What is ghostwriting?
Not everybody is a writer. Many people have great stories, but they lack the skills, the time or the discipline to translate these stories into the written word. That’s where people like me come in.
By definition, a ghostwriter is a person who is hired to author books, manuscripts, screenplays, speeches, articles, songs, blog posts, stories, reports, white papers, or other texts that are officially credited to another person.
I am an accomplished non-fiction ghostwriter, writing up to three books a year under commission.
As my client, your book could be:
- Your personal story (your biography, or memoir) — You may have experienced something traumatic, adventurous, strange or wonderful during your lifetime that you feel would be of interest to, or inspire, others.
- Your family history — Many people leave this Earth without a written legacy of their life’s journey. What a wonderful gift to leave for your children, your grandchildren, and beyond.
- Your company’s story — Did you start a business that has exceeded your wildest expectations, and you would like to share your experience, your knowledge and your expertise? Perhaps you would like to create a book specifically for your employees or your customers? Imagine how wonderful it would be to have them open the book and read their stories about how they helped to build the company.
- An inspirational or self-help book — If you are a trained professional who wants to share your wisdom through a book, this is the perfect platform to do it. Your book will become your most valuable business card, giving you credibility that will extend far beyond any other personal branding that you have created during your career.
- Or it might be something else entirely.
As your ghostwriter, you will share your story with me and I will turn it into a manuscript. Although you pay me to write your book, you are the author and your name will appear on the front cover. It would be entirely up to you whether you disclose that your book was written “with” me when your book is eventually published.
How does the ghostwriting process work?
Should you decide to partner with me as your ghostwriter, the process would work more or less as follows:
- We would begin by signing a confidentiality agreement. You would more than likely be sharing information with me that would go beyond the boundaries of the book and I would want you to feel assured that the information shared would remain confidential.
- We would then collaborate to create an outline of your book, unless you already have one. If you have prepared a timeline of events or points that you would like to include in your book, the process of writing the book will move along far quicker than if we are spending hours and hours exploring topics. The more prepared you are, the better.
- In order to formulate the content for your book, I would need to “interview” you, based on the outline of your book. You will share your story with me, I will ask questions, and I will record your words. Depending on the length of your book, the interviewing process could take anything from two full days to a week, to up to a month. This can be done in the comfort of your home or office, depending on where you live, or we can meet over a video-conferencing platform like Zoom.
- If you’re an exceptional storyteller, you could ask a friend or family member to interview you and then provide me with the audio recordings.
- Transcribing the audio recordings to text is a time-consuming but critical part of process. It generally takes me four to five hours to transcribe one hour of recorded interview time.
- The audio transcripts will form the backbone of your book. Using the transcripts, I will dissect and reorganise the raw data into chapters and begin weaving your story together, rewriting your transcribed words in a format that would please the reader while ensuring that your authentic voice is maintained throughout the book.
- Further research (either independently or with your assistance), if required, will be performed and added to the book.
- I will produce an initial draft of each chapter, which I will return to you to read and provide feedback on.
- Based on your feedback, I will continue to edit the work until you are satisfied with the final product.
- When you are satisfied, I will prepare the final manuscript which you would be able to use to submit to publishing houses, or prepare to self-publish online as an e-book or offline as a printed book, or both. Please note that this will not be the typeset version of your book and you will need to submit the Word-based manuscript to a professional typesetter for it to be professionally converted into print and ePub format. I recommend Gregg Davies from Gregg Davies Media. He does the most incredible work, both with book jacket design and typesetting. You can check him out at www.greggdavies.com.
- I am also able to work with you to independently publish your book on Amazon (in e-book and paperback), IngramSpark (in paperback, for distribution into the international book trade), and other online and digital bookstores. Please take a look at the Independent Publishing section of my website for more information.
All my work will be synchronised to a shared Dropbox folder that you will have full have full access to at any point in our journey. Doing this ensures that you always have a copy of the most up-to-date version of your manuscript, copies of your audio recordings and transcripts, and everything else related to your book.
Once you have decided that you are ready to go ahead and we have a written agreement and deposit in place, you will be assured of my undivided professional attention from start to finish. Because ghostwriting a book is a collaborative effort, you would need to be prepared to allow me to climb inside your head and live there for a while. Writing your book will take a minimum of four months of focussed attention, and then the fine-tuning and editing and proof-reading still needs to be added to the mix.
How much does it cost to hire a ghostwriter?
Employing the services of a ghostwriter might require selling a kidney on the black market, so please take a look at the My Rates section of my web site before making contact with me. Writing a book involves an enormous investment of time, energy and creativity, and I take the process extremely seriously.
I bill by the hour and the entire ghostwriting process, from information gathering to transcribing our recordings to writing and producing a finished manuscript, can take in the region of between 250 and 320 hours for a 220-page book. This may be longer if the interviewing process needs to be extended, if additional research needs to be carried out., or if your content is complex to work with.
If you’d like to work with me as your ghostwriter, I’d love to hear from you. Please complete the form below. It will be sent directly to my email inbox at phillipa@phillipamitchell.com and I will respond within 48 hours. Alternatively, you can contact me directly by email by clicking here.
Recent Projects
Here is a small selection of some of my favourite books that I have had the pleasure to work on to date.
