Hiring the wrong ghostwriter can come back to haunt you. But when that New York Times bestseller is little more than a string of vaguely connected ideas flitting mischievously through your early morning dreams, sometimes hiring a ghostwriter is the only way to exorcise it. When you have an epic story to tell, but no idea where it begins and ends, it’s your ghostwriter who is tasked with coaxing your shadowy apparition out of the darkness and into the light of day.
The Role of Your Ghostwriter
Your ghostwriter holds a startling amount of responsibility. This is the person who uses his or her gift for writing to unlock your deepest and most personal thoughts. Your ghostwriter breathes life into your story in a way that makes it flow naturally. And what once was a series of disjointed ideas and good intentions becomes an interesting narrative — told in a compelling voice that uses perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation … in theory.
And indeed, if you take the time to thoroughly research and interview prospective ghostwriters, you may very well end up with one of the highest quality. He or she will come at a price, but the experience, talent, and skills they’ll bring to your project may become the best investment you’ll ever made.
How to Hire a Ghostwriter, not a Poltergeist
If you fail to vet your writer thoroughly, however — through recommendations by former clients, through portfolio work, and through personal interviews — your ghostwriter could morph into a poltergeist instead, leaving an unearthly trail of destruction in its wake. Your greatest fears that include subpar writing and indiscretion could become reality. Worst of all, your name and your reputation could suffer; after all, a ghostwriter is just that — someone who writes in the shadows and whose name appears nowhere in the credits. If this debacle occurs, it will happen in your name, and you’ll be left with a difficult choice: Scrap the project, eat the cost, and begin over again, or publish an inferior piece of work under your own author credit. Either move could be devastating.
Seeing It Through to the End
Even so, you can’t let fear of hiring a ghostwriter prevent you from telling your story. If you take care to hire a quality writer who comes highly recommended, and you keep the lines of communication open with him or her, your collaboration could very well become the next great American novel.
So even if you’re terrified that your choice of ghostwriter could come back to haunt you in the future, it’s no excuse for not exhuming that single grand idea that could end up defining you. With a little help from the right ghostwriter, the story of your life could materialize right before your eyes.
Nothing scary about that.
Anne G enjoys researching, social media, landscaping, gardening and home renovation.
