Working with a Ghostwriter
Used to be the word “ghostwriter” conjured images of a wily hack with a battered Olivetti sitting at a Hollywood swimming pool coaxing confidences from a star.
Lately the word has gotten traction in the music world (evidently lots of rappers use them). Politicians have always used ghosts — a recent Christian Science Monitor story estimated 90% of politicians’ books are “heavily ghostwritten.”
Now businesspeople are convinced they need to be content producers to drive search engine results and keep their names top of mind with customers. This makes my job as a business ghostwriter easier to explain, but there are lots of misconceptions out there about what we do, how we work, and how we’re paid. In case you’re thinking about hiring a ghostwriter, this might help you think things through.
Q: What kind of work can you give to a ghostwriter?
A: There is no professional organization that certifies ghostwriters. Generally speaking we can write anything on your behalf. The devil lies in the details of how well a ghostwriter works with you, whether they know your field well enough to hit the ground running, and whether you can agree on a fee structure.
As a financial ghostwriter I craft presentations and management letters. I write blog posts, newsletters, white papers, articles and (soon) books. Each writer will produce each type of publication with differing levels of proficiency.
Do you want to rough out a topic then turn it over to a ghostwriter? Or does the sight of a blank page drain your mind completely? Working with a ghostwriter is a partnership, so begin your quest by identifying your needs, working preferences and limitations. These will determine the offsetting strengths to look for in your writing partner.
Q: What do I look for in a business ghostwriter?
A: You need to find someone who knows enough about your field that they can focus on production. You might also need to find a writer experienced with Chicago Manual of Style, MLA, etc. That said, if you find a great writer they can learn the styles. A good ghost won’t upcharge you for coming up the learning curve, provided there’s sufficient upside for the writer.
You might also need help devising an editorial calendar or other marketing/public relations capabilities, so be sure to ask your writer if they can provide that expertise. In today’s social media environment a ghostwriter should have a working understanding of how search engine optimization works, but beware the writer who tries to convince you that writing in a stilted style to feed the search bots will serve you well with human readers.
Q: Where do I look for a qualified ghostwriter?
A: Tap your professional circles first. With so many corporate communications departments being downsized, domain experts who write well are a LinkedIn search away. Whether they can effectively ghost for you is another matter. My advice is to start with domain experts and then refine the search by chemistry, mutually-acceptable work styles, pricing, etc.
Q: How much will a ghostwriter charge?
A: Your business ghostwriter will charge in the range of a self-employed accountant in private practice. Specialists in other subject areas will differ, but this will give you an idea of how to budget.
Start by asking yourself the qualifications someone would need to write intelligently about your field. (For example, could a nurse write about biotech?) Put a number on what that person would make working for an employer full time. That’s just a start. You can’t just divide that by 2080 annual working hours; you must add something for administration and overhead costs, and allow that of a 40 hour week, about 25 is actually billable (the other fifteen are spent in client acquisition, proposals, professional development and administrivia). The accountant study shows similar productivity.
Let’s crunch numbers. Say you want an MBA Who Writes Like An English Major with a background in finance. Let’s assume that person would earn $100k in their field. OK, add the employer-paid taxes, employer-subsidized health insurance and two weeks of vacation and the result is about a 20% bump over base salary. We’re at $120k. Divide that by 2080 “standard” work hours a year and you get $58/hour. For reasons explained above, the $58 would translate to more like $94/hour when they actually get on the clock.
Q: Will ghostwriters work at a fixed rate?
A: When you hire a writer with domain expertise, they’ll likely bid your project on a flat fee or bid a price per (accepted) page. This will take some pre-work on your part defining the scope of the project and giving the writer sufficient source material to get to work.
Q: How will a ghostwriter price my project?
A: The more organized and efficient you are, the less you’ll pay the writer. If you have all your research compiled and outline your expectations up front (number of pages/slides/word count) the writer can adequately estimate their work effort.
