During this four-week series, I've mentioned ghostwriting a couple of times. You probably already have a rough idea what it is – but I wanted to explore ghostwriting in a little more detail, as it's an area of freelancing that a lot of writers don't automatically consider.
Ghostwriting simply means writing under someone else's name: you're their "ghost".
There could be a number of reasons why someone wants their work to be "ghosted" by another writer:
- They're not a particularly fluent writer, and they want their work to be written to a higher standard than they could manage alone.
- They're a good writer – but they don't really enjoy writing so they'd rather outsource it to someone else.
- They like writing, but want to produce more material than they can manage on their own.
The ghostwriting that I've done has involved producing blog posts, either writing for people's blogs under their name, or writing posts that they submit to other websites under their name. They get the byline and the credit as the author – and I get paid!
Ghostwriters can write all sorts of things, however, including fiction: Roz Morris, for instance, has done a lot of this (as well as writing fiction under her own name).
Other possibilities include non-fiction books, and even things like social media updates – you might have seen the recent article written in The Cut by Caroline Calloway's ghostwriter Natalie Beach.
Why Might You Want to Be a Ghostwriter?
Ghostwriting might seem like an odd thing to do – after all, you won't get any credit or glory for what you write, and you usually won't even be able to share details about your ghostwriting.
But there are plenty of good reasons to at least consider ghostwriting, including:
- You can write on lots of different subjects (or in lots of different styles) without diluting your brand. If you enjoy writing about lots of different things, or if you write quite literary fiction/non-fiction but want to take on some more workaday stuff to make ends meet, this could be a real advantage.
- You don't have to deal with comments or emails from readers – you just write the piece and you're done. While I enjoy replying to comments on my own blogs, it can be really tricky to keep track of comments on my freelance pieces for other blogs.
- It can be a fun challenge to get used to writing in someone else's voice. It'll make you more aware of your own habitual turns of phrase, too.
- You can get experience writing for much larger audiences than you'd have access to under your own name. One of the people I ghostwrote for a few years back had that article published on Forbes' website.
- You don't have to exclusively ghostwrite! Plenty of my freelancing is under my own name, but ghostwriting has led to more commissions (and generally better paying commissions too).
Even if you don't want to explicitly offer "ghostwriting" as a service, it's worth thinking through how you feel about it. Several of my ghostwriting clients over the years have been people who first hired me to write under my own name, and who then wanted ghostwriting assistance too -- so think about whether or not you'd want to take this on (and whether you'd want to charge more for it!) before it crops up.
