Ghostwriting: The Most Lucrative Writing Career
By: John Feldman
Tags: Creativity, Writing, Writing Life, Freelance Writing, Young Professionals

Ghostwriting: The Most Lucrative Writing Career

Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

One of the greatest sources of passive income is publishing a book. You write, you publish, you await the royalty payments to your bank account.

Simple as that, right? Except it isn’t, is it? Writers know all too well that the fantasy outsiders envision when thinking of the above process — write, publish, roll in the cash — is far-fetched.

But there are plenty of people making a living writing. And for those aspiring to do the same, it can get pretty depressing as time goes on and your bank account remains empty. Weeks turn to months, months turn to years, and at some point, you look back and wonder what the hell you did with all your time.

The reason so many of us fall into this trap is that we assume our own writing is what will bring us the income we desire. But it’s when you open your mind to new possibilities that your career can benefit.

The beauty of ghostwriting

Your dream of being on a late night talk show isn’t ridiculous — it’s inspiring. Musicians, actors, and politicians get to go share their stories from the comfort of those couches, so why can’t you? After all, the novel you’ve just written is primed to be a bestseller.

The problem? There are over a million books published each year. Literally. So the competition is fierce. And if you have no prior books published, no following, no presence on social media and so forth, your chances of making any money on that book are slim, regardless of your advertising efforts.

Are you nodding as you read this? Good. Because I’m nodding as I write it. I understand the struggles of doing anything you can to gain exposure for your work because I’ve tried every path possible.

Friends and family.

Social media ads.

Virtual blog tours.

Book parties.

Those Twitter promo pages declaring they have 100,000 followers (but what they don’t tell you is that the ONLY post book promos from a single template).

Everything. Literally everything, yet there’s nothing to show for it. Again, I know the feeling because I’ve been there. Many times.

Ghostwriting, however, allows you to write without the burden of all the aforementioned tactics looming in the back of your mind. Because with ghostwriting, you’re not promoting — you’re simply writing.

Look at the odds

81% of Americans say they want to write a book. That statistic comes from a 2002 study. Yes, way back in 2002. Back when self-publishing and e-books were still considered to be amateur forms of publishing.

Can you imagine what those numbers look like today, with increased technology enabling print-on-demand titles and sites like ACX making it easier than ever to create audiobooks? Take a look at this chart from Statista below. It shows the tremendous growth in number of books published in recent years.

Image from Statista

Advancements in technology have made it easier than ever for those aforementioned 81% of people to get their idea out there into the world. Add that to the fact that the goal for most people in today’s working climate is to become an “influencer” and a vast pool of potential books is built.

But for many, writing an entire book seems impossible. They’re either too busy with their other efforts or, admittedly, no good at writing. And that’s where you come in — the ghostwriter.

Ghostwriting over personal writing

To be a successful writer, you need 3 things:

A message that resonates

A fanbase or following

Writing skills

What most writers lack are the first two. And that’s not to say your fiction novel isn’t great or that your self-help book doesn’t have some incredible perspective. What it means is that your work will get lost in the crowd of other published books.

What your work lacks is that all-important #2 on the list: the fanbase or following.

To be a successful ghostwriter, on the other hand, you need only one thing:

Writing skills

Why don’t you need the message that resonates or the fanbase or following? It’s because the person hiring you to ghostwrite already has both of them. They simply lack the writing skills component and need your help.

Difference in pay

The best part about writing in your own name is the uncapped potential. You could write a piece of prose that takes off overnight and makes you an instant success. And it is possible — it has happened. On the other hand, you could struggle for a decade, never amassing more than $1,000 in lifetime sales.

How do I know the latter is possible? Because it’s the path I went down. Several screenplays, short stories, and novels later, working jobs I despised to pay the bills along the way, I made less than $1,000. In ten years. All that work and nothing to show for it.

After a decade of writing for myself with the dream of being paid to entertain with my stories, I had to take a good, hard look in the mirror and be honest with myself. Either my marketing efforts were terrible or my writing was terrible — it had to be one of the two.

As Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank would say, I had to take this idea of writing for myself behind the barn…

Mr. Wonderful… not one to sugarcoat things.

I knew that a full-time writing career wasn’t going to happen for me with my own stories. I knew I needed something else. So I turned to ghostwriting. And within three years, I’ve been able to make a full-time living at it.

Breaking it down

Think about writing for yourself. It’s much more than writing, isn’t it? If you’re not one of the lucky few to be picked up by a publisher or an agent, the burden of everything falls on you. And the cost adds up:

Editing

Cover design

ISBNs

Interior Design

Distribution channels

And that’s all before you even begin to market your book. For those with no prior fanbase or following, the struggle can be intense. And you can find yourself spending much more than you receive back in royalties.

Ghostwriting, however, requires none of the above. As a ghostwriter, your job is simply to translate the author’s story. Help them to find their voice and tone, structure their book, and write it in such a way that sounds like the author. That’s it. And in return, you get a guaranteed payment.

When first starting out, it’s not uncommon to work for low fees. I wouldn’t advise any true writer to write for less than a few cents per word when starting out. But even that pay has its advantages, as low as it may sound.

Say you write a 40,000-word book for a client at $0.03 per word. That’s $1,200. For me, as a writer of a decade who couldn’t even break the $1,000 in revenue mark, one project of this magnitude was life-changing.

The best part? Only three years later, I’m now writing for $0.25 per word. And the totals only go up from there. Way up — like $100,000 or more for a single project if able to find the right client.

No need to quit your passion projects

Turning to ghostwriting for income doesn’t mean shelving your dreams of penning a bestseller with your name on the cover. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Think about the connections you can make as a ghostwriter. The things you can learn. I continually tell people that the best part of my job is that I get paid to learn.

It’s incredible. I’m paid to talk to people smarter than me and with more experience than me. I can absorb the advice I would otherwise pay $30 for (I’m all about hardcovers).

Take what you learn from these interactions and apply it to your own writing.

Ghostwriting for a marketer or business leader? See how they were able to grow their business and apply it to your writing.

Working with a social media influencer? Take some of that advice and put it into advertising your own books.

Learning from others allows you to expand your own possibilities. And who knows? You might even strike up a few friendships with your authors that could introduce you to the right person — the one who has the answers you need to get your book on shelves worldwide.