How To Find a Ghostwriter for Any Writing Project

Ghostwriters help busy people or non-writers tell the stories they want to share with the world. Whether they’re assisting famous people in telling their life stories, helping busy entrepreneurs share their business insights, or guiding a less skilled writer through the process of making concepts come to life, ghostwriters do the hard work, and they leave the glory to you.  

How can you be sure that a ghostwriter is right for your project? How do you identify the right ghostwriter to help you achieve your literary dreams?

In this article, we’ll talk about finding and hiring the right ghostwriter. We’ll give you a range for how much you should expect to spend on a high-quality, finished product, and we’ll outline some of the pros and cons of using a ghostwriter. Read on to find out more about hiring a  ghostwriter to help you achieve your goals.

What is a ghostwriter?

A ghostwriter is an experienced professional writer who collaborates with you to organize and carry out your ideas. They can help you write fiction or nonfiction books, speeches, blog posts, or any other content you would like to take from thought to page.

Ghostwriters may work on an entire project alone or they can collaborate with you to create the final product. Either way, the ghostwriter typically takes no credit, leaving the byline for you.

Experienced ghostwriters, now often called “collaborators,” have penned the New York Times best-selling autobiographies of celebrities like Demi Moore, Pamela Anderson, and Michelle Obama. Even famous authors like Tom Clancy and R.L. Stine may have used ghostwriters to help meet the demand for bestselling books at the peaks of their careers.‍

When does it make sense to use a ghostwriter?

How do you know if using a professional ghostwriter for your project makes sense?

Some of the most significant advantages of hiring a ghostwriter are high-quality writing, time savings, and the high likelihood the project will be completed when you want it to be. A good ghostwriter will help ensure that your ideas make it to the page instead of staying in your head forever.

You can use a ghostwriter for projects of any size. Some ghostwriters specialize in smaller projects. For example, they may ghostwrite white papers or blog posts for team members who have specialized expertise but do not have the time, writing skills, or SEO experience to create lead-generating posts for the company blog. Ghostwriters can even help create compelling social media profiles or LinkedIn posts for busy C-suite executives.  

Ghostwriters can also be employed on major projects like full-length fiction or nonfiction book writing. For example, a busy entrepreneur may have a great concept they want to offer as a self-published business book to sell on Amazon, but they may hire a ghostwriter to carry it out.  

How to find and hire a ghostwriter

If you’re ready to move forward with finding a ghostwriter to help with your project, here are a few steps you should follow to choose and hire the right freelance writer who’s best suited to accomplish your goals:

1. Define your project
2. Determine your budget
3. Search for a ghostwriter
4. Agree to a fee and project terms
5. Get started and consider a long-term partnership

Define your project

The first step is to clearly understand what your project will entail. Will the project be fiction or nonfiction? How much content have you gathered, and are you ready to share it with the writer? Do you need any specific research done to lay the groundwork for your project?

Before investing your time and money, you should also be clear on what you want to achieve with the final product. You can find ghostwriters with relevant experience in self-publishing, SEO, or other specific skills that may help differentiate them as most suited for the work.

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you match your needs to the experience of your potential collaborator.

Determine your budget

You should have a clear idea of what your budget range will be before you start the search for a ghostwriter. Experienced writers charge a wide range of fees, which we’ll cover in depth below. However, you should have a clear and accurate idea of what you can pay initially—or what you’re willing to pay—before you start your search.

Having a budget will also be helpful if you’re planning to post your project online to attract potential writers. Including your pay range will save you time when you’re reviewing proposals from writers who ask for a higher fee for their work than what you’re planning to pay.

Search for a ghostwriter

Once you’ve defined your project and budget, you can look for experienced writing professionals on a talent marketplace network like Upwork. You can utilize Upwork’s easy-to-use search tool to review freelancers' portfolios and client testimonials. You may even be able to read through some freelancers'  previous works to see if their style fits what you’re envisioning. Once you’ve found two or three writers you can see yourself working with, you’ll be able to contact them directly to see if their process and communication style match your own.

If you’re considering a long-term engagement with a ghostwriter or want to make sure the partnership will be a good one for both of you, you might want to start by commissioning a paid writing sample before you dive into one of your primary projects. Paying for a sample shows the writer your good faith, and it gives you a chance to evaluate their work before committing to a larger project with them.

If you’re looking to finish a book project, one technique you might employ to find a ghostwriter is to search for books written in the style you’re looking for and then scan for any mention of coauthors, editors, or collaborators noted in the acknowledgments.

Agree to a fee and project terms

Once you’ve found the right experienced writing talent, it’s time to agree to the fee and terms of the project. When creating your project terms, clearly outlining the project deliverables and payment terms is critical.

