What is Ghost writing?

Ghost writing is not as otherwordly as it sounds! It has nothing to do with actual spirits, or to do with ghost stories or fantasy books. A ghost writer is so called because they write a book for someone else, in that person’s name. They work behind the scenes, and as a rule they do not get any credit for the work apart from their fee. Normally ghost writers work on autobiographies, often of famous people. But you absolutely don’t have to be famous to have an autobiography written. Maybe you’ve had a colourful, interesting life, but you’re not sure how to put it into words that lift off the page enough to gain the readers’ attention.

After all, whether your life has consisted of fighting crocodiles or fighting capitalism, founding orphanages or finding treasure, it may be that writing is not your best point. We all have different skills. Perhaps you didn’t have time to study grammar whist prising open the jaws of a scaly opponent!

How does ghost writing work?

If you want to write your life story but would rather someone else did the actual writing part, that’s not a problem. That’s what a ghost writer does. As a ghost writer, I would require you to get information to me, either in rough written form or recorded. It could take the form of a series of interviews. Then I would take your information and work it up into a full length book. You can then choose what to do with your manuscript. You can submit it to publishers or self publish, but the acknowledgement as an author would all go to you. Then the ghost writer fades into the background and disappears off through the wall…

For this service, I charge £20 per hour of planning and writing time. I would make an estimate for you before beginning as to how many hours I think it will take. I will have one free discussion with you of up to an hour to see how we can proceed. If we conducted interviews over the phone for example, I’d also charge the same hourly rate for this. However, if you are able to record things yourself and send them to me, that would save you the interview fee. If needed I can provide questions/prompts to help you with your recordings.

Ghost Writing non-Fiction

It’s possible to have a non-fiction book written under your name, apart from an autobiography. If you have an idea for a non-fiction book but don’t know how to compile the information into a format that works then please contact me for further advice and information.

Ghost Writing Fiction

Do you have a brilliant idea for a book but don’t feel that you’ve got the right skills to put pen to paper? If you have lots of ideas but would like a ghost writer to put your book together for you, then drop me a line today.