The #1 thing a ghostwriter should do for you is save your time. Of course a ghostwriter should deliver the best possible book around your message. That’s so basic to the ghostwriter/client relationship that it almost goes without saying. An excellent finished product though is all part of the time-saving function of a ghostwriter. Put another way, a ghostwriter should create the book you would create yourself if you only had the time to do it and the writing experience to do it flawlessly.
A Ghostwriter Should Be Able to Understand Your Message
A good ghostwriter should be able to learn what you’re trying to say so well that they can teach it in your words. That comes down to solid interviewing skills. A good ghostwriter will create a list of questions that will draw out your message over the course of a half hour phone call. Going over the results of that call, a top-notch ghostwriter will then create a second list of questions to get at the deeper details of the message. Through a limited series of short calls like this, a good ghostwriter builds a working knowledge of everything you already know at a gut level.
A Ghostwriter Will See the Story in Your Message
A good ghostwriter can take your message and see the way it will connect best with the reader. Usually, this is the kind of presentation you’d end up with yourself after several rounds of fits and starts. What an excellent ghostwriter does is get you to that final place you would have got to on your own, without wasting hours, days, weeks or even years of your valuable time in the process.
A Ghostwriter Should Say it How You’d Say It
A really good ghostwriter isn’t going to bring his ego, his words or his preconceptions to the project. A good ghostwriter’s central question is, what are my client’s perfect words? How would my client tell this story or teach this lesson if he or she only had the time? A good ghostwriter makes it his mission to answer that question as accurately as possible. Someone with experience going through that process over and over again can do it while minimizing the client’s stress level.
A Ghostwriter Should Work Around Your Inspiration
Inspiration can strike at any moment. A way of delivering a tricky message or an idea that gets a difficult concept across might suddenly pop up at three a.m. or during lunch. A good ghostwriter has the resources to capture those flashes of inspiration when they strike. In short, a top-notch ghostwriter has a process in place to work around the client’s schedule, not the ghostwriter’s.
Would you like to know more? Give me a call to discuss how I work with clients. The process is quick and easy and delivers a finished product my clients are extremely satisfied with, time and again.