4 Great Reasons to Hire a Ghostwriter

Why hire a ghostwriter?

“I know I’m not a writer.”

“I don’t have the time.”

“I don’t know how to turn my experiences into a book.”

“I want a better book than I could produce alone.”

“I want to achieve something beyond  the book itself.”

When I think about why my clients have sought to hire a ghostwriter, these five are some of the most common reasons they tell me. Most ghostwriting projects contain elements of all five.

While the book is the tangible result of working with a ghostwriter, the client really to hire a ghostwriter for the clarity, judgment, accountability, and transformation. They want a book that will be easy to understand (clarity). They want a professional with experience who knows what works and what doesn’t (judgment). They want a partner who will help them (accountability). And they want someone to turn their ideas into something real (transformation).

Clients don’t hire a ghostwriter just for writing services. They want expertise in planning, storytelling, project management, audience development, and publishing.

Here are four reasons people hire a ghostwriter.

1. “I know what I want to say, I just don’t know how to say it.” These people have a story to tell, and they feel it is very important to tell it. They know their audience will be inspired by it, will learn from it, or will react positively to it. If they could only get it out of their heads and onto the printed page.

There are myriad reasons why. They might be trying to tell their story in a language not their own. They might not know how to convert specialized jargon into ordinary words that everyone can understand. They might have compelling raw experiences but lack the ability to weave them into meaningful stories.

Yet they try and write it, but since they lack writing experience, one of two things happen. Either they develop writer’s block because they don’t know where to go next, or they go off on so many tangents that they lose focus. They start to feel overwhelmed, and they stop making the book a priority.

Time passes, and they take another look at what they’d written. This time, they feel embarrassed, and they start to question if their story is even compelling enough to be told.

These people are not alone. They are part of the ninety-seven percent of people who start a book but never finish it.

What they might not realize is this: There is a world of difference between having the story in your head and getting it written down. They require two different skill sets.

Having the story requires experience. Writing the story requires a process. Not everybody has the skill to tell a story in book form.

A small percentage of people have figured this out. These are the clients who knew they needed to hire a ghostwriter to help with the writing, proofreading, and editing process. They realize the more worthwhile the story is, the more critical it is to partner with a professional who has a process. That way, the finished book will touch lives the way the client wants.

2. “I could write a book myself, but I probably won’t finish it, so I need help.” These people, also among the ninety-seven percent who never finish, have attempted multiple times and failed to complete the manuscript for whatever reason. They understand from experience that writing a book is a long project, but they just can’t keep the momentum going and lack the discipline to work at it every day. Over time, they accumulate enough unfinished drafts and notes to make it seem impossible to make sense of it all.

They need help with time, productivity, and accountability.

I have had clients who had tried for as much as a decade to write their memoirs but couldn’t do it alone. I became a partner to them, helping them by setting up appointments that they had to attend, tasks they had to complete, and deadlines to get them done. I also acted as a motivator and cheerleader to help them when they were unsure or faltered.

We always got the books done because they knew to hire a ghostwriter.

3. “I have ideas, but I don’t know how to turn them into something coherent.” These folks often have drafts and concepts of plans that need organization and structure. They might need help determining the book’s central theme, which will inform what stays and what gets cut. Or they might be uncertain whether they have enough material for a full book.

I had a client who had written a manuscript that was divided into two parts: an invention and a travelogue. He and his wife had invented a better way to help speech pathologists and therapists help hard-of-hearing children to talk. Then they invented a better hearing aid. They eventually sold their business and sailed around the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic Ocean to various Caribbean islands.

Since most of the book’s events took place between 1963-79, the travelogue was out because so much had changed in the various locales; and besides, who really cared what these two nobodies thought of Gibraltar, Malta, Greece, and Bequia?

The real story was how these two helped hard-of-hearing children hear and how they showed how some children previously thought deaf really weren’t. So, out went the travel stuff, except the parts that were relevant to the inventions.

Another client wasn’t sure he had enough for a book. I convinced him that he had a great three-arc story: pro surfer (and all the parties and girls that went with that), losing that, then trying his love of the ocean into becoming an worldwide advocate for it. 

As of the day this is published, we continue to work together.

4. “I want to leave a legacy.” Most of the memoirs I ghostwrite never see the light of day because the clients aren’t interested in widespread publishing. They just want to tell their life story for their family, current and future.

These clients often are near the end of their lives (I have had clients in their eighties and nineties!) and want to get it all down on paper before it’s too late. Since their stories are compelling, I work with them.

This group includes the inventor from earlier but also the therapist who felt he was destined for greatness and searched his entire life for his route. He tried athlete, actor, filmmaker, theater owner, musician—and failed spectacularly each time. In his seventies, he discovered his therapeutic methods were helping his clients. That was his place.

That book is in the editing stage now, and soon he will be able to leave his story as a gift to his kids, grandkids, and future generations.

Next: Three more reasons.

Feel free to read and check out my other posts related to ghostwriting. Go to https://leebarnathan.com/blog/