Marcia Layton Turner
Guest Post: Navigating the Financial Ups and Downs of the Ghostwriting Industry: 10 Suggestions and Safeguards
By Alice Sullivan I’ve been in the book publishing industry since 2001, primarily as a ghostwriter. While I’ve experienced a few bumps in the road throughout my career when it comes to managing project loads, the rare unhappy client, and the stress of rate negotiation, I’ve never had financial whiplash so bad as over the…
Does Cold Calling Work for Ghostwriting?
Contacting people who don’t know you to ask if they might be interested in your ghostwriting services is not a new marketing tactic, and it is still used today because it works. More than 100 years ago, Alfred Fuller, who later founded the Fuller Brush Company in 1906, began selling household cleaning brushes door-to-door. He…
Guest Post: Tips For Getting Started As a Ghostwriter
By Wintress Odom Although the practice of ghostwriting reaches back to antiquity when scribes toiled over papyrus scrolls, the ghostwriting industry is growing today more than ever—for a variety of reasons. The rise in SEO, eBooks, self-publishing, and social media means that more and more people are looking to communicate their ideas, even when they…
What is the Association of Ghostwriters?
At the inaugural Gathering of the Ghosts convention in NYC in early 2024, I was surprised by how few attendees had heard of the Association of Ghostwriters (AOG). Granted, a solid percentage of those in attendance were already AOG members, but the rest generally had not heard of the professional association for the industry. After…
Why the Association of Ghostwriters Instituted Membership Auto-Renewal
The Association of Ghostwriters (AOG) has been very fortunate to attract as members professional writers who aspire to become ghostwriters or who are already earning money from their ghostwriting work. The community is active, members are kind and forthcoming with information, and most remain members for years. We offer a private Facebook group for discussions,…
Always Go to the Original Source for Verification
Most writers understand the importance of finding the original source of information before using it in a book, article, blog post, report, speech, infographic, or anywhere else it may be cited. Those who attended journalism school likely had it drilled into them, while others learned through other methods, such as books or workshops. The core…
Ghostwriters Who Operate as Business Owners Are More Successful
Do I have solid numbers to back up this assertion? No. However, based on conversations with other ghostwriters, editors, and coaches, I’m very confident that behaving like a business owner will earn you more money than operating as a hobbyist or pure creative. I speak from experience. Many of you know that my dad was…
The Art of the Initial Client Interview: 11 Questions Every Ghostwriter Should Ask
When issues arise between a ghostwriter and their author-client, on reflection, the ghostwriter almost always admits that there were red flags during early conversations that they ignored. Sometimes, those red flags are as minor as a questionable comment or off-hand remark that the ghost chose to ignore. Other times, the red flags emerge as the…
Building a Ghostwriting Portfolio When You Can’t Share Most of Your Work
Ghostwriters face a marketing conundrum unique to the industry: How do you market your services when you can’t talk about previous clients? Many authors demand that their ghostwriters sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and/or confidentiality clause that prevents them from talking about their work together. This means that some of the most capable and qualified…
8 Questions Every Ghostwriter Should Ask Before Saying Yes to a Book Project
We’ve been having discussions in the Association of Ghostwriters (AOG) about prospect red flags, likely because our colleagues have run across some challenging clients. It’s easy to get stuck with a client who has unrealistic expectations regarding what you can do to help write their book. In many cases, it’s not their fault if we…
How I Would Get Started as a Book Ghostwriter Today
Like many of my colleagues, I became a ghostwriter out of happenstance rather than strategy or intention. When my agent asked if I wanted to help an author write a book that was overdue to a major publisher, I jumped at the opportunity. I also admitted to her that I had never written a book…
4 Ghostwriting Industry Predictions for 2025
As we kick off a new year, now is a good time to reflect on changes within the ghostwriting industry that we witnessed or got a glimpse of in 2024 as a clue to what may come. Which trends are taking hold and which are just starting to emerge? Which ones will impact demand for…