Your personal organization and efficiency plays a big role in keeping the project on budget, too. An experienced writer will devise a project timeline with deadlines and expectations for YOU. You’ll have to uphold your end to keep the contracted price and schedule. If the contract says you get one editorial pass and one line edit pass, you’ve got to make best use of each. If you get to the line edit round and start moving big chunks around or inserting more copy, chances are your writer will need to charge you for that editorial re-work. A line edit consists of tweaking for clarity and correctness, not re-drafting. I find that clients often want to make changes after copy they’ve approved has been handed over to the graphic designer/desktop publisher; such re-work is not in scope.
There are some professional pay guidelines out there for different types of writing/editing on a project and page basis.
Q: Do I have to work with a ghostwriter face-to-face?
A: Each project drives the tactical means for getting it done. If I’m writing a white paper, the client provides me with the source material, we discuss relative weighting of the topics and the general outline and I take it from there, circling back for commentary, elucidation, additional source material, etc. Many of my blog and newsletter clients will forward news updates from their professional organizations for me to base a commentary upon. While I’m pretty flexible, I can’t speak for other writers.
I have to learn the client’s “voice” to emulate it. A client should never sound like a stranger in real life to someone who’s been reading their work. I prefer that my clients use digital recorder as much as possible; the digital file is easily attached to email. Not only do I learn how they speak, I also glean from their inflection what matters to them most and any key words or phrases that they favor.
Most people say more when speaking than when writing. Clients may think they have two articles for their newsletter but they start talking, I might “hear” three articles for the current edition and another for a blog post or future newsletter. Occasionally a client will be in the middle of answering a question when something pops up that we can use later.
Q: How to proceed?
A: I suggest you audition one or two potential writing partners. Already writing a newsletter? Give the writer an earlier version and ask what they’d do differently. Never written one before? Give the writer three news topics and see what they want from you before they begin writing and how they would propose to learn your voice. I will sometimes offer to do an audition piece without charge and then if the client hires me I’ll bill them for the work.
More questions? Give me a call and we’ll discuss your particular project: 704-907-2811
End of Email?
Interesting article in WSJ about email’s younger, prettier communication sister: social media.
For those not using Twitter, Facebook and other means of connecting with the outside world, this WSJ quote explains the difference between them and ye olde email: “We all still use email, of course. But email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone. The always-on connection, in turn, has created a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster than email, and more fun.”
The story quoted Alex Bochannek, curator at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA: “The whole idea of this email service isn’t really quite as significant anymore when you can have many, many different types of messages and files and when you have this all on the same type of networks.”
What’s this bode for email newsletters?
The article doesn’t make my point explicitly, but sets it up well. Email newsletters and all THOUGHTFUL communications have a place OUTSIDE social media. Said another way, to communicate thoroughly, thoughtfully and confidentially, if you can’t meet in person, start with email.
This mirrors my own experience, as a fairly active Twitter(er) who averages 30 daily updates. For those of you not yet using Twitter, don’t take the impression that I have that much to say about myself — my tweets are usually in response to news items posted by other users or part of a conversation with my “followers” (feels a bit Jim Jones-ish calling them that, but oh well…that’s what they’re officially called).
Sure, I occasionally tweet out the odd “gonna clear my head by taking the dog for a walk” message, but the fun thing about social media is how people find you on the basis of these throwaway tweets. I now have a number of followers who send me pet food coupons and even Cesar Millan aka The Dog Whisperer follows me!
Belt & suspenders approach
Back to the topic at hand. For THOUGHTFUL, well-written communications, there is no substitute for email. The only thing that comes close is what you syndicate through your RSS feed. However, people get busy and forget to check their readers. An occasional email poke to check the RSS feed will probably always be in order.
