How do I prepare to work with a ghostwriter?

[ingegneriae]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum. I'm interested in creating and self-publishing a fictional story. Perhaps young adult fiction with an element of historical fiction. My writing skills are not good enough for me to write this story on my own, though. I've been looking into the process of hiring a ghostwriter to help me.

From what I've read online, it seems that a ghostwriter won't just create an entire story for me from scratch. I would need to provide a general outline, character descriptions, background settings, etc.

I would like to ask if anyone is familiar with the ghostwriting process and can help me better understand how much of the story I have to create on my own before I can hire a ghostwriter.

I've already started a rough outline and am working on my characters at the moment. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

 

[RJM Corbet]

A ghostwriter, as far as I know, will be employed by someone who has a story to tell but who is not a writer himself. So the ghostwriter will write it. He will get paid something, or share royalties, but his name will not appear as 'author'.

Then there can be a 'co-author' partnership. Dick Francis, for instance, co-wrote Lester Pigott's autobiography, so the final book was by 'Lester Pigott with Dick Francis'. There would be a sharing of royalties contract with the publisher, between the co-authors?

It may work the other way too: if you think you have a terrific story, you could try to interest a known writer to use your idea and either include your name as a co-author, and share royalties, or else to buy the story from you outright.

Either way, it's going to be the story that comes first?

 

[ingegneriae]

Hello RJM Corbet,

What if certain areas of the story are weak, such as the action or adventure element? Do ghostwriters bring their creative expertise into the process? Or is ghostwriting simply editorial in nature?

If I need help improving my story in terms of characters and plot, which part of the forum would be a good place to go to for assistance?

 

[RJM Corbet]

Hello RJM Corbet,

What if certain areas of the story are weak, such as the action or adventure element? Do ghostwriters bring their creative expertise into the process? Or is ghostwriting simply editorial in nature?

If I need help improving my story in terms of characters and plot, which part of the forum would be a good place to go to for assistance?

There is the critiques forum where you can post an excerpt of your writing up to 1500 words, but you need 30 posts before you can post on critiques. You can read the writing there though, and the comments on it? There is also the General Writing Discussion forum, and a Publishing forum, etc.

I'm sure if you nose around these forums for a while you will end up with a pretty good idea of what's involved in getting a story written and published?

Pleased to meet you ...

 

[Boneman]

I have a friend who has ghost-written biographies, so I asked him about ghost-writing a fictional story, and there was a long silence. Finally he said: "Isn't that the work of a good freelance editor?" I do know of people who've worked together writing fiction and it's come out very well, but are you saying you're just going to give the ideas to the Ghost, and he'll write it? If so, make sure you have some sort of contract agreed (even if you are going to self-publish) as you don't want someone running away with your ideas...

And this forum has it all. Use the search facility and there are tens of thousands of man and woman hours at your disposal, for anything you need to know. You may even find you want to have a stab at writing the first draft yourself. Then ask for professional help, if you need to.

Good luck with it.

 

[ingegneriae]

Hello Boneman,

My situation is a little complicated, but essentially I need a good fictional story to draw in viewers for an online motion comic series that I want to make. My initial research led me to the idea of using a ghostwriter to create such a fictional story for my comic. But as I learned more about the ghostwriting process, I found out that ghostwriters need more input from me than simply, "Come up with a story." I do have some general ideas for my story, but do not have the skills to create a well-written novel.

Is your friend saying that an editor is what I need? As an extreme example, if I create a rough draft in the form of bullet points, would an editor be able to put it into novel form?

And thanks for the idea to create a contract so my idea won't be stolen. I didn't realize that happened enough to be worried about.

 

[RJM Corbet]

Hello Boneman,

My situation is a little complicated, but essentially I need a good fictional story to draw in viewers for an online motion comic series that I want to make. My initial research led me to the idea of using a ghostwriter to create such a fictional story for my comic. But as I learned more about the ghostwriting process, I found out that ghostwriters need more input from me than simply, "Come up with a story." I do have some general ideas for my story, but do not have the skills to create a well-written novel.

Is your friend saying that an editor is what I need? As an extreme example, if I create a rough draft in the form of bullet points, would an editor be able to put it into novel form?

And thanks for the idea to create a contract so my idea won't be stolen. I didn't realize that happened enough to be worried about.

If I may ask: how is this ghostwriter/editor going to get paid?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Is your friend saying that an editor is what I need? As an extreme example, if I create a rough draft in the form of bullet points, would an editor be able to put it into novel form?

No. An editor edits; he or she does not write your story for you.

Writers always have plenty of ideas of their own that they want to write about. The only way you could lure someone into ghostwriting your story instead is to pay them up front. They won't settle for royalties unless (as seems not to be the case) you have a name or a franchise that is already famous enough that the book would be sure to sell tens of thousands of copies. (In which case, you would probably rather pay the ghostwriter up front, and rake in the royalties yourself.) Unless you can afford to pay someone thousands of dollars to write your book, it would be better to either write it yourself, or wait until such time as your comic is already famous. Then you will find writers willing to do "work-for-hire."

As for a freelance editor, they work with books that have already been written, all the way to the end in a reasonably coherent novel form (not bullet points), and few are there to teach you basic writing skills. The ones who will -- and who aren't scammers with minimal writing skills themselves -- are very expensive. So if you don't have your basic writing skills down, be prepared to pay a lot of money and go through many successive drafts (each of which will cost you) while the editor not only helps you to improve the book you have already written but teaches you how to write. A writing course would be cheaper. Working on the book yourself and joining a writing group will cost you nothing but time.

