There seems to be a lot of interest in ghostwriters these days, perhaps spurred by the recent “Gathering of the Ghosts,” a one-day convocation in New York of around 140 successful ghostwriters. They came together, it seems, mostly to complain about not being paid enough. But that’s okay—who wouldn’t want to make more money?
Since I’ve been a professional, full-time ghostwriter, editor, and book developer for over fifteen years, I thought it might be worthwhile if I put in my two cents. Here are just a few of my observations on the subject, including a personal reflection.
1. As a matter of background, I write about five full-length (30,000- to 80,000-word) books each year for my clients. These are non-fiction (business, leadership, self-help, health) and fiction (novels). My writing goal is 2,500 words per day. I have no assistants—just myself, my MacBook Pro, and the internet. I also edit books—roughly twenty a year. Hence the job description of “book developer.” I’ll do whatever it takes to make your manuscript ready to publish—ghostwrite, edit, develop, whatever you call it. The deliverable is a Word document containing 250,000 or more individual characters, including spaces. Those quarter-million characters are my responsibility.
2. In my opinion, most of the people at the forum in New York are not true ghostwriters because their contributions are public and their names often appear on the covers along with the “author.” They are paid collaborators. This is fine—I’ve been a collaborator too. But in my work, my valued clients generally insist on my anonymity. They don’t want anyone to know I wrote their book. I often will sign an NDA to that effect. To promote myself, the most I can do is use the vague term “book developer.” Most of my wonderful clients don’t mind this.
3. Publishing is a very risky business. The vast majority of books that come off the presses do not make a profit for the publisher or author. Many of them lose money, especially self-published books. But most of my clients do not expect to make a profit. In particular, my non-fiction business clients use their books as marketing loss leaders. These entrepreneurs, CEOs, and consultants use them to elevate themselves as thought leaders in their industries, and thereby get better clients or bigger speaking fees. This is one reason why they do not want my name on their book: it’s important that their reader sees them as the expert.
But to get back to profits—in my job, I take no risks. I get paid in cash for my services. I write your book, get paid, and have no residual equity interest. If the book is a best seller, do I then lose potential wealth? Yes. But the vast majority of books are not best sellers. In the long run, the system works well for me and my valued client.
4. To get to the title of this little essay, why am I a happy ghostwriter? Probably because as I approach the age of seventy, I’ve done just about everything else, and believe me, ghostwriting books is about as fun as it gets. In my lifetime, I’ve worked too many jobs to list, but here are just a few, in roughly chronological order:
• Art teacher (for a summer after high school).
• Donut fryer on the overnight shift at a donut shop.
• Pattern painter in a non-ferrous foundry making bronze and aluminum castings.
• Guitar player and songwriter in a rock band (The Atlantics, 1976-1983). I still play my guitar every day.
• Stockboy in an office supply store.
• Salesperson at three Boston art galleries. (I was terrible at it.)
• Telemarketer for a theater and a publishing company. (I was outstanding!)
• Assembly line worker and then supervisor at Lotus Software. I became an expert at fixing the very fussy shrink-wrap machines.
• Executive black car driver. I mainly drove lawyers home late at night from their downtown Boston offices on Federal Street.
• House manager and group sales director for the cabaret show “Forever Plaid.”
• Special events manager at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum. (Loved that place—I’m a car guy.)
• Editor of Renaissance Magazine, the bible of the national renaissance faire industry. (That was a fun job!)
• Non-profit development officer and director. This phase lasted a good ten years. I made a lot of money for the organizations I worked for, the last one being Montserrat College of Art.
There may be a few I missed, but you get the idea. One important lesson I learned from these experiences is that when you’re an employee, you have zero job security. Your boss will make dumb decisions and then lay you off to save his own hide. That’s why I’m so happy to be a self-employed ghostwriter. I’m my own boss, and the harder I work, the more I get paid. I’m the captain of my own little ship, so to speak.
5. Do I write my own books, under my own name? Yes, I have, and will continue to do so. But to be honest, after spending the day writing 2,500 words for an important client, it can be tough to get motivated to write more. You just want to do something else!
That’s my story, in a nutshell. Retirement? Never. I’ll keep going until I keel over and they have to pick me up off the floor.
