In every profession there are professionals — and there are people you really shouldn’t hire. The world of ghostwriting is no exception. Some do this work well. Some do it adequately. And some do it very badly indeed.
Strange Texts
I know this for certain because colleagues approach me from time to time with offers of collaboration, and I look through their work just as regularly. The bigger part of what I see doesn’t come close to the level it ought to. A statement like that might look like ordinary self-promotion — but you’d really need to see what they send me to put that question to rest.
It’s also worth noting that more than half of these writers don’t show anything at all. They say they don’t write for themselves, they only work on commission. So there’s no text of their own. Astonishingly “talented” people who have never written anything, ever, and somehow vaulted straight up to the level of professional writer.
Why Would I Need Every Project in the World?
Of course, the natural place for the story to go now is: come to me, because I’m the best. But that would be exactly the kind of self-promotion I just distanced myself from. Yes, I need projects. It would be strange to pretend otherwise. But I certainly don’t need every project in the world — no one human can write that much.
So I accept perfectly calmly that other ghostwriters exist, and that other clients are working with them. It’s for those clients I’m writing this — to help them figure out whether the ghostwriter they’ve chosen is going to come through.
You Can’t Tell Right Away
Obviously, you can look at the quality of the text, at the general impression, at how the personal contact feels. But on the spot, none of this is necessarily informative.
First — any writer working on commission needs time to “load” themselves into the subject. For the client, everything is straightforward and clear, because they’ve most likely lived the topic of the book with their own life. The writer might not be ready for any of this, because their life was something else entirely. Which is exactly why you shouldn’t expect a fast, effortless start from them — though that does happen sometimes.
Second — style is also something that has to be searched for. I always say I need to listen to the client at length, so I can convey everything in the book in the client’s own voice. And that, again, takes time.
Third — strong personal contact also doesn’t always appear immediately. And here it depends on both sides. The client has to do their part, too.
How to Tell You’ve Chosen the Right Ghostwriter
So all the most important things may come later — but the client wants to make up their mind right at the start, in order not to waste time and money on a writer who isn’t a professional. This is entirely realistic, because the client doesn’t actually have to do anything besides observe. Everything that needs to be shown should be shown by the writer.
Of course, the writer has to be given the room and the chance. If the person who wants to commission writing services swiftly and confidently takes all the control for themselves, the writer may well never get to show what they can do. But if the writer is given the space, they should ask several key questions.
The First Question: What Happens to the Book Next?
What are you planning to do with the book once it’s written?
The form of the question can vary, but the substance has to be preserved. Before any writing even begins, you need to understand the future fate of the book.
The point isn’t that this writer is so good and devoted that they’re already thinking about the client’s interests as their own.
This may sound cynical, but most likely they aren’t thinking and aren’t worrying yet — because to truly absorb a book, you need time. Everything in this world needs time. The cases when something becomes important to us at first glance are rare exceptions.
If, on the contrary, you immediately see a ghostwriter throwing themselves into your book with overwhelming, ardent devotion — better not start working with them. They will burn out just as fast and just as brightly, and you’ll end up finishing your book with someone else, someone considerably less joyful and inspired.
What For?
The question of what happens next with the finished book exists to define the audience the book will be shown to. This is the determining factor for how everything will be written.
Different books are written for different ages, different professions, different fields, different levels of education, different income brackets, different countries. We can’t write a single universal book that works for everyone — just as there’s no single song, film, or painting for everyone.
If you don’t understand where and with whom the book is going to “live,” writing it properly almost certainly won’t work.
The Second Question: What Does the Client Actually Want?
The second question. I usually phrase it like this: “Imagine the book is already written. It’s exactly the way you wanted it. Everything’s gone well. What do you need to be holding in your hands at the end of all this to be able to say — yes, this is exactly what it was written for?”
In some way, this question may resemble the previous one — but they are fundamentally different.
In the first question, we’re asking what the reader should be given. In the second, we’re working out what the client needs to receive.
A book is always written with a purpose. Some people are popularizing themselves. Some are advancing a business project. Some want to convey an ideological concept to people, or to teach something. The list can run long, but the main thing you already understand: each of these will be written differently.
And Again: What For?
So if the first question is about the instrument for reaching the goal, the second is about the goal itself. It’s the combination of these two that defines how the book will be written. And it’s exactly this combination that exposes the weak points.
The client’s idea of the audience may shift, because the people they were planning to create for may have no influence on whether the goal is reached at all. The goal itself may also change — because it might turn out to have been reached already, or to be impossible to reach this way.
Why These Questions Matter
As you can see, two simple questions, joined together, perform a fairly rigorous — I’d even say strict — check-up of the entire idea of writing a book in the first place. There’s no way around this.
And if a writer doesn’t ask their potential client about these key things, then the probability that they will write a good commissioned book is, to put it plainly, very low.
There are exceptions, of course — but they happen by chance. I wouldn’t recommend playing that lottery, because, as I said, you’ll only learn about the final result and the possible failure when there’s no longer any way to turn back.
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