So unless you are interested in learning how to acquire the skills to write the book yourself, and willing to do a lot of work in the process, unless you care about seeing this story in novel form passionately enough to do all that ... my advice is to turn your attention to something you do feel passionately about, like producing your comic book. Self-published novels rarely earn very much for their authors, so the only reason to write and publish one is because it is something you would rather do than anything else.

 

[ingegneriae]

Hello RJM Corbet,

With cold, hard cash. =)

I'm not planning on hiring a ghostwriter/editor right now, but when I do, my budget is about $20 - $25 USD per 250 word page. I'm intending the novel to be approximately 250 pages in length. The story will essentially be used as a script for a motion comic series.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If you are willing to pay $20,000, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding someone to write it, but be aware that the way that self-published novels usually sell you will probably end up more than $19,000 in the red.

 

[ingegneriae]

Hello Teresa Edgerton,

Thanks for the clarification on editors. I'm passionate about creating something, whether it be a business, video game, motion comic or a story in novel form. I'm flexible about what it is I create, as long as it is moderately successful. I may be reaching farther than my current abilities allow in trying to create a fictional story, but I think it's necessary for my other creative ideas to work.

I've read some data online about average sales for fictional novels. It's not that great, but I think if I could make enough to recover my investment in the novel, then that would be enough for me.

 

[ingegneriae]

If you are willing to pay $20,000, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding someone to write it, but be aware that the way that self-published novels usually sell you will probably end up more than $19,000 in the red.

I guess I'll have to create a story on my own then. I would like to ask you then, where should I go for expert advice on how to form my story? I'm not saying that I have a blank page, but rather is there someone who can ask me good questions that will force me to create good characters, plots, etc. Also, general advice on how to approach my story would be appreciated.

For example, I'm looking for someone to ask me questions like these:
1. What motivates your character to behave in that way?
2. What events shaped their current beliefs?
3. How do you want them to grow or progress as the story develops?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

But you are already asking yourself those questions. You seem to have a good grasp of that part yourself.

But if you want someone else to look at your work, more objectively than you can yourself, join a writers group. Or, when you have the story already written, look for a developmental editor. Those are the kind of questions he or she will ask.

You could post your story here in our Critiques forum, but only in small increments, and even though you would get good advice, that isn't the best way to get feedback on things like characterization and plot structure.

 

[Malloriel]

Take advantage of the forum as you already have. Look at the questions that other people have posted, and the kinds of responses they get. If you finish a segment of the story idea, and you're wondering how it will go over, summarize it and put it in the forum to see what other people think, and make your decisions from there. You've already found this site, signed up, and started asking questions in the right places. Don't let that be the last thing you do here, because the people active in this forum are from so many different walks of life that someone, somewhere, will have some kind of useful insight for you.

You can also go to book stores and find books that feed you questions like character motivation and beliefs. The key is to actually READ them, and then perform the exercises, really think about the questions and answer them. It requires being self motivated in that sense, since it's not someone actually sitting there, waiting for your answer, pushing you to finish a thought, but you know the kinds of questions that need to be answered, so you answer them.

 

[RJM Corbet]

For example, I'm looking for someone to ask me questions like these:
1. What motivates your character to behave in that way?
2. What events shaped their current beliefs?
3. How do you want them to grow or progress as the story develops?

The link below, to a thread by Teresa Edgerton, may be a jumping off point to start getting answers to those sorts of questions (read the first post on the thread)

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/10092-the-seven-point-plot-skeleton.html

 

[Gary Compton]

In my opinion you've already fell at the fist hurdle. Your book will be passionless. It comes across in your posts. Your ghost writer will take you cash do the job and move on.

I doubt it will work as some pages may get written, re-written, edited, re-written again, deleted and the resurrected several times. He/she wont care cos it's just another $20.

You seem more interested in doing something to be known for rather than just choosing a project and putting your nose to the wheel and getting it done.

I dont think a ghost writer will have the drive to succeed like some of the fledgling writers here, who are relentless in their pursuit of being better authors and crafting a bloody good tale.

You cant buy the X-factor. You're born with it

Sorry to be negative. I suggest give it a go yourself. Be dedicated and see where it goes.

Feel free to completely ignore me.

 

[ingegneriae]

Hello,

Thanks for the link and the advice. I'll look up developmental editor and that link. I'll also try to make use of the help available through these forums.

 

[ingegneriae]

In my opinion you've already fell at the fist hurdle. Your book will be passionless. It comes across in your posts. Your ghost writer will take you cash do the job and move on.

Hello Gary Compton,

I come from a technical background, which is possibly why I may sound more technical than emotional at times. I'll keep that in mind when working on my story.

 

[J Riff]

Mercy, anything near a grand gets a first-class ghost-story from me or any number of other writers who could take a rough outline and turn it into something professional and readable.
Short stoires aren't the same as novels, either.
A typical published short story might net you 20 bux and a contributor copy or two, unless you are a name writer.

 

[ingegneriae]

Hello J Riff,

I've decided to get assistance from a developmental editor to help me develop a good outline for my story. I probably will end up writing my story in bits and pieces then hire a ghostwriter at the end to put it together in a more readable format.

I'm not sure how well this will work out, but at least it will be my own story and not simply me telling someone else to come up with one from nothing.