How to Become a Ghostwriter & Earn from Scratch in 9 Steps

In an increasingly fast paced world where people are getting too busy to write and share their own stories, if you could become a ghostwriter today, this could give you the chance to help busy authors to get their stories written, published and shared with the world while you paid in return.

For writers like myself who have engaged in ghostwriting, over the years, I found that, one good thing about ghostwriting is that it gives you the opportunity to get other people’s stories out there, enrich the scholastic or literary discourse on the subject matter and still get paid for it while doing what you love.

Unfortunately, embarking on a ghostwriting journey as a beginner can be quite demanding for starters without any idea on how to navigate their journey. But in this guide, I’ll be sharing insights I’ve learned while walking you through the key steps you’ll need and important things you’ll have to keep in mind, in the following paragraphs.

Sort your Goals

A successful ghost writer is one that knows what success means for him/her, identifies it from the on-start and works towards it, every other day; aligning their resources, activities with these expectations.

Just like it is in most other professions, if you want to become a ghostwriter successfully, you have to identify your goals clearly, set out your resources to ensure it aligns with these goals and then take specific steps to create everything around your services towards achieving these goals. This is very crucial.

Identifying your preferred goal is very important because it sets the tone for your success. It also makes it easy for beginners to create a pathway that can lead towards real success.

If your goal is to earn 6-figure in Ghostwriting within 2-3 years for example, you’ll understand that achieving this will demand that you commit a certain level of resources, focus in a specific niche or industry and work with a certain kind of clients, compared to someone whose goal is to earn 4-5 figures within the same time.

Again, if you’re planning to build a ghostwriting career where you can leverage for other opportunities in the future, you’ll also be able to tailor your contract requirements, target projects and clients etc. to reflect the kind of projects that can lead you towards achieving that kind of results.

Finally, if your expectation is to work as a part time ghostwriter while doing other things by the side, you’ll also create a plan that can land you low demanding gigs that can be delivered within a certain timeframe.

These are some of the reasons you need to identify your goals clearly so you can easily plan your business in a way that can get you to arrive at those goals more easily.

Build up your Writing Skills

One of the key skills you’ll need as a ghostwriter is a solid writing skill. You practically can’t become a ghostwriter without getting some really good writing skills. Because, how can you write without writing?

It is potentially a lot easier for professional writers, to delve into ghostwriting compared to non-writers. In fact, some ghostwriting clients are always going to reach out, only after they see your work.

So, there’s absolutely, a need to own some decent writing skills if you want to succeed in this endeavor, especially, if you’re starting from scratch.

• Learn to Write: Every ghostwriter did not start out as a professional writer. Most professional ghostwriters today started from the scratch, learning every detail about the craft, while they learned to write. As someone without adequate writing skills, instead of giving up on your ghostwriting aspirations, you can learn how to write by signing up for writing courses to garner the basic skills.

• Read Widely: You also have to take things a notch further by reading widely to get acquainted yourself with different writing styles especially as you will potentially be ghostwriting for different people with varying personalities, genres and preferred writing style. This will get you prepped up.

• Create & Share: As soon as you’re confident about your writing, you have to start writing, creating content, blog posts etc. and sharing them with audiences across whatever platforms you deem fit, including the social media, as you build on your skills. With time, you can then get to try writing in different genres, subject matter, writing styles etc. Doing this prepares you as you gain more expertise. And then eventually, you can write and publish your own books.

I know this might sound a bit demanding but it can also be fun all the way. And outside learning, you can also offer freelance writing services along the line, as soon as you feel you have a decent skill to get started.

Understand what Ghostwriting is all About

Before you become a ghostwriter, one of the key things you need is a clear understanding of what ghostwriting is all about. Although it might mean different things to different people based off their policies, one of the cardinal meaning of Ghostwriting is that you’ll create and evolve a person’s work without giving away details that they actually did not author the work.

For example, you want to keep in mind that as a ghostwriter, in most cases, you’ll be writing books on behalf of other people without taking credit for it. And as a professional, this will demand that you understand and capture your client’s preferred writing style, tone of voice, perspective etc. so the book can give a feel like it’s actually written by your clients.

For this to happen effectively, you’ll have to collaborate closely with your clients to have a clear idea about their vision, goals, target audience, purpose of writing the book and then translate these into a compelling content that will capture the audience as expected by your client.

You’ll also need to understand the client in terms of their personality, perspectives and overall expectations as these will be very important in creating a work that can be easily aligned with your client based off their brand positioning.