Here’s my belt & suspenders approach to being heard:
- My website is home base. It’s the hub of external communications
- Primary communications spokes
- Blog and its RSS feed
- Newsletter
- Email
- When I post to my blog ( my website is actually a blogsite), it automatically sends a tweet with the title and a link for all the world to see. It also sends out an excerpt of the post through my RSS feed for those who’ve subscribed and to those directories like Alltop, that carry my content. Those who are linked to me via LinkedIn can see this excerpt on my profile page. Anywhere that anyone sees an excerpt of my blog posts, they can click to read the whole thing on my blog.
- I use Twitter to entice the Twitterverse to read my blog posts. With 140 characters per tweet, I use the url shortening service bitly to get the links down to 16 characters, then use what’s left to tease with leads like “Why Email Isn’t Dead.”
- I also use Twitter to ask specific people to read or comment on posts, according to their inclination and expertise. I know who wants to read my posts about SPAM and who wants a financial blog writing prompt and who’s the best expert to comment on one of my posts. If I’m fortunate, some of my followers will “reTweet” what I’ve sent so their network of followers will have the opportunity to read something they would not have otherwise known existed.
- When I get comments on the blog I Tweet that out to keep the conversation going. This helps those who’ve commented get their ideas in front of a wider audience, too. The least I can do.
- My newsletter promises three things every month: something on whole-brain communications, a bit on brevity and updates on topics related to email marketing and newsletters. Eventually everything from the newsletter shows up in the blog. For those who don’t want to read every blog post or remind themselves to check my RSS feed in a reader, they can read my monthly newsletter and click through to anything else that might interest them in the blog. The newsletter is an efficient portal to all the information I offer.
- I reserve email for my most formal and private correspondence. It’s also how I communicate with those not on social media. As the WSJ article says, some things require attachments and confidentiality and email is the next-best thing to a tête-à-tête
OK, that’s my communications methodology. What am I missing that works for you? Do tell (if you comment, I’ll tweet it out)!
Advice for those who need a ghostwriter
As a writer with some tech savvy and a general tendency to extroversion, social media works very well for me and and I’ve found a way to bind all my efforts together strategically. My experience is that those who invest the time in social media will benefit, but not everyone will want to make that investment. Fine.
If you’re a professional of any stripe, start with a custom newsletter written by yourself or a ghostwriter — not something you stick your logo on and call “customized.” No idea what to write? I offer news-driven writing prompts, if that helps.
Keep a consistent publishing schedule and maintain a searchable repository of your articles (not just prior newsletter editions, the individual articles) on your website. One of my clients does this so that we can eventually compile his newsletter articles into feature articles for professional journals. Another client’s newsletter articles go into his blog and will eventually become a book. Re-purpose your material.
My observation is that people are often reluctant to start small when they have big aspirations, but every desert is composed of tiny grains of sand. They add up.
ADDED 10-19-09
Further evidence of the power of Twitter: this morning one one of my tweeps, @derekhernquist, brought this video to my attention:
Next Q: Personal vs Professional Blog?
Continuing my series of answers from questions asked at the CPSE meeting 6/18/09.
Q: When should you have a personal blog and when should you use a blog professionally?
A: (From the perspective of a self-employed/solo-preneur who asked it) This can be a delicate balance. Find your voice somewhere between “faux big business” and the emerging “my-life’s-an-open-book” ethos.
Set the tone with your bio
Here’s a Twitter follower’s bio, (@ex-wirehouse) which sets the stage for the voice he uses in his blog posts and tweets:
“One time Infantry Officer, longtime wirehouse veteran. Currently Principal and CEO of Andover Equity Investment Group LLC an independent asset management paractice,successfully focused on absolute return investing. Proud husband and father of 7 year old twins. Discplined trader who is constantly humbled by the markets. In no way should this even remotely be construed to constitute investment advice, more aptly a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
When you go on to read his posts, you’ll see that he blends strong professional views with a heavy dose of humility, just as his bio suggests he would.
For something a bit more traditional, here’s my bio.
