What does a ghostwriter do?

By Leslie Hinson and Alex Hughes Capell

In his 2015 song “King Kunta,” Kendrick Lamar insulted another (unnamed) rapper by suggesting the rapper used a ghostwriter to write their lyrics. He implied that using a ghostwriter was unethical, or “cheating.” This attitude seems to be widespread.

So… is this in fact cheating?

To answer that question, first we need to answer others: What is a ghostwriter, how common are they, and what do they do, exactly?

The simplest answer is that ghostwriters are incredibly common, in both music and the book world. We’ll focus in on books for the rest of this article, but as far as music, Kendrick Lamar himself made a lot of money serving as other rappers’ ghostwriter. Everyone in Nashville also knows that half the songs that get produced are written by someone other than their recording artist.

In the book industry, celebrity and political memoirs have always been written by ghostwriters, and have become increasingly popular in recent years. But while literary ghostwriting has existed for centuries, it’s only recently that people have become willing to talk about it openly in the mainstream. Business people and subject matter experts are increasingly working with ghostwriters lately — and talking about it.

So what is a ghostwriter, and what do they do?

What Ghostwriters Do

In his New Yorker article “The Ghostwriter,” J. R. Moehringer (of Prince Harry’s Spare) tries to help his five-year-old daughter understand what he does for a living. She is good at art, so he asks her to imagine that a friend who is not so good at art asks her to help them draw a picture. She says she will happily help them. And that’s ghostwriting — to a five-year-old.

Adults usually require a more detailed explanation. A literary ghostwriter does the heavy lifting to help a client turn their ideas into a coherent book that communicates their expertise clearly to the reader. Alex likes to explain to her clients that, after they’re done, “the book will sound like you, but like a version of you who’s been working on writing for ten years.”

For some reason, clients still have a lingering concern that hiring a ghostwriter is somehow unethical. Leslie laughs. “I hire a CPA to do my taxes, even though in theory I could do them,” she says. “Is that cheating?”

It’s not a bad analogy. At the end of the day, each person is responsible for their own taxes. The CPA helps them file using years of expertise and up-to-date industry knowledge. The CPA does not reach into their clients’ minds and pull out the important numbers; the client has to supply the CPA with all the right information in order to get the taxes right. In the same way, a ghostwriter helps an author organize and execute the book, but whatever ideas go into that book are all dependent on the author.

Not Every Ghostwriter Does the Same Thing

While all ghostwriters generally help translate ideas into a written book, the specifics can change dramatically depending on the project and the individual client and writer.

Here are examples of the range of services you might get from a ghostwriter.

• Writing the book with a professional level of detail and polish
• Organizing the author’s thoughts and/or story into the best possible structure
• Interviewing the author through a series of calls or meetings and directing these meetings
• Revising the manuscript based on the author’s feedback

Other concrete services some ghostwriters provide include:

• Additional research
• Conducting interviews with other parties
• Fact checking
• (Sometimes) Adding their own expertise and ideas when called for and the client is comfortable

Some ghostwriters offer services that extend into the publishing realm, such as:

• Copy editing
• Typesetting
• Back-of-book copy
• Creation of marketing materials
• Creation of pitch materials

A ghostwriter’s skill set may also extend to less concrete, but also important services and support such as:

• Creating a rapport with the author
• Holding a safe space for vulnerability, whether for an author’s frustrations with the publishing process or due to the nature of the book’s subject matter
• Being able to talk an author off a ledge when the process seems too daunting
• Reading between the lines and finding motivations and insight into the author’s story
• Serving as an audience stand-in to be sure the reader will understand the material

Do Ghostwriters Want Credit?

The short answer to this question is no. People who care about getting the credit for all of their work don’t become ghostwriters, plain and simple.

While ghostwriters do feel a level of responsibility for the books they write, they normally consider the work to belong entirely to the client. Some authors credit their ghostwriters and others don’t, based on their own personal preference. But we are being paid, and normally paid very well, to co-create a good product we could never have created without someone else’s ideas. You proudly putting your name on your book means we did a good job, and there are few things as satisfying as that.

Plus, many of us do plenty of our own writing, for which we are happy to take credit. We are not seething enviously over our authors’ successes wishing we were in the limelight. We are happy for them, and authentically cheering for their success.

Costs of Hiring a Ghostwriter

There’s no sugar-coating the reality: ghostwriters are expensive. There’s also a significant range in terms of what they cost.

If you’re getting an entire manuscript written, expect to pay at least $20,000 for a competent ghostwriter. On the higher end, well-established ghostwriters with bestseller credentials or with specific expertise may run you $100,000 or more. Any individual ghostwriter’s fees for a normal manuscript might fall anywhere in between.

Your specific project also matters when it comes to cost. You’ll spend more for extra research or for a quick turnaround. Often, you’ll spend more for a more complex or difficult subject matter, often because finding a ghostwriter who can handle that project may be harder. If you are having trouble deciding specifically what you have to say, or can’t organize your ideas into a logical order on your own, that adds time and cost. The same goes for asking the writer to do work to synthesize your ideas on her own, such as reading all of your prior publications and watching your previous presentations before making an outline.

The more you can present your book quickly in a series of phone calls, the easier the project will be for your writer, and the more you will be able to get a good result with a cheaper, less experienced person. If you are a podcaster, a speaker, or someone who talks for a living and can explain in-depth easily, a new ghostwriter who writes good sentences but who doesn’t have the organizational experience might do fine.

The more you’ll need your writer to lead you and set the pace, the more experienced a person you’ll need, and the more the project should cost (and/or the longer it will take) to get a good result.

Remember the “pick two” model: good, fast, cheap. It’s rarely possible to have more than two.

Why AI or transcripts won’t do the job

People who want to write a book often think that they can use Chat GPT or a transcription software like Dragon, to get a decent result at a much cheaper rate than a ghostwriter. For the most part, ghostwriters are happy to encourage you to try that path, and then to come back when you see the poor result.

Writing a book is a highly complex and emotionally exhausting process. It’s not enough about knowing your material; it’s about communicating that material lightly and cleanly to the reader, in enough depth that your expertise becomes plain. A microphone won’t ask you to back up and explain when you’re being confusing. A transcription software won’t take a tangle of ideas and make them clear on the page. Chat GPT, at best, will return back a decently-written summary of what everyone else thinks. It is trained on the sum total of the writing of the internet, and can’t give you anything beyond what the internet thinks is normal.

If you want to write a book, you almost certainly don’t want a book that reflects what everyone else thinks. You want your book, that reflects the wisdom you’ve built in your field over decades. You don’t want to rehash the conversation everyone has already had. You want to lead that conversation. You want to show why people should work with you, or follow you.

To do that, you need a ghostwriter.

In summary

Hiring a ghostwriter is no more unethical or “cheating” than hiring a CPA, or a personal trainer. In those cases, as with a ghostwriter, working with an experienced professional makes it far more likely you’ll get a result you want rather than getting lost along the way. Yes, there will be those people who want to spend the years or the money to learn to write at a professional level (and if you’re the latter, consider a book coach). But if you want a book, not a new skill, working with a ghostwriter makes sense.

We’ll save you time, and make sure that your book shows you to be every bit as smart as you are.

The Media Alchemy Guild represents the cutting edge of professionals in the book industry. If you need a book coach, a publishing specialist, a marketer, or a ghostwriter who understands your vision and can make it happen, work with us.