Who is a ghostwriter? Why do they ghostwrite?
A surprisingly diverse group of people call themselves by the title. Here are some of them.
If you’re thinking about hiring a ghostwriter for your next writing project, then you may be wondering what kind of writer voluntarily submits to a writing relationship in which they don’t even get credit for their work?
Isn’t that kind of like the literary equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot, you might be wondering?
Even if you’ve hired one — admit it, you may have wondered this!
Who are these writers with a self-destructive bend? And why aren’t they writing for credit like … those writers you have on your bookshelf?
If you’ve ever been curious about who gets into ghostwriting — and more importantly why! — then let me provide a little bit of context.
Spoiler: there’s more than one ghostwriter in the room.
What’s a ghostwriter?
Firstly, before we look at who ghostwrites let’s ask what is a ghostwriter.
Classically, a ghostwriter is a writer employed in order to help draft books — specifically — on behalf of an attributed author.
However, I would propose that these days it makes more sense to take a wider view of the definition and consider a ghostwriter to be anybody that works on writing projects that ultimately are bylined (attributed) to another party.
Adopting the wider definition, we could say that ghostwriters are involved in producing:
- Books
- Speeches
- Articles and blogs
- Social media posts
Freelance Writers Who Don’t Mind Foregoing A Byline
While the name may make them sound somewhat cryptic, in reality most ghostwriters are simply freelance writers who are okay with the publishing relationship they agree to.
Writers will also vary in terms of how much ghostwriting they undertake. Many will have a byline-friendlier writing gig on the side — perhaps as a journalist. This gets them over the hump of not getting attribution for their work. They can still show to prospects that they’re an active writer.
Other ghostwriters focus exclusively on ghostwriting (all their work is attributed to their clients). They have to be a little bit more creative in terms of how they showcase work to their clients. Some in this category might even engage in recreational writing just to show that they’re “active.”
Others engage in a mixture of attributed content marketing and ghostwriting. Some even add freelance journalism into the mix and draw income from a variety of sources.
But why do freelance writers ghostwrite at all?
- If they’re getting attributed work elsewhere they can afford to forsake some of the credit for their writing
- There’s a strong demand for ghostwriting work from the people who hire ghostwriters
- Ghostwriters can sometimes charge more because they forego the marketing advantage that comes with having your work attributed to you
For many aspiring book authors, ghostwriting is also an interesting way to get their toes wet in the writing market without actually writing their own work.
This is somewhat similar to the reasoning for which aspiring or indie authors commonly employ pen names (pseudonyms) — except ghostwriters are generally guaranteed payment for their work.
Communications and PR Firms Often Ghostwrite
A lot of corporate ghostwriting is actually undertaken by public relations and communications firms.
Many medium and larger companies outsource much of the day-to-day heavy lifting of marketing to these organizations.
While some specialist PR firms only handle aspects of communications (to certain stakeholders; examples: investor relations and internal communications support firms), many will also have a team of writers on hand to draft material for their clients.
PR firms aren’t typically the best port of call for personal ghostwriting projects — such as book authorship. But they are commonly drafted in to help with the following projects which those in the corporate realm more frequently use:
- Speechwriting
- Article and blog ghostwriting
- Media relations related ghostwriting
Personal Assistants Can Serve As De Facto Ghostwriters
In practice, a lot of day to day ghostwriting gets handled by personal assistants and other such unofficial communicators.
In particular a lot of speechwriting gets handed over to:
- Executive assistants
- Administrative assistants
While these individuals may not be personally titled as ghostwriters or even serve as professional communicators, they nevertheless end up picking up a lot of the slack when it comes to helping busy executives meet their communications objectives.
In particular “assistants” can be found helping the following individuals with writing projects:
- Politicians
- Diplomats
- Business executives
Internal Marketing Teams
Finally, not all the heavy lifting that marketing teams undertake is outsourced.
Plenty of marketing managers and assistants help out with ghostwriting projects on behalf of their colleagues.
For instance, marketing professionals could find themselves:
- Ghostwriting thought leadership articles on behalf of the company’s CTO
- Writing a speech for the CEO to be delivered at an industry conference
Ghostwriters Of Dubious Credibility
I’ve made the point before that not all ghostwriting is what I would consider to be legitimate.
Academic ghostwriting is an example of a field that I think bone fide ghostwriters should have nothing to do with — because it essentially helps its customers to perpetrate academic fraud.
Nevertheless, for the sake of completion, add it to the list of domains where self-described ghostwriters can be found operating.
There Are More Ghostwriters Out There Than Meet The Eye
Believe it or not those who explicitly market themselves as ghostwriters — like me !— are, I believe, in the minority in the ghostwriting world.
While dedicated ghostwriting specialists do exist, equally lots of ghostwriting, for both individuals and companies, is done by:
- Generalist freelance writers
- PR professionals and firms
- Marketing teams and managers
- Consultants
- Assistants
Interested in working with a specialist ghostwriter to help plan and execute thought leadership campaigns or non-fiction book projects? Daniel’s website is DSRGhostwriting.com.
