Hit a Ghostwriting Dry Spell? How to Bring in Work Fast
All ghostwriters hit that famine period in the feast-or-famine cycle. It’s inevitable. But a slow period doesn’t mean your career has stalled or that all ghostwriting opportunities have dried up. They haven’t. There are more out there.
However, a dry spell is a sign you may want to ramp up your marketing activities, or try some new tactics, if you’ve found that what you’ve always done no longer works as well.
Here are some suggestions, organized by how quickly they may start to pay off. Start at the top and work your way down to try to shake some new work free.
Potential Results in Days
Follow up with any recent prospects. The fastest way to generate some work is to nudge someone who’s been thinking about hiring you to commit. Email everyone you’ve spoken with in the last year to see if they’re still considering finishing that project you talked about. (I just had someone who gave me a “yes” in August 2025 tell me he wants to get started, after about six follow-ups.) Tell them you’d love to help them get it done.
Check back with past clients. People who previously hired you are your best source of new work, because they know what you can do for them. Send a short, personal email to check in and see how they’re doing, and to ask if they have any writing needs coming up. Depending on what you offer, you could suggest another book, draft some bylined articles, or offer support with blog posts. Satisfied clients often have projects they’ve been meaning to get to but just haven’t found the time. Your email could coax them into moving a task from their someday list to now.
Alert your network that you have availability. I’ve said many times that my absolute best source of work is from fellow writers. So, tell fellow ghostwriters, editors, book coaches, and your agent that you’re looking to fill some holes in your schedule. Friends who are busy right now might decide to hand off a project they really don’t have time for. And as we head into the holiday season, there may be colleagues who decide they’d like to spend a little less time on work. Your note to them might push them to delegate or hand off rather than try to squeeze an assignment in.
Check job boards and online freelancing platforms. Freelance marketplaces like Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr Pro, and Twine (which I’ve never tried) could be places where you can pick up short ghostwriting or freelance writing gigs. Not all are high-paying, but sometimes taking easy work for a few bucks can help reduce anxiety about the next big win (voice of experience here). The Editorial Freelancers Association, which requires a paid membership, has been having a steady stream of editing and writing work recently.
Offer smaller projects. Some ghostwriters find it much easier to sell a prospect on a smaller piece of work, such as a series of LinkedIn posts or articles, and work up to a book project down the line. If you have an email list, you could send out a single post announcing that you have, say, 10 openings for short-form article-writing through the end of the year, to see if that pushes someone to step up.
Potential Results in Weeks
Check in with agencies and publishers. Even if you’re already in the ghostwriter database for companies such as Kevin Anderson & Associates and Gotham Ghostwriters, email them to see how things are and to ask to update your profile with any new projects you’ve completed. Hybrid publishers like Amplify, Greenleaf, and Jenkins Group are also worthy of a quick check-in. This helps keep you top of mind when something that’s up your alley hits their desk.
Update your website. Google likes to see new content on websites, so take a little time to make sure your website is putting its best foot forward. Does it have links to recent projects, or a list of past clients? Is your profile up to date? Do prospects have an easy way to reach you after visiting your site?
Write some more blog posts. If you have a blog on your website, add some new content. Not only does it improve your SEO and Google rank, but if you have subscribers, a new post will remind them that you’re still around. What are some questions prospects have been asking you recently? Or what are some issues that are coming up more for your target clients? Show what you know.
Post on LinkedIn. Unless you get the bulk of your clients from other social media sites, LinkedIn is usually where professionals congregate. It’s where they go for business networking and chatter. So, write a few posts about publishing or AI or something your ideal client might want to know. Regular articles on LinkedIn help attract attention and expand your network.
Potential Results in Months
Specialize. If you’ve been marketing yourself as a generalist, “I can do anything” type of ghostwriter, consider narrowing your focus a tad. Clients typically prefer service providers who are experts in the writing field and who know something about their particular industry. Being known as the ghostwriter for venture capitalists or physicians, for example, makes referrals easier and allows you to charge more.
Set up a formal referral program. To incentivize referrals, make it clear that you reward that activity with some kind of fee. Some ghostwriters pay a 10% commission for referrals, so you could take that as your baseline, or offer a flat fee. But if you create a referral program, be sure to announce it. It will do you no good if no one in your circle knows that you’re looking for referrals and that they can benefit financially from helping you out.
Pursue publicity. Look for opportunities to be quoted in the media or to appear as a guest on a podcast that your target audience listens to. Not only does it raise your visibility, but it provides backlinks to your website, which continues to improve your Google rank.
The one thing you shouldn’t do if work has slowed is nothing. Unless you do something different, odds are good nothing will change. So, how about starting with one activity from each category to jump-start some responses and reconnect you with people who may have work to send your way.