Find your voice
Let’s say you’re a baseball card collector, you love all things about the sport but your paid work is interior design. How to get into the new media groove?
You might talk about the parallels between project management and third base coaching or dealing with a difficult customer with a personality like Ty Cobb’s. This makes you a REAL PERSON, infuses warmth into your posts and will probably garner you a following of other baseball lovers. Wow, imagine having a client roster full of other people who love the game — that’s the potential of your new media voice.
Next post: What to put in print/online
e-Newsletters: Track Them, You Must
The first week of the month is popular for publishing newsletters. I publish the first week. So with the June flurry largely passed, here’s food for thought before firing off your July edition.
"Do it, you must!"
In a study reported on MediaPost on email marketing (which isn’t exactly newsletter campaigns, but sufficiently related), roughly 18% of marketers admitted they were NOT tracking campaign performance. Stunning.
Marketers that do not track normal site conversions
- Don’t know how 42.86%
- Don’t have budget 4.76
- Don’t have time 14.29
- Other 38.08
Newsletter metrics
Of course I wish you were using my service, since it provides exquisitely detailed reporting, but no matter. If you’re using an off-the-shelf provider, start with what you can track and pay attention.
How’s your open rate over time? What about subscriber base?
Do specific topics generate a higher click-through rate? A higher unsubscribe or forward rate?
Clients ask, I answer
Yesterday a client called for my input. She wants to move her ad-sponsored printed newsletter clients over to an ad-sponsored blog and wanted to check her logic with me. She asked why I bother to publish both a blog and a newsletter.
Answer: I want to make it easy for clients and prospects to hear from me. My audience ranges from the tech-savvy to the tech-impaired, so whether they stream my blog to a reader or hit a blog post I’ve tweeted or look at the monthly newsletter in their inbox (and click through to the blog, or not) I’m doing the hard work so that they can skim what they need and move on with their lives.
This works for me because I’m *good enough* with technology, I have a sales and marketing background, and I love writing, a lucky combination. Few people, including my client, have the same mix of strengths and preferences, so my advice to her and anyone else is to go with your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
This might mean hiring a ghostwriter, but should never mean publishing an off-the-shelf newsletter. Realtors can get away with recycled articles like carpet cleaning tips and how to stage a house for showings, but I can’t think of a profession besides theirs that should even consider it.
Goal-driven newsletters
From time to time I have tactical goals, like drumming up attendance for a speaking engagement, but my overall publishing goal (blog and newsletter) is client acquisition and retention. I want to keep my services and expertise top of mind. Someday, someone will remember I’m a Business Person who writes like an English Major and engage me.
Staying top of mind is also why I publish free blog/newsletter topics for clients and prospects in the industries I know best: financial services, consulting, services and environmental. I exercise the “give to get” philosophy that feeding professionals ideas for their publishing endeavors will someday yield a harvest for me.
Whether your goal is converting readers to a seminar series or a sit-down session, you need to start with that goal, figure out how to make it happen, and how to track what’s happening along the way. With rare exception you’ll need to make corrections to your current path that will bring you to your goal. But if you don’t know you’re off course, you can’t get back on track.
Unless you’re a statistician, analysis isn’t the sexiest thing you’ll do with your day. But to quote Yoda, “Do it, you must.” Feel free to reach out if you want my feedback.
Regulatory Purgatory
Professionally speaking, I grew up in the financial services sector. Literally grew up there (in grade school I did light filing for my father, an insurance agent). After college I worked for insurance companies, a bank, and LendingTree, a financial services firm.
So believe me when I say I understand the need for compliance when talking about other people’s money and
Meaningful Communications: Impossible?
investments. Even more so since the 2008 meltdown.
