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Ghostwriting happens throughout the publishing world, but as readers—and even writers—we aren’t always aware of it. It used to be that ghostwriting was limited to celebrity, sport-personality or political figure biographies and autobiographies, but today ghostwriting offers freelance writers more and more opportunities to get paid to write. Any person—or business, for that matter—with a story to tell might enlist the services of a ghost writer to get that story told.

How Ghostwriting Works
When you’re a ghostwriter, you contract with a client to put their story in writing for them, whether in book or article form or other relevant media like newsletters or blog posts. Individuals and companies generally hire ghostwriters because they lack on or more of the following: time, writing talent and the knowledge around how best to organize, structure and present the information they want to share. With few exceptions, the finished product appears as though it was written or produced by the client and no attribution is given to the ghostwriter.

Advantages of Ghostwriting
For some writers, attribution is as important to them as the writing process, especially at the beginning of a freelance writing career—the more published clips you have to promote yourself, the more writing jobs may come your way. But for other writers, the lack of attribution is less rewarding than the experience of helping to bring another person’s message or story to light. Further, that lack of attribution excuses the ghostwriter from actively participating in the post-publication promotion process, thus allowing them to keep their focus on writing, whether it’s their own work or work for another client.