Ghostwriter

A Ghostwriter is a professional Writer who writes or edits articles, books, or other authored work. In contrast to other Authors, however, you give your writing credit to someone else. In other words, your name does not appear on the work.

The term Ghostwriter is used most publicly in relation to books. You may write a draft, edit a draft your client has made, or work together with the client to write an entire book. Sometimes you are required to do substantial amounts of research, and other times the information is provided to you.

It is amazing how many people use Ghostwriters. Why? Because writing is darn hard, and a skill that not everyone has the aptitude or time to pursue. So you hire out your writing skills to help Politicians, Hollywood elites, and executives tell their stories under their name.

In this field, the opportunities are limitless: you may be asked to write magazine articles, blog posts, or lyrics for music. You could be hired to answer fan mail, or write the score composition for films. Even educational textbooks use Ghostwriters to write the technical information and then credit it to a well-known Scientist, Doctor, or explorer.

The biggest challenge, and greatest reward, of this profession, lies in matching the voice you are writing for. You might be writing a memoir of a 92-year-old woman one day and a crime-thriller in third person the next. You have to be able to write from the perspective of a successful basketball star, a defaced Politician, or an elementary school student. After all, the reader has to believe he is reading the next great work of James Patterson, when it is actually your fingers on the keyboard.