Oftentimes, getting here might take a little while. Like it might demand you spend some time interviewing, talking to or just getting to know your client. And even at that, at intervals, you’ll have to double-check to ensure you’re still on track.

To further get a hang of this, you might also want to understudy other pieces of their writings elsewhere, be it in online platforms, books etc. to further understand how they think and how you can create a book that reflects them wholly.

Choose your Niche & Area of Expertise

Just like any kind of writing, there are so many areas or niches you can excel in as someone writing for other people. But, before you become a ghostwriter, you want to be very sure about your preferred writing niche.

For example, while there are so many niches out there, the majority of these niches are grouped into three sub areas which are; the niche you’re passionate about, the profitable niche and the niche you have a professional expertise in.

There are instances where you may be lucky that the niche you’re passionate about is also a very profitable niche where you can excel at. In that case, you want to go for that niche right away.

But there are also situations where you’ll have to choose between going for a niche you’re passionate about, a lucrative niche that can bring in a reasonable income or the professional niche where you’re trained or well experienced to handle.

If you ever get to this point, you have to take out time to choose what works for you, based on your own goals and the expectations you have for your career as a ghostwriter. This is very important.

Irrespective of your preferred niche, you have to keep in mind that some very popular and seemingly lucrative ghostwriting niches might be filled up with a lot of professionals. What this means is that such niches will be highly competitive and you may have to put in a lot of work to attract clients as a beginner.

Another thing to also consider is that there are some fringe niches. Some of these are new while some are cut off from some popular niches. If you have a clear expertise, training or experience, you can start of with such niches, leveraging on your expertise as a unique selling proposition to attract your clients.

Study the Industry

To become a ghostwriter successfully, there are certain things you need to know about your own industry to get you prepared, based on your target genre or niche.

If you’re looking to ghostwrite for websites, blogs and content creators for instance, there are some specific niches, sub niches and sectors that are trendy, more lucrative and of course, those ones that are quite demanding, depending on your availability and resources.

There are also certain industries that you’ll need a specific level of training and exposure to their lexicon, word usage and industry expectations before you can actually dabble into such industries.

While identifying your niche, you also want to understudy your preferred industry to know what works. Let’s say you’re intending to ghostwrite for people in the legal industry for example, you have to understudy the legal terms, phrases, laws and jurisdictional principles etc. to familiarize yourself with how people write in that niche.

You have to also bear in mind that there are some industries that you may find it difficult to excel in, without getting acquainted with their writing style or acquiring some certifications that will further boost your pedigree in your preferred niche.

Furthermore, there’s need to understand and align your goals and realities with your preferred industries. So, if your goals is to start ghostwriting so you can make money fast but you do not have a lot of time to invest in the job, you want to consider industries with the kind of jobs that are suitable with your realities.

And finally, you must stay on top of your industry knowledge game to know where the trend leads so you can easily position for better outcomes.

Create Systems

Business systems are repeatable set of principles, structures or practices you put in place which you can reliably leverage to create a consistent outcome for your client, always.

Considering that ghostwriting demands a lot of professionalism from the get go, to become a ghostwriter successfully, you need a system that will accentuate your professionalism while delivering on clear outcomes consistently.

One of this systems you have to identify and structure is your work flow. From when you contact your client to when the job gets delivered, you have to create a work flow structure that can be used repeatedly.

For example, you must have a contract outline that highlights your responsibilities, clients obligations and expectations from you, a non disclosure option where necessary and how long it lasts, a client requirement template etc.

To further streamline your ghostwriting process, you’ll also have to set clear terms and policies, payment expectations and options, royalties (if any) and every other details which your client will have a pre-knowledge about before you embark on any project. This is very important.

And finally, identify your preferred client-meeting options. Do you prefer a virtual or physical meeting? Also, would you like to have online or physical interviews which you’ll later transcribe or not? These are some of the things you’ll have to put in place, including a potential production timelines for different kind of projects so you can start out fully prepared.

Practice Writing for Other People

Ghostwriting is all about writing for other people, getting their thoughts, ideas and communicating them in the same way these people would wish to communicate them across to their audiences.

As someone journeying to become a ghostwriter, one of the first things you can do to garner firsthand experience is to actually find ways to write for other people, using their own voice, as soon as you’re all set to get started.

This is very crucial because only then can you understand clearly what it entails to be a ghostwriter, and possibly gather some first experience and actual work for your portfolio.

