Wednesday, July 13, 2011

GHOST WRITING

I have been reading Ghost Writing (How to write for Others) by Lynne Hackles. This book has completely changed my perception and attitude of this avenue of writing from a negative one to a positive one. I used to think: Why put in all the hard work only for someone else to get all the credit? But Lynne points out; ‘Everyone has a story but not everyone can write their story. Your work can help people achieve their dreams and share their stories.’

This has opened my eyes to the prospects of branching out as a writer. We are all painfully aware of the dwindling story markets, and being able to apply our creative skills to bring someone’s story to life would be a rewarding experience. Lynne also points out; ‘It’s worth remembering that a ghost will get paid for their work whether it gets into print or not.’ How good is that? The added beauty of ghost writing is that it’s a project that can be tackled alongside your usual writing.

Writers need markets and in reading Ghost Writing I have learned there is a huge market for ghost writers – not everyone has the gift of successfully expressing the written word. Here are just a few of those markets:- celebrity autobiographies, specialised subjects, blogs, websites, speeches, novels, articles, history of a town and memoirs.

The book, Ghost Writing, is a comprehensive easy to read guide which covers everything from the opportunities available, finding clients, marketing your services, setting up your business, meeting and interviewing potential clients, dealing with contracts, writing and selling the client’s story and everything in between. It really is a worthwhile read!

So, if you are thinking about taking your writing skills to another level, opening up your options and branching out, consider ghost writing.


Keep writing :-)


9 comments:

  1. It's a great book isn't it! Plenty of info in there and lots of food for thought :-)

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  2. Thanks for that informative post, Diane, especially since I haven't read Lynne's book yet!

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  3. Yes, it inspired me, too. A great book.
    And you are so right about needing to branch out.

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  4. It is a great book Teresa. Yes! Heaps of good info in it. Definitely is worth a read Rosemary. I can see all the positives in branching out with writing Gail. It's good to have more options with our writing and the challenges of branching out can only enhance our writing skills. Well done to Lynne for swinging open those doors into other options in the writing world for us. Thank you to you all for leaving comments too :-)

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  5. Thank you for the review, Diane. Especially as it's such a good one. When I was reading all the blogs bemoaning the fact that the short story markets were dwindling I was shouting, Well, try something else instead. (Shame about the story markets though.)

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  6. That's really interesting, Diane - thank you for sharing. We certainly need some more outlets for our creativity! :-)

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  7. You are more than welcome Lynne. Congratulations on writing such an awesome book! Thanks very much for leaving a comment Amanda, and you are absolutely right we do need more outlets for our creativity.

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  8. I've really only thought of ghost writing in terms of books 'by' celebrities. I can now see there are lots of other possibilities too.

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  9. Hello Patsy :-) It is something to think about. Always good to keep our options open as to which directions we go with our writing.

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