Guest Post: How to Find Ghostwriting Clients in Your Own Backyard

By Robert Bruce Woodcox

I am a veteran ghostwriter (27 years) and a veteran AOG member (8 years). However, I also spend a great deal of time consulting/counseling by the hour, other ghostwriters on the “business” side of this profession. The first question most new clients ask is: “How do I find new work, market myself, create a continual pipeline of work?”

My answer is always the same: Start in your own community or your own county; whatever geographical location you can travel to easily; grass roots or guerrilla marketing.

With that said, let’s take a look at what “grass roots” means.

Most of us have websites up and running. Many of us use Google Adwords. Some of us use posts on Linked-in. All of us network within AOG, thanks to Marcia or use other outreach techniques. What most ghosts miss out on all the incredible resources we have right in our own neighborhoods, communities—and that is: the Senior Community. I teach people through my consulting service how to do this easily and what great rewards it can reap for those of you who have, or will be ghosting “life stories, legacy books, or memoirs.” I specialize in this area, so I’m well versed in how, where, when and who to reach out to.

Here goes: Most every city/community/county has senior centers. They are often owned by the city. If you like helping people as well as making money, then you can do both right in your own backyard, while you’re waiting for that next call from Adwords, or Linked in, or whatever.

Many seniors are at the age where it has become very important to pass along their stories to their children or grandchildren (some of these people are only interested in having 10 or 20 or so books “printed,” so there is no need to help them through the Amazon maze to set up their accounts via KDP, and not only get their books published, but maybe even sell three or four; maybe more.

The point is, whatever the end use, seniors want to tell their families the importance of having integrity, the importance of serving others—particularly grandchildren. They are also dying to tell their life stories in general. My clients in this arena have all been intriguing, inspiring and fun to write with. Seniors have so much wisdom to offer.

Some of these might be in the $25 to $45K range, but a shorter book just for close family that needn’t be advertised might be as low as $15k in some cases. The overall audience is vast in any regard.

How to reach seniors: First, Google “Senior Centers” in Kalamazoo, or wherever. Check the distance from you to them—is it somewhere you can easily reach if you need to conduct interviews from there (usually, if you’re over 55, it’s cheap to also join yourself, which is a plus for another article). Also, if your city is a little larger you will find there is more than one center—try them all.

Next, call the center and ask if they have a monthly newsletter or magazine, or online presence where you can advertise. These publications rarely cost more than a couple of hundred dollars to run small black and white ads for six months at a time, which the newsletter staff can help you set up, also free. Or you can provide the info you want in a “classified” size ad that actually has also produced good results for me—seniors love to read things that interest them, so make it pop.

In addition to using print advertising, you can join and hang around the lobby area. Sometimes there is a room that has magazines, books and even a fireplace. When I first started doing this, in addition to my regular major advertising expenditures, I would go over with my lap top and do some work in that room and invariably, someone would ask me who I was, or what was I working on (seniors mostly tend to be very friendly and curious). That, of course, gave me the opportunity to strike up an “acquaintance,” start a friendship of sorts and talk about how important a life story or memoir is. Alex Hailey, who produced Roots said, “When a man or woman dies without telling their story, it is the equivalent of a library burning down.”

I won’t go into how to develop these relationships here, but you know how to get the ball rolling and you know there is a NEED, and since I’ve always been a salesman no matter what I was doing, that’s all I ever needed—a need!

Now, the next step is to call or visit a center, check it out, look them up, investigate a little. Once you’ve made a connection and then a sale, you can do some of the work on FaceTime or Zoom, or visit their homes which are generally within a 5 mile radius of the center. And, oh, by the way, many of these citizens have a store house of wealth and some want something more elaborate, in some cases I’ve lucked into just such a person (many times), and I ended up not only writing their story, but designing, printing or publishing it as a very nice full color coffee table book—quite lucrative. I’m fortunate enough to have owned an international marketing and ad agency for my first life and was a good designer, writer and did a lot printing for clients, so I learned where and how to find local printers who did short run books. If you aren’t a designer, or know how to use POP (print on demand) you can always find such a printer, you’ll just need a designer—hint, I can help you with that.

Happy hunting. Start in your own backyard and become the city resident-go-to for memoirs.

Robert Bruce Woodcox is a best selling author and ghostwriter who can be reached at ighostwrite@icloud.com or www.theghostwriter.net.