Hiring Help: Editors Vs Ghostwriters

Most new writers do not understand the difference between ghostwriters and editors. They hire help, but hire the wrong person. In reality, the cost of hiring a professional is much cheaper than writing a second rate book. Even paying $5 000 or $10 000 for a book can be recouped with a little work. Forget publisher royalties, and a fiction book can earn the author $4 – 5 each. All money is recouped by selling 2 000 or less copies.

A non fiction writer can pay their editors and ghostwriters up to $20 000 and still make the money back within the first six months.







Editors

I wrote in a previous article the tasks that an editor does, the difference between a line editor and content editor, and how to ‘test’ the editor to make sure they know what they are doing.

There are legal limitations on what an editor may, and may not do:

• They may not change anything in the book. They only make suggestions.


• They may not rewrite passages for the author.


• They may not fix grammar mistakes.

Most writers think that it is their job to write the first draft. The editor is responsible for turning it into a marketable book. This is a myth. It is not the editor’s job to teach writers their craft, grammar rules, or continually correct the same mistake 100 times in the manuscript.

Editors will often point out 2 – 10 common mistakes, point out structure problems, and then a few glaring problems. They will then kick the book back to the author who must make all the corrections.

Ghostwriters

If you want someone to edit your book, polish it, and do the work for you, then hire a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter can add missing parts to the book, rewrite and completely change entire chapters. They might even write the entire book for you.

The writer needs to discuss whether the ghostwriter needs to discuss changes with them. In many cases, the writer will work as proofreader making changes and correcting typos they find. Few professional ghostwriters will be impressed if a writer sends back a full length page of corrections that took 20 minutes to fix – when the actual corrections would have only taken the writer 2 – 3 minutes.

In this situation, the writer and ghostwriter are a team. Ghostwriters who are worth their fee are very rare. Very rare. If you happen to find one then don’t annoy them and lose their services. A good ghostwriter can earn a professional author a lot of money – leaving the author time to promote their career. Most professional/famous fiction authors have editors and ghostwriters working for them. Almost all celebrity books where ghostwritten.

Unlike editors, you want to look at a ghostwriter’s publishing credits. They can never disclose their client list or mention books they wrote – so you must judge their skills by their work.

There are a few things to know before hiring a ghostwriter. If you submit the book to a publisher, the editor assigned to you may still want a lot of changes. This doesn’t mean the ghostwriter was not worth their fee. All it means is that the publishing house’s ‘in house’ style is different from the industry standard, or the publishing house needs a certain type of book to market.