We live in a world that feels busier than ever (COVID-19 notwithstanding). Our modern world is also always hungry for content. We see this in our personal lives with our Netflix binge-watching, but it’s true in business as well.
There are more demands for content than there have ever been, and many businesses are struggling to keep up. Working with ghostwriters may be the answer to some of the content demands in your industry.
Now, if the term “ghostwriter” conjures up an image of an apparition sitting at a typewriter, don’t worry. I’ve got your back. (And a Scooby-Doo GIF, probably.) Below, I’ll explain how ghostwriters relate not just to novels and memoirs but to everyday content creation. I’ll also give you some insights into how to hire ghostwriters to help with your content needs.
If you’re wondering whether a ghostwriter could help you meet your specific business or personal goals or objectives, then this article is for you.
What Is a Ghostwriter?
So what is ghostwriting, exactly? Or what is a ghostwriter? In short, a ghostwriter is a person who gets paid to write material for another entity, usually invisibly or without credit or byline.
Ghostwriters use a mix of technical knowledge, creative skills, and marketing insights to create content that others need. But for a variety of reasons, they do so in exchange for payment alone, rather than payment and attribution. Ghostwriters also generally don’t retain creative control of the work they generate.
Given that definition, you might wonder why anyone would choose to be a ghostwriter. Wouldn’t all writers want credit for their work?
The short answer is no. Quite a few writers make a good living writing for “no credit,” and there are several personal reasons why someone would want to do this. Though there are plenty of opportunities for freelance writers to get a byline in an industry publication, some just don’t care about having their name attached to a piece of work. In the end, quality ghostwriters are just looking for writing jobs that fit within their interest, skill using linkedin for effective lead generation level, and pricing requirements.
Before we dive into the why someone might hire a ghostwriter, let’s unpack the concept of ghostwriting a bit more.
Most people think about ghostwriters in terms of book writing, though that’s certainly not the only kind of content ghostwriters write today. Examples from the book world are many, so we’ll start there.
What Is Ghostwriting? Examples from the Book World
How many of you read Nancy Drew novels when mobile iist you were younger? The listed author for all the novels in that series is one Carolyn Keene, and it’s not unreasonable that she could have penned all those early detective tales.
Of course, the fact that new Nancy Drew stories continue to be published 90 years later gives us some clue that something’s amiss, as does the prodigious output.
The truth is, Carolyn Keene never existed. She was a made-up persona to give continuity to a series of novels written by a range of writers. Mildred Wirt Benson wrote the first 23, and many other authors contributed in the following years.
The same thing is true with books in the Hardy Boys franchise, where “Franklin W. Dixon” is another fictitious author.
Other ghostwriting examples include R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. Here, Stine wrote the original novels, but many over the years have been ghostwritten. No one besides Stine, his publishers, and his ghostwriters knows precisely which are which.
Ghostwriting Isn’t Just for Books
When people talk about what ghostwriters are and what they do, they’re usually thinking about fiction or non-fiction books. But there is a whole world of ghostwriting that never goes into physical print. Individuals and companies the world over regularly hire ghostwriters to create all sorts of digital content. This digital content includes web page content, blog posts, email sequences, white papers, e-books, video scripts, and more.
Nearly any written content that any business puts online could be ghostwritten. It isn’t all done this way, and there are some types of content that are easier to contract out than others. The point here is that the possibilities are nearly endless for getting discrete help from professional writers.
Reasons People and Businesses Hire Ghostwriters
If you were to search online for “What is a ghostwriter?” or “what is ghostwriting?” most of the results would focus on those writers who ghostwrite books. This is a little weird to me. Yes, those ghostwriters are the more well-known variety (by ghostwriting standards, anyway), but they are also comparatively fewer in number.
In the last two decades, content marketing has become a much more common space for finding ghostwriting projects. Millions of businesses rely on ghostwriters to implement all or part of their content marketing strategy. And this type of ghostwriting is dear to my heart since it’s a significant part of what I do.
Let’s examine the reasons people hire ghostwriters for both use cases.
Reasons to Hire Ghostwriters in Conventional Publishing
In the conventional (book) publishing world, there are several reasons people hire ghostwriters:
- Lack of time, interest, or capacity
- Lack of expertise
- Lack of writing ability