Project terms should specify the following.

• Non-disclosure agreement. Any ghostwriting contract should contain an NDA to ensure that the writer does not reveal the nature of the relationship or any other information about the forthcoming work to a third party.
• Billing and revisions. Writing project terms are typically set in one of three ways: a fixed price for the completed project, per word, or by the hour. If the writer needs to provide additional services—such as research, interviews, SEO, or graphic design—this should also be detailed in the contract. A specified number of rewrites or revisions should also be included as part of the original agreement.
• Copyright. The intellectual property of a ghostwritten book should belong to the buyer once the project is completed and paid for. Include specifics on whether the ghostwriter will have the right to reference the project in their work portfolio or the right to use the content in any other way.
• Royalties. If you’re open to sharing royalties from your book with the ghostwriter, you should include the terms in advance. You may also consider leveraging shared royalties to get a lower price for the work initially. This can be especially helpful if you’re just starting out with a small budget. Either way, if you intend to share royalties, write the details into the contract.
• Rules for termination. It’s possible a ghostwriting partnership could end before the finished product gets delivered. If any complications cause the project to stall or come to an end before it’s supposed to, you should be able to fall back on a defined set of rules for termination drafted upfront in case either party wishes to stop work on the project before it’s completed.

Get started and consider a long-term partnership

Once you’ve started working successfully with a ghostwriter, consider the idea of establishing a long-term partnership with them. You and your ghostwriter may have invested a lot of time perfecting a writing style. You can leverage this voice you’ve worked hard to create in other mediums like podcasts, blog posts, or future books.  

How much does a ghostwriter cost?

The three most common ways writers charge for ghostwriting services are by the word, by the hour, or by the project. The bottomline price is generally about the same whichever way a writer chooses to bill.

So, how do you figure out how much you’ll have to pay a ghostwriter?

• Experience. Writers with more experience will charge more than a newbie. When comparing the best freelance ghostwriters listed on UpWork, you’ll find writers who charge between $20 and $90 per hour for their work. For a full-length book ghostwriter, the Writers’ Union of Canada suggests the minimum recommended fee is $40,000 for a 60,000- to 90,000-word book—or around $0.70 per word.
• Project scope and complexity. Will research be required? Will the writer be conducting or editing interviews? Does the writer need to find individuals to interview? A project with a predefined outline and completed research will cost less than a project that has to be built from scratch. Writers with the skills required to add value to your project will charge more to compensate for the expertise and time involved.  
• Specialized expertise. If your subject matter is on the technical side, a medical or engineering book, for example, you may want to seek a writer with experience and a proven track record in that specific field. Experts in technical fields will likely charge more and be worth the additional expense.
• Content type. Book writing requires more time outlining, proofreading, and organizing than a single blog post, for example. However, higher costs may come from more than simply added length. A ghostwriter may also develop an SEO blogging strategy that adds value to a smaller project.
• Audience. If the writing targets a general audience, prices will typically be lower than content geared toward an audience with an advanced understanding of a topic. As an example, a ghostwriter creating a children’s book may charge less than one authoring a technical white paper. The more technical or involved the writing is, the fewer people there are who can produce quality content in that area. Naturally, the work will be more expensive if it’s more specialized.

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Pros and cons of using a ghostwriter

Using a ghostwriter to create your writing projects has pros and cons. Let’s go over some of them:

Pros of using a ghostwriter

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Cons of using a ghostwriter

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How to know if a ghostwriter is a good fit for your project

You’re not just looking for a talented ghostwriter; you’re looking for someone who’s a good fit for you and your project’s specific needs. You should focus on finding a prospective ghostwriter who matches your vision. Remember, their work will directly reflect on you and what you do, even if your name will be the only one on the byline.  

Here are the main attributes you should be looking for when choosing a ghostwriter to match your needs:

• Be sure they match your voice and vibe
• Look for someone who communicates clearly and in a timely fashion
• They should be able to navigate your preferred collaboration technology or method
• Your ghostwriter should be transparent about fees or additional costs upfront
• Be sure they consistently finish deliverables on time

When searching on Upwork, you’ll find reviews from previous clients that you can peruse to get a sense for how individuals work with others. You can also see work samples and get an idea about the type of ghostwriting projects they’ve produced in the past.

Find the best ghostwriters on Upwork

If you’re ready to find a great ghostwriter for an upcoming project, there’s no better place to start your search than on Upwork. With UpWork, you can post a job and let talented writers come to you or you can search the talent database for ghostwriters with the experience and skills you need.  Start by searching for the highest-rated ghostwriters in the UpWork talent network.