Writing is hard. The realities of being an author online are filled with more pressure and competition than ever before. It’s increasingly clear that we’re moving towards an age of content marketing online as brands continue to realize the massive value they can receive through providing their consumers with free, quality content. As competition increases, it’s become more important than ever before to hire highly skilled content producers that can paint your brand in the best possible light. Enter the ghost writer.
Unfortunately, authors are forced to do less writing and more marketing than ever before. These days, an author is incredibly fortunate if they spend only slightly less time writing a piece than they do marketing it. Social media expertise, blog positioning, email pitching, and a host of other skills are almost required to be a successful writer online, as producing great content just doesn’t matter if the platform isn’t there to support it. Equally, brand owners are burdened with ten thousand different tasks, and even if they have the desire to produce wonderful written content they rarely have the time.
To recap, there are many individuals who have great skill as writers but no platform, and many brand owners that have a platform and other marketing expertise but no time or inclination to write. This mismatch creates a clear opportunity for ghostwriters willing to let go of their ego in exchange for access to a broad platform and immediate compensation. Ghostwriting is increasingly entering the mainstream. While it’s difficult to pin down exact statistics on ghostwriting, many industry insiders believe that 80% of published books are ghostwritten. As more brands take the dive into content marketing these opportunities for ghostwriters will only increase.
Sometimes you need a friendly ghost
Opinions on ghostwriting tend to fall into two separate camps: those who understand that skilled ghostwriters can contribute enormous value to a brand and those who believe that ghostwriting is a somewhat shady practice that undermines the trust relationship between reader and author. The truth of the matter is that the freedom from the burdens of authorship and marketing that ghostwriters are provided allows them the ability to be the most genuine, honest, and skilled storytellers of the modern era.
The Client as a Character:
Different kinds of writing require different approaches and different skill sets. The experience of writing a lengthy, 10,000 word essay on a topic of some distinction is quite different from writing social media posts. But regardless of the kind of writing that is being done, what is often inescapable is the attachment of ego to the piece in question. Authors quite naturally are invested in their work, and when it comes to delivering value to the customer sometimes this authorship ego can get in the way of communicating important information.
Authorship ego clouds great writing!
Ghost writers circumvent this problem entirely, as their name is not attached to the work in question. They are effectively telling someone else’s story, and the client simply becomes another character in the narrative. Ghost writers are forced out of their own psyche and comfort zone into the minds of their character- the client. This allows them to communicate much more freely, and with less attachment to individual betterment and ego, thereby focusing the entire piece on delivering maximum value to the reader.
As the client becomes another character, sometimes it’s possible for the ghost writer to even tell the client’s story better as well. Sometimes we’re just a little too deep into the woods to see our own individual trees, and our great personal stories can become buried under minor fears, worries, and attempts at self-effacement. A ghost writer can cut through this fog and deliver the entire truth with utter confidence, painting the client in an even more positive light.
Epic stories stand alone:
Writers have a strong attachment to authorship. This is entirely understandable; when you pour blood, sweat, and tears into the creation of a piece there’s a deep desire to be credited with its creation. Authors live and die with the success of their work. But the slightly unpleasant reality that many content producers have to come to grips with is this:
99% of the time, people don’t care about the author.
The people who consume your content are invested in the characters of your story. They want to know the takeaways, or get as much information as possible in as short a time as possible. They desire entertainment, or value in some other way. Ultimately, they’re much more excited about the content or characters than whatever name happens to appear at the top or bottom of the piece in question.
Just think of a few classical examples. Beowulf, one of the world’s most famous epic classical poems, was written by an anonymous author. Little is known of Homer, author of the Iliad and Odyssey, and it’s possible that there were multiple “Homers” who wrote the book over a fairly extended period of time. Authorship of various religious texts is a matter of incredibly hot debate.
Epic regardless of authorship
Regardless of the authors of these various pieces, what most people remember is the content of the story and the emotional impact the work had on them.
When you complete the story, you complete the work:
In addition to the value the brand can get from a piece, ghostwriting has many benefits for the writer as well. In this marketing driven online age, many authors feel incredible stress to constantly promote themselves and market their work. The process of marketing, editing, revising, and promoting content is one of the primary causes of disillusionment with writers. I often speak with writers who tell me, “Honestly, I don’t feel like a writer anymore. I feel like a marketer, and I just want to get back to doing what I do best (producing amazing content that people love).”
Ghostwriters avoid this altogether. The job of marketing and promotion falls on the individual or brand they are providing work to, and they can remain entirely focused on the act of creation. This allows them to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to their work without worrying about whatever comes after, making them highly specialized and skilled content providers. We’re increasingly moving towards a world filled with specialists, and when it comes time to select an author for your content it’s often much more beneficial to hire someone who’s an amazing writer rather than someone who’s merely an okay writer but a good marketer.
While traditional authors spend tons of time on prewriting, editing, and publishing, ghostwriters are highly focused on drafting and revision
When a ghostwriter completes their work, the work is finished. It has a sense of finality that they get to savor, and that a more traditional author often lacks. They can then move on to the next project with total focus and an unclouded mind. True storytellers rarely spin a tale and then spend more time telling people about it than they did writing it!
Ghostwriters are the most prolific:
The total focus that ghostwriters have on the creative process allows them to be significantly more prolific than traditional authors. Before actual writing occurs, the brands that employ ghostwriters often do the time consuming tasks of idea conception and outline building for them. It’s then the responsibility of the ghostwriter to take this outline and give it life. After the job is done the brand then takes the piece, performs any necessary edits, and executes the thankless task of marketing the content in question. The job of a ghostwriter is incredibly straightforward: write.
The time that ghostwriters save on marketing and idea conception allows them to focus entirely on developing their writing technique and producing high quality content. This makes them the laser-focused specialists that brands need to turn their ideas into reality.
If you need something done quickly and expertly, ghostwriting is the way to go
Please do not be under the impression that brands are taking advantage of ghostwriters. Ghostwriters are making an incredibly simple trade, they’re exchanging credit for cash. Skilled ghostwriters are often extremely well compensated for their work, and most can make both better and easier money selling their work for an established fee to brands than they could from trying to market it to consumers. Experienced ghostwriters can make a great deal of money with incredible job stability, and only have to do the single task they love rather than wasting energy on all the things that surround writing online.
Brands need genuine storytellers:
The market is increasingly crowded when it comes to content online. As more brands understand that inbound and content-based marketing is the way to drive viewership to their products and services, the competition will only become stiffer. It’s increasingly critical to realize that consumers now expect to receive incredible value in exchange for their time, and it’s up to brands to provide a clear value proposition to their viewership in the form of free, high-quality content.
Brands need genuine storytellers who can cut to the heart of matters and deliver the value that consumers have come to expect, giving opportunity to many technical writers to step into a new field of writing. Using a ghost writer will cut out bias, introduce a fresh perspective, and provide your brand with the highly experienced writing expert it needs to take its content to the next level. Ghostwriters provide a level of focus that can only be offered when vanity and ego is entirely removed from the equation, which is something that an in-house or named author will simply never be able to match.
Ghostwriting is increasingly entering the mainstream, and it’s something that all brands should strongly consider taking advantage of.
About the Author: Forrest Hanson is the founder of Lighthouse Strategic Communications, a boutique communications firm that provides affordable public relations and business development services to emerging businesses, based in San Francisco, CA. He specializes in marketing, content creation, brand positioning, and creative problem solving.
