Atmosphere Press in Austin gives authors a way to publish their books. There’s always a fee, which starts at $6,400. The press is becoming a resource for ghostwriting. Eight authors will write your novel for you for a fee. Twenty will write your nonfiction, using your name. That breakout gives us all an idea of which is harder to do well.
I love one description of the novel process from one ghoster. “You know in Star Trek where an alien takes over the captain’s body, and it’s almost perfect except the crew eventually sees through it? That’s what great ghostwriting looks like, except readers never figure out it wasn’t you who wrote the book.”
If we pull that apart a little, we see the crew is catching on, while the readers do not. Sure, such slight of hand can be considered art, too. Someone’s got to decide if the writing is as complete as it could be. That someone will be you as the author being ghosted. Expect the ghostwriter’s contract with you to enforce healthy boundaries.
Even readers who aren’t in your crew might be able to figure the slight of hand out when you start talking about how your story works. But who’d ever hear that, anyway? The fact that the whole thing can be taken to the finish line for you shows something or other. Maybe that the ghosting’s good work for hungry authors willing to create your book using your ideas, characters, and payment. They could make $3,000 creating your book, or more. The bill to you will be higher than what they receive as freelance artists.
This ghosting is not going to be inexpensive, as we can see from the pricing above. Five figures is pretty much a reasonable starting point. It only proves how much a good book can be worth to an author.
If you’re ready to put your unfinished book into the shredder, getting it ghosted may be a way to save the concepts and characters. I must point out that development of your story alongside an editor, with patient revision, will cost plenty of time, and not nearly as much money in most cases. It lets you avoid the costly ghost ranch. Whenever a book has to earn its own keep — instead of sparking a business, like the nonfiction books can do — going to a ghost for fiction might make the profits vanish.
