If you’re thinking of hiring a professional ghostwriter to write your essays, books, or business documents, stick around.
We’re gonna cover what it costs. We saw this quote on the internet.
“I wrote this book without the aid of a coauthor or a ghostwriter, which is why it’s a good bet that this is gonna be my last book.”
“I had no idea it would be so hard to do.”
That’s from IBM CEO Louis Gerstner, author of “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?”.
We had to laugh because Louis’s right. Writing an essay or a book is hard work. That’s also why we think it’s silly that some people equate a book to a business card.
A great book is much more than a glorified business card. And done right, I think it’s far better than even a degree. It takes time, effort and energy to write a great book. And you may be thinking like a smart book CEO, and you’re thinking you need to outsource everything related to your book except for your expertise.
Sweet!
One of the best ways to do that is to hire a great professional ghostwriter to write your first draft. Want to know more about what a ghost writer does and how to find them? You can read about it here, but wait until you finish this article first! 🙂
Today, we’re going to talk about costs.
How Much Do Professional Ghostwriters Charge?
When Word Philocaly first started, we only helped you write your book, essays, company profiles, websites, video scripts, and business documents. Then we took it from there with our team of editors, interior architects, cover designers and marketing team.
But the words were coming from you. Then one of our clients said, “I don’t wanna be the one to put the words to my expertise, that’s not a good use of my time.” “Find me a writer.”
Our first call was to a great woman who we knew has written at least one bestseller. She’s a well-known and well-respected writer in Malaysia. As we suspected, she was actually perfect for the job. Our client loved her but her price tag of RM200K to RM250K was a bit of a budget killer.
So we brought in another writer who was a well-respected, professional ghostwriter in Malaysia as well. He couldn’t disclose a lot of his clients as many people don’t want you to know that they didn’t write their own book. And because it wasn’t as easy to vet him, we actually expected him to be cheaper than the other one.
He came in at RM4 per finished word. Most business books are somewhere around 50,000 to 75,000 words, so you can see how RM4 a finished word could add up. We negotiated with that ghostwriter about all the things our team would be doing to reduce his workload and got him to RM2 a word. This pretty much put him exactly where the other ghostwriter was after we negotiated with him.
Prices of Professional Ghostwriters Vary
Now, a lot of this does depend on the work the ghostwriter is doing which will be in another of our article. But you’re essentially getting a first draft of a book that still needs editing, design, layout and so on.
So, we expanded my search and we started interviewing all kinds of people who had ghostwriting experience. Most of the others came in between RM100,000 and RM140,000 for a book.
The cheapest ghostwriter we found, and they actually were a service, not an actual single writer, was RM72,000. When you understand that it will take most ghostwriters up to six months to write your book or one to two months for your essay or thesis, the prices make sense.
Great ghostwriters dedicate a lot of their life and time to this project. They aren’t making a living if they charge much less. And it’s not easy being a great ghostwriter. It’s a skill to be able to write a book well and to do it in someone else’s voice.
Because it’s not just a matter of putting words to the paper; it’s a matter of making sure they would be words that you, the real author of the book, would use. Of course, you can hire much cheaper writers. But the writing might even be half decent.
A Professional Ghostwriter Saves You Time and Money
The issue is that it’s not your voice and that is so important. It’s not your book if it’s not your voice. And if someone writes in a totally different style than you would, then you have a mountain of work to do to redo it.
Sure, you save money, but you add a whole lot of time, energy and effort to the entire project. That is the goal of hiring a professional ghostwriter in the first place – to save your time and energy.
It’s the old adage that you can get something fast, cheap or good. Sometimes you can get two, but you can’t get all three. So there you have it.
To get a professional working on your book, you’re looking at a minimum of RM1.20 per finished word, more like RM2. The more experienced and the more extensive the work you’re asking for them to do, the higher the price.
Professional Copywriting and Ghostwriting Services from Word Philocaly
Word Philocaly solved this problem for our clients. We found a couple of amazing writers, folks who are efficient, effective and easy to work with. And we brought them in-house. By paying them a set salary and guaranteeing their income. We are able to reduce the costs of every book they ghostwrite for our clients.
So if you’re looking for a great ghostwriter or professional copywriter for your business book, nonfiction biography, essays, thesis, company profiles, annual reports, and business proposals, we can help.
And we do everything from write, design, editing, and proofreading to set you up for success. When you find out how awesome we are compared to the options out there, say a silent thank you to all of you. Because you guys are the ones who inspired us to add this to our services.
Got a question? Go ahead, send us an email or share this articles on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other online platforms. And of course, if you like free tips, stay tuned to our website as well.
See you in the our next article!
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