Ghosting Ins, Outs, Ups, & Downs
The Privileges & Perils of Writing Someone Else’s Book

Hello Loreates!
As some of you know, the AWP annual conference is happening in Los Angeles this week. It’s like an extravagant reunion of literary friends, all swapping updates, tricks of the trade, and commiseration with strong threads of determined encouragement.
Yesterday I moderated a panel on Ghostwriting, and Saturday I’ll helm another on Family Secrets. To our initial consternation, AWP now requires that panelists assemble detailed outlines of our remarks in advance. It’s a pain, frankly, and yet after yesterday’s panel, I realized the outline was not only a helpful exercise, but it also created a capsule summary of the key takeaways from our conversation.
So I asked and received the Ghostwriting panelists’ consent to share their outline with you. Next week, if the Family Secrets folks agree, I’ll share theirs, too.
This post, then, is for you if you have any interest in writing for hire, co-authorship, or ghostwriting. Our panel covers a wide breadth of specialties, with collective experience in ghosting close to 100 books of both fiction and nonfiction!
Ghosting: The Privileges & Perils of Writing Someone Else’s Book
Ghostwriting plays a bigger role in the publishing ecosystem today than ever before. It’s not just celebrities who hire ghosts, but industry leaders and online influencers, as well as grandparents who want their story immortalized for future generations. There are even agents who specialize in matching writers with “authors.”
Whether as a primary or secondary income stream, many ghostwriters earn more writing for hire than they can earn from their credited work. This can be lifesaving for mid-list writers. But as our panelists know from experience, it's critical to be prepared for problems, to ask the right questions and craft the right contract up front. In our conversation we share tips for securing a successful ghost project, as well as the professional pitfalls and rewards of this literary masquerade.
Do get as much of your pay as possible up front. That way, you can walk away if you need to.
Here are our panelists:
is the author of more than 10 books under her own name and has ghosted another dozen, including 3 NYT nonfiction bestsellers.
has ghosted 19 books and counting, from memoirs to novels to middle grade books and cookbooks.
has published 4 memoirs and several children’s books of her own and ghosted more than 25 memoirs. www.theamyfriedman.com
wanted an excuse to ask people about the secrets of their lives, so she founded the memoir ghostwriting consultancy Questions Unasked. She focuses on helping seniors or grandparents preserve their stories for their grandchildren and family members.
WHAT ARE YOUR HIGHS AND LOWS -- STORIES OF YOUR BEST & WORST GHOSTWRITING EXPERIENCES?
· Jennifer
Highs: having a couple clients become friends because they're such amazing people. I get to be custodian of their stories for a time, and sometimes it really does build a bond. I do regularly work for a particular client, and we have a fantastic working relationship--very professional. After several projects, it's easy to tap into her voice and know what she wants. Another client went on to win an award with the project we worked on, and that was very cool. An early client also had a phenomenal story--she was one of the best clients ever because she had journaled her whole life, and she knew how to dig deep, but she also knew she couldn't write her own book (and there were some things that had happened to her and her family that were close to unspeakable, but she said she wanted it all out there, and she was incredibly brave.)
On the other hand, my first client started off well, but she didn't like to read, and only watched Bravo TV, and she had a hard time following what we were doing in the book and couldn't keep everything straight. She had a good story, but then three quarters of the way through, she decided she didn't want the book to be about her, because she wanted to memorialize her dead dog. I tried to explain that we needed her to see how special the dog was--that she was our way into the story, but she didn't get why. And this woman did a lot of amazing work of animal advocacy and has a foundation, but she also could not cope with the loss of her thirteen-year-old dog with multiple cancers. And it's a very compelling story on all the things in her life that led up to her putting all her love into that dog, right? But no, that was taking away from him too much.
That experience did help me with the kind of screening questions I want to ask before I take on a client. I also learned to set boundaries for times when I was starting to become a therapist. Because there's always that point where you're writing about this person's life, and you suddenly see something so clearly that they've missed, but you can't diagnose them. So I've learned to frame it as a question: Just to get this scene right, would you say that you said this because you were feeling... or it was this kind of response... and sometimes it's either in an email or voice memo or a Zoom call, and you see them having this "Oh my god" moment of realization. Has everyone had that experience?
· Amy
My favorite clients are those willing to explore, those who understand that in memoir, especially, writing will lead the storyteller to discover things about themselves they didn't know they knew. I use both spoken interview and written interview methods. Either way, learning to hear and respect and represent another's voice is an act requiring empathy and attention
· Victoria
I'm a naturally curious person who is more inclined to listen than to talk about myself and being a ghostwriter is an excellent way to do this. My two favorite projects so far have been (1) Working with a couple in their nineties who had lived for lengthy periods (at least 7 years) in different countries all around the world (Libya, Japan, England, Indonesia, and America). (2) Working with a former children's television host (also in her 90s when I spoke to her). Their lives/experiences have been vastly different than my own and by listening to them/asking questions it's like getting to take the path untaken or live in an alternate reality for a little while.
Even people who have lived a more "average" life have incredibly compelling experiences. I've talked to grandparents who've lived their whole lives in one town or had lives that wouldn't necessarily be picked up as a television series but they've experienced events that I could only read about in history books (eg. World War II). And the world itself now is so different than it was when they were a child or even my own age (someone in their 30s).
Ghostwriting doesn't feel like work. I love listening to people and I love writing and editing. It feels sometimes like I don't have a real job and I'm making this all up because it's not really supposed to be this fun, right?
Worst experiences: Something I didn't expect was that through the process of interviewing someone about their life, I grew to feel quite close to them as if they were my own grandparents. A few former clients have passed away months after I've talked to them, and I've grieved for them.
· Aimee
My favorite project was a memoir for a beloved TV star about his teaching experience in a public school, initially as a reality series but for real after the series was canceled. He was humble, funny, and completely candid and shared all his lesson plans and video. There was fabulous story material, a very clear sense of the book he wanted to deliver, and we had a superb working relationship.
My worst experiences have occurred with authors who a) don’t know what a book is because they don’t read and/or b) insisted on rewriting me before turning in pages to our editor, who inevitably would send the spoiled work back in frustration.
HOW DO YOU FIND OR CULTIVATE GHOSTING JOBS?
· Jennifer
I was lucky enough to have a friend who had this great website for all things writing related. He offered courses and editing services, and he asked me if I wanted to be a ghostwriter for him (I'd taken over a couple of ghostwriting and editorial jobs from him in the past). He had at the time I think 15,000 unique visitors to his site each month, and that's really how I got my start. The queries come via email, and I hear a little about their stories and decide whether we're a fit and this is something I can write for them.
· Amy
At this point most of my work emanates from publishers, agents, and word of mouth through the courses I teach, clients I've had, and areas of particular interest to me--politics and culture, food, the arts, social justice
The best collaborators are the ones who know and admit what they don’t know— especially that they do not know how to write a book.
· Victoria
Networking, networking, networking. Every single one of my clients can be traced back to a connection I've made through work, school, or a networking event. Some of my biggest referral partners have been other writers and I've had jobs come to me two years after I met someone at a networking event. The key is to be networking constantly (a minimum of monthly) and knowing that I'm playing the long-game.
I used to be on social media a lot but now I don't post at all. People who contact me through social media are usually not serious contenders.
I'm part of the Association of Ghostwriters which does have an internal job board. I've never been successful with my application to those, but the simple virtue of being listed in this group has given me a "credibility factor" which has been useful when converting leads into paid clients.
· Aimee
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