What Does a Ghostwriter Actually Do?

Let’s clear something up right away: ghostwriting is not just typing while someone talks. Believe it or not, I get that a lot. I mean aaaa looooooot.

If you want someone to take dictation, there are tons of excellent apps available. Honestly, they work well, but you can’t just cut and paste the transcript into a Word doc and have a book.

So what does a ghostwriter actually do, then?

In short: I take someone else’s memories, expertise, or half-baked 2 a.m. ideas and turn them into a book that sounds unmistakably like them. I always help my clients create their thumbprint voice, unique to them.

Once we have the voice, I help you determine your reader. I don’t just write to “everyone” because that doesn’t work. You need to communicate to your peeps in a real way. And you can’t assume they’re inside your head with you. No, you need to be clear, because you won’t be in the room with them to explain “what you really meant.”

I’ve written dozens of business books, memoirs, and novels, and every single one of them still sounds like the person who hired me. I’m just a ghost, in the background making my clients look good. That’s my job. I disappear so their voice can show up louder.

And here’s the part that surprises people every time: it’s not just celebrities and politicians doing this. Yes, plenty of famous names have quietly asked for help with their books. You can probably think of a memoir or two right now that reads suspiciously polished for someone who isn’t a pro writer. However, my actual client list is a lot more interesting, and a lot more ordinary.

Who Hires a Ghostwriter?

There’s always a beautiful variety of prospective clients that pop into my inbox each week. There’s not really one “type.”

Probably the most popular is the business owner who’s brilliant at their business and allergic to writing. These are entrepreneurs and executives who want a book because it builds credibility and opens doors. And, let’s be honest, a book makes an excellent calling card that impresses any new prospect.

For most of these men and women, the book itself isn’t even the main goal. It’s the speaking gigs and new clients the book brings to the table. These clients always know their industry cold. The content is there, in their head, and they need a little coaxing to get it onto paper. Plus, they can’t spend a year fighting with a blank page when they need to be running their company.

Within this niche are the experts who have been sitting on valuable knowledge for years, decades even. If they don’t write it down, all that information will vanish like the smoke rings my father used to wow me with when I was a little girl. This is the person who’s spent thirty years perfecting a skill, so they don’t want it to just evaporate the day they retire.

Then there is the family historian. Every family has one. The person who has the family tree organized on butcher paper. They know which great-uncle actually fought in which war and are always saying, “This would make for a great book!” It’s such a privilege to help these people cross the finish line. I get to be the person who finally makes that happen, so future generations don’t have to rely on half-remembered stories at Thanksgiving.

Less often, but worth mentioning, is the fiction writer with a great idea but no concept of a structured outline. This one surprises people the most. Fiction ghostwriting is real, and it usually starts with someone who has a genuinely compelling story rattling around in their head, plus maybe forty pages, three character names, and no idea how to get from the beginning to the end without the plot collapsing like a well-worn lawn chair. I love to come in and breathe life into the project with a good structure.

I also receive dozens of emails from people who simply have a life story worth telling. They aren’t famous, but because their experiences matter, they want it to exist somewhere other than their own memory. Memoir clients are often the most nervous starting out and the most surprised by how much lighter they feel once the story is finally out of their head and onto the page.

Which category do you fit into?

It’s a lot of work to write a book. Is it worth it?

 

Short answer: yes, when it’s done well. Slightly longer answer, because I know you want more than that:

Is this idea going to go away? Probably not. So if you don’t write your book, it will haunt your dreams and intrude on your waking moments.

Hiring a ghostwriter means you get your time back. Writing a book is a massive undertaking, and most people hiring a ghostwriter are already running a business, raising a family, or both. They wonder when they’ll find twenty minutes to shower, so where are they going to come up with hundreds of hours to write a book? As a ghostwriter, I do all the research, the outlining, the drafting, and the editing. You just show up for the interviews. That way you don’t have to learn to be an author on top of your very full life.

You get someone whose entire job is making you sound good: you, but the best version of you. A good ghostwriter takes your ideas, helps you craft a written voice, and then shapes your stories into a book readers won’t put down. In the end, your book bears your name, and I’m nowhere to be seen. Hence the name GHOSTwriter.

When you hire me, you get a partner, not just a service. The best part of this job, genuinely, is that your goal becomes mine. I’m not clocking in to type. I’m completely invested in getting your book done right, because it is your legacy. By the time we’re finished, I will know more about you than most of your friends. And I can often put puzzle pieces together that you might never have seen. With one project, I solved a two-decades-old mystery simply because I had all the notes from my interviews.

 

So, What Does a Ghostwriter Actually Do, in the End?

 

Ghostwriting is a genuine creative partnership between someone who has a story worth telling and someone who’s spent decades learning how to share it well.

If that sounds like something you’ve been putting off, consider this your nudge. Your story isn’t going to write itself, but the good news is, it doesn’t have to.