “team” scenario, once the manuscript has been crafted and polished, you can have them simply hand you’re your manuscript to the self-publishing department or book proposal writing area. In any case, your book dream becomes a reality without any hassle or mishap. You’re always in good hands with a productive, ethical group that works for you to achieve your goals. This even includes the ability to simply ask for book marketing assistance.

Tip 3 – Interview the Ghost Writer

The interview is the most critical part of a ghost writer search. It might be possible to fake testimonials and so forth, but it’s difficult for a ghost writer to fain expertise when they’re talking to you on the phone. And just as important to their confidence and potential is their demeanor and your gut feeling in how you feel about the person. Remember, you will be spending about a year or more with this person, so having someone kind and considerate would be a major plus-point, if not absolute necessity.

A simple five-minute phone interview can quickly weed out those ghost writers who lack knowledge. Ask some simple questions that will tell you if you’ve found the right ghost writer, such as:

  • Do you work with an entire publishing team?
  • How many published titles have you ghost written? (Ask whether they can be found in book stores or not.)
  • Have any of your books won awards?

Questions like these will tell you if you’ve found a ghost writer that’s professional and can get a quality job done.

Putting the Tips Into Practice

Try these tips out. Check out our Website to get an idea of what you should be looking for as an ideal basis. Our main purpose is to help aspiring authors succeed. So feel free to give us a call. We’d love to chat with you about turning your idea into a published book, whether you were to go with us or not.

We’re in the business of helping others. And in that case, everyone wins.