For beginners with zero experience, you can also use the opportunity of writing for others to gauge if ghostwriting is really what you should do or not. It’ll also give you the chance to understand a lot more about the niche, its demand and what you should expect to experience.

Also, beyond using this time to learn ghostwriting, finding ways to write for others could present you opportunities to get you some jobs for your portfolio, reviews and content for storytelling. You can key into this, especially, ghostwriting free of charge initially before launching out fully.

Furthermore, this expedition will also give you an idea on the preferred freelancing niche you should go for, based on what’s worked for you.

So, to get started with this, you can either do it in one of two ways.

• Take up Free Gigs: Guestwrite for people free, in exchange for nice testimonials, building experience and getting industry exposure. There are a lot of places you can seek out these kind of offers. With this kind of offer, consider targeting high value clients that will yield some good returns on investment for you, in terms of exposure, testimonials and storytelling opportunities.

• Offer Subsidized Ghostwriting Gigs: Instead of offering high end prices, you can offer subsidized pricing for potential clients. This is one of the secrets that worked for me while I engaged in Ghostwriting. Offering discounted pricing serves as an incentive for clients. It also gets you real paid jobs while you grow your craft and build your brand.

PS: Either of these strategies can get you to garner a few jobs while building your portfolio but it is important you understand when you have to pivot as you grow to a certain level.

Build your Brand & Portfolio

Now that you know what’s working for you and you’ve already decided on your area of expertise, the next step on your journey to become a ghostwriter is to build your portfolio.

Ghostwriting is a highly professional venture that demands a lot of expertise and professionalism from practitioners. And it can also be very discriminatory as clients will always have options and the chance to choose from a number of other professionals.

So, if you want to be taken as a professional ghostwriter that knows their onions, you want to stay on top of your game while also making sure that you present yourself as such, from the get go.

• Create a Brand: Starting with branding, create a brand that supports your work and aspirations. A strong branding that will demonstrate to anyone, who you are and the things you can achieve for them, at a first glance. This includes doing things like getting a brand color, logo, a short bio that is consistent across all your platforms etc.
• Get a Website: Get yourself a website and create a portfolio showcasing your writing samples and demonstrating your ability to adapt to different writing styles and topics. Include specific pages detailing your services, showcasing your portfolio and giving potential clients all important information about your ghostwriting business in a very captivating way.
• Get on Social Media: Get on key social media platforms and create a page for your brand. Take a step further, create and share content for your audiences on your social media platform.

PS: Personally, I believe one of the strongest ways to prove yourself as a ghostwriter is to write and publish your own book. Doing this can be very helpful to you, from a branding stand point.

Promote your Services

Beyond planning to become a ghostwriter, to get very successful in this endeavor, you must learn how to network and promote yourself and get your brand out there for as much visibility as it can garner.

• Create & Share Content: Starting with social media, identify the leading platforms with the highest number of your target audience, get a handle on these platforms and begin to create, share content and engage with your target audience using strategic content marketing.

• Engage in Blogging: Outside getting visible on the social media get yourself a website where clients can meet you online, create and share blog posts on this website. This is a great way to build visibility on the search engines.

• Leverage other Platforms: Alongside these, engage in promotional services outside your owned platforms. For example, consider posting niche related content as guest posts on other websites with a decent number of your potential target audience.

• Use Paid Promotions: In addition to these, you can also opt for paid promotional services using either social media advertising, Google Advertising, other third party sponsored advertising etc. These will be very useful in driving visibility for your brand, especially in the early days where you’re just getting started without a lot of traction.

Outside these direct promotions, be keen on networking and connecting with your potential target audience like business CEOs, busy professionals, founders and cofounders etc.

Also, pay attention to engage in utilizing the wonders of strategic marketing and storytelling to create curiosity, build thought leadership and project your brand as expected.

Final Words

Whether you’re just about to start today or you just want to polish your brand, building a successful career as a ghostwriter is very possible, regardless of where you’re starting from.

While using these tips you read here can get you the needed headstart that will define your journey, you want to keep in mind that becoming a successful ghostwriter will take time, effort and work.

Also, as much as possible, be open to learning and don’t be shy to promote your brand when you finally gain the expertise. Also, while engaging with clients, have your rights and that of your clients defined before getting started.

And finally, you can become a rock star writer and learn the ground work that will set you up successfully by signing up for our writing course here.

Now, it’s over to you. What are your biggest fears when it comes to starting a career as a ghostwriter? Drop your comments below.