An acquaintance works for a Mass Mutual general agent. Like most financial services companies, Mass Mutual rules external communications with an iron fist. As a result, her “original” communications options are limited to transaction requests like “Please send me the street address and phone number of the surgeon who removed your gall bladder in 2002. “
How’s a financial representative to compete with so many businesspeople in less-regulated professions who send e-newsletters and blog about their work? She does her best to stay in touch with prospects and clients by sending links to holiday cards. Pretty lame, but keeps her name out there.
Last week she sent this message: “Every few months, I try to keep my clients and friends up-to-date with current financial issues or critical concerns. Here is the latest. This is not a download or an attachment. It is a safeguarded link.”
Ahhh, I thought, now she’s putting some meat on the communications bone.
Clicking through the link I went to what was essentially a six-slide PowerPoint presentation about how awful taxes are and the stunning conclusion that “The IRS collects more tax than many people want to pay.”
When it got to the teaser line that said “Review strategies that can help you reduce, defer or possibly eliminate current taxation,” I thought I was in for some meaningful information on the next slide.
I was wrong. The next slide was simply a text box where I was supposed to talk about my taxation vexation so that an insurance agent could follow up within 48 hours.
The whole thing was sooooooo far from meaningful that I think it did her more harm than good to send that one.
Financial Writing Prompts:
I’m interested in the variety of compliance hurdles financial services professionals face. Wondering whether communications policies are more similar than different from firm to firm. Here, you can write under another name if need be, so cut loose!
- What are you doing to stay relevant in this social media business environment if all your conversations are recorded and written communications censored?
- What are competitors with other firms doing that you think go over the edge?
- Are any changes in sight?
Tag Cloud and Editorial Calendar
Illustration courtesy of Wikopedia
This morning I decided to manage my tag cloud. The tag cloud is a whole-brained way to look at the things you’re blogging about. It reflects your priorities.
Satisfying the left brain are the words themselves; feeding the right brain are the relative sizes and intensities of each word to the others, letting you know at a glance which topics get more attention by the blogger.
To the left is a good example of a web cloud with the dominant theme of Web 2.0. Surrounding it are first order tags for Convergence, Design, Participation, Usability, Economy, Remixability and Standardization, with a variety of other topics in second and third order.
Were my posts properly and fully tagged? No. Did the topics reflect my priorities? No. I revised my editorial calendar.
Look out for more on using case studies and whole brained communications.
Technorati the Wordsmith
Doing some site maintenance this morning including a Technorati update. Needed to upload a picture. Cracked up
Thumbs up, Technorati copy writers
when I read this:
Tip: Please do us a favor and upload a photo that does not show your very special but also very private parts. When you do that, we have to take time away from making our website faster and better to go find your profile and hide it, and that’s bad for you and us. Thanks for helping!
Not to sound elderly, but would this admonition have been necessary a short ten years ago?
Kill your Darlings
Postal rates go up in May and there’s even talk of cutting service back to five days a week. This fuels desire for e-communications, particularly newsletters and mail blasts, which cost less and are more likely to be opened than snail mail.
Hold your horses. Just because you CAN send e-communications doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Further, if you don’t write well, your e-blasts might do your business more harm than good.
Tips for the intrepid, go-it-alone types:
- Give yourself a quota on passive voice. Writing 200 words? Three instances of “to be” is sufficient. You can do it. Search for “ing” in your document and re-write those sentences with active verbs.
- Discipline yourself. As a freelance journalist, I learned the importance of “killing your darlings” because print and airtime are scarce. What’s a darling? Force yourself to cut a sentence from a short piece or a paragraph or section from a longer one. If it doesn’t hurt to strike it, it isn’t a darling. Keep cutting! When you come across something you love that isn’t essential to the message — a darling– kill it.
- Single out your best customer or most coveted prospect and ask yourself, “Why does Janice need to know this?” If you can’t come up with at least two reasons, overcome your desire to hit the “send” button.
- If you simply aggregate news stories and personalize them with a cover note, you should blog, not blast.
When I speak at Connect the Dots March 9 someone will win a drawing for a free newsletter consultation. Will it be you?
