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FROM: Mike W

Question: Please could you advise me of the typical cost for a ghostwriter to assist with a novel? Many thanks.

Answer: 

Thanks for your question, Mike. To get an answer for you I approached Andrew Crofts who is himself a ghostwriter and author. He has kindly offered the following comments:

"Virtually any writer will take on a ghosting project if it interests them and they are not too busy, although very few will call themselves full-time ghosts. The costs really come down to the usual forces of the market. If you are hiring someone for three months, (probably a reasonable guess for writing a complete book), then you are going to have to pay them about a quarter of their annual earnings. If they are a starving novelist this might be no more than £5,000, if they are a very successful ghost it could be as much as £100,000. It really is all down to negotiation. If you can convince the ghost of the eventual earning power of the book they might agree to write for a percentage of those earnings, or at least a mixture of fee and percentage.
 
"Probably the best advice is to start gently. Don't hire someone to do the whole book right away, unless you have a publisher footing the bill of course, hire the ghost initially to do a synopsis and maybe a sample chapter, something that will just take them a couple of weeks but will give you both time to get to know one another and be sure you want to work together. That way you will also then have a document you can use to try to sell the project to publishers and agents etc.
 
"The best place to find a ghost is without doubt the Internet. Just keep on trawling around. Or browse around a bookshop and look for the names of ghosts on flyleaves or in the acknowledgements. You can then either Google those names or approach the publisher of those books and ask them to forward a letter or email."
 
Andrew Crofts
www.andrewcrofts.com

Following up on Andrew's suggestion to trawl the Internet, I suggest you use a search phrase such as 'ghostwriting services'. This will give quite a few to follow up - and don't forget the ads in the right-hand column (in Google).

Find one you like the sound of and send them an email enquiry, or even 'phone them for a chat.

Mervyn Love.

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