3 Important Ghostwriting Lessons

You’ve probably heard or read these quotes before: “There’s no end to education.” “Learning is a lifelong process.” “Everything is a learning experience.”

I, too, learn as I go. In ghostwriting, there are plenty of opportunities to learn and grow. Here are some lessons I’ve learned.

Don’t take any project if you’re not enthusiastic about the story or the person.  

Last month, a guy reached out to me because he wanted an article about how his non-profit won the right to use a programming language over a different non-profit. He characterized the story as a triumph of good over evil. But in reading the documents he sent me, I was bored, so I declined. My lack of enthusiasm didn’t match his passion, and it wouldn’t be fair to him because I wouldn’t be able ghostwrite the story he deserved.

There’s a lot of hurry up and wait in ghostwriting.

A former client approached me in June 2023 and asked if I wanted to ghostwrite a second book with him. I said yes. We met and discussed it, but then he ran into money problems, so we delayed. We scheduled two follow-up appointments, but he cancelled them because he had nothing new to report.

Finally, that December, we met on Zoom. It was really nice to visit with him, but he said his priorities had changed and he was delaying the next book indefinitely. Between his original reaching out and his priority shift, it was six months of hurry up and wait.

Another ghostwriting job I got in October of last year was put on hold because the client was expanding his business, so his representatives said he should be ready to start in January or February, four months later. Then his people told me it’s more like April or May. That’s nine months of inactivity. Then it got delayed to summer. Now, it’s tentatively on in January, which will be 16 months of hurry up and wait.

Finally, I had a prospect in 2022 who wanted me to start ghostwriting, but he never seemed to have the money. He signed the contract but didn’t provide the first payment, rendering the contract meaningless. 

I told him I would honor the contract until Dec. 31, 2023. He did nothing, so that was sixteen months of hurry up and wait.

The ghostwriter sometimes has to act like a therapist. 

Ghostwriter Emma Murray wrote the following on LinkedIn in 2018:

“(W)hile ghosts may not all be qualified therapists, we tend to share similar traits: patience, excellent listening skills, empathy, good communication, and good social skills; all of which encourages the client to confide in us. At the very heart of the ghostwriting process is building an environment of trust-–to ensure that the client feels comfortable enough to confide in us, even outside the boundaries of the book itself.”

Ghostwriters worth their weight can do all these things, and every ghostwriter should try to reach those heights with every client. Sometimes, we succeed.

For being married to a psychopath for five years, one client suffered tremendous post traumatic stress disorder, stemming from discovering her husband wasn’t who he claimed he was, then exacerbated by the state coming after her for the money he stole. Anyone who thinks PTSD doesn’t mess with a person mentally doesn’t understand PTSD. She had tried to write her story many times over for ten years but only got as far as stream-of-conscious journal entries. 

When I met her, it was clear she had suffered severe trauma, and I knew that she would have to relive the experience over and over again as she worked with me. So, we agreed that if any session proved too traumatic, we’d stop immediately. If she couldn’t meet because she was triggered, we rescheduled. 

When we met, I had to tread carefully. I had to summon all the sensitivity I had. I had to say things like “I understand this is tough” and then ask the question that would force her to get into the events that would inevitably trigger emotions. It’s one reason why this project took 16 months instead of the usual 12 months.

I can’t count the number of times she would cry. At first, it was because she had to relive everything. Then it was tears of joy because she had found somebody who could ghostwrite her story. Finally, it was tears of relief and joy because after a decade of trying, she had the story completely out of her head and onto the pages—259 pages, in fact.

Next: More lessons.

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