Determining ghostwriting rates can be a little scary for the freelancer.
Dear Dr. Freelance: What would you say are reasonable ghostwriting rates for a non-fiction book for a leading authority on a topic, based on his research and data? (He’s a Ph.D. and the president of a large university.) When negotiating a contract, should the ghostwriter ask for payment during the writing stage, plus a percentage of the book royalties? The author has also offered to share credit. — Could Be Casper
Dear Casper: How appropriate that a ghost would write in just before Halloween! Honestly, there are a 101 ways for a freelancer to skin that black cat. For starters, this “How Much Should I Charge?” pdf from The Writers Market says this about ghostwriting rates (without royalty or credit): $70 an hour, with a per project low of $5000, high of $100,000, and average of $36,000. The per word costs are 50 cents low, $3 high, and average $1.65. Yeah, that’s a pretty wide range!
Ultimately, the book will cost whatever the market will bear. But as part of the calculation, there are several immediate factors to consider for the freelancer who wants to add ghostwriting into his or her arsenal:
- An experienced ghost can command a much higher fee than a newbie.
- The length of the book, in terms of word count and page count.
- How much research needs to be done, or if the content is already in some written form, or if the author provides audio files that can be transcribed (or converted with Dragon) and edited, rather than starting from scratch.
- How much back-and-forth can be expected in the editing process.
I’ve participated in several ghosting projects and have turned down more than I can count. Here are a couple of examples from my own experience:
- I ghostwrote a short-ish book last year for someone who gave me audio files for each chapter. It took me about 60 hours, and I charged $100 an hour — but, admittedly, that’s a lot easier than writing from scratch. It was pretty breezy stuff, and I didn’t have to do any research. As far as payment, I asked for 1/3 up front, 1/3 at the halfway point and 1/3 upon completion, but I didn’t ask for royalties or credit.
- I’m currently working on another ghostwriting project that’s purely hourly. Again, I am working mostly from existing material that is being edited/fleshed out. For this one, a little research is required as well as some meeting time with the author. I expect it will take a little longer than 60 hours…I estimated it at 100.
- For a project that’s currently back-burnered, I got paid a couple thousand bucks to create the book proposal and two sample chapters. So far, no bites on agents or publishers, but I got paid for the work I did. (In retrospect, I should have asked for more. Lesson learned!) If the book gets picked up, I am contracted to receive a 15% royalty in addition to getting a percentage of the advance — but I’m not holding my breath.
When you add royalties or credit in, it changes the negotiation as well as the ghostwriting rates. And those are also affected by whether the book is going to be self published or if the author has secured a name publisher. (In the latter, royalties would likely have higher value, unless the author has an exceptional sales and marketing plan. Ghostwriting a timely book for a 15-minute celebrity would clearly be more lucrative than even the most respected academician…as sad as that is.) Without a track record, it’s a bit tough to quantify the value of royalties and credit, so I would want to make sure I was paid appropriately for my efforts regardless. Freelancers know very well that fame doesn’t pay the mortgage as well as fortune does.
Finally, both parties need to go into it with eyes wide open. Skilled ghosting is more expensive than most inexperienced authors realize. And it goes without saying that I would have an intellectual property lawyer review the contract before signing anything!
Do you have tips on calculating ghostwriting fees? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
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It’s unfortunate the spread on the Writers Market stats are so wide. It’s almost as bad as having no guidelines at all! But having a low of 50 cents is positive.
Very informative. As a longtime ghostwriter, I’ve found that every project is distinct enough that it requires its own considerations and terms. The great unknown–and a factor that can eat up your compensation–is how much research some projects will require. If it’s going to be significant, I often arrange, as a part of my contract, to be paid an hourly rate initially for doing the research, and then later, in the writing phase, move to a per-word fee.
@Mike, it’s a rather big ballpark, isn’t it?
@Bruce, that’s an excellent idea. In the “I should have asked for more” example above, it would have solved the problem. The writing wasn’t the time-consuming aspect, the research was. As I say, lesson learned!
Excellent article and reflective of rates in the real-world for a ghost writer. Bruce gave an excellent tip about how to handle a project that might be hard to pinpoint price because of the research involved–go with an upfront hourly rate to cover the front of the project and switch to a project rate or per word rate for the actual writing. One piece of advice not price related I would give writers considering a ghostwriting project is to be careful of taking on a project from a “client from hell” just to break into ghostwriting. Trust me–a poisonous client situation is not fun … not fun at all. Not to mention those types of projects end up unprofitable because time and aggravation.
@Dennis, thanks for the comment. Your advice about not taking on a potentially hazardous project to “break into ghostwriting” is absolutely spot on. The prudent freelancer needs to wait for a good (or, better yet, great) opportunity, not just any opportunity. That’s sound business advice in general, too.
Amen, to Dr. Freelance! I remember taking on my first project from ‘the client from hell’ who offered his bedroom to both my new husband and myself for one month while the client and I worked on the project — night and day, I might add! Then, he deducted our room and board from his fee!!! We were (and still are) friends, so didn’t sign a contract about all details. The fabric of “Hey, just stay here with me then we can get more done,” is woven with sticky yarn that can give you literal hives!
Hi my name is Nickolas, I am a 29 year old male recently divorced “again”. I have an interest in finding a ghostwriter to help me forge a book about my life as a ward of the state from age 3 to 18 and the effects of this lifestyle on me today I know my punctuation isnt very good as my eduction is somewhat lacking in this department. I have been told numerous times I should do this by many many different people..but never realy gave it any thought until now. i dont even know if this is a good place to start..but, would like to hear more in regards to the matter. Thanks
@Nickolas, thanks for sharing your story. There are quite a few ghostwriting organizations out there, as well as independents. You’ll need to do some research on who might be a good fit, as well as what it might cost, but I wish you the best of luck. I’ll certainly be addressing ghostwriting again in the future, so please keep up posted on what you find.
I’m a ghostwriter for a self-published book that sold very well and future books will most likely be picked up by a publisher. I would like to learn more about how i can negotiate a percentage of royalties and advance, or royalties plus an hourly fee for working. Does anyone have advice for that? It was hard not to enjoy in the success of the book, especially as my hourly rate was on the low side. I don’t want to make that mistake again.
Ladies & Gents:
While I subscribe to the theoretical of avoiding “clients from Hell” (haven’t we all had them?), how pray tell do you do so when sifting through ghost-writing/ freelance offers? Just curious about your thoughts/filtering process on this. Thanks much.
M. and Cindy, thanks for your comments. I’ll provide some thoughts on both topics in an upcoming post and also open it up to the readership for their opinions!
Very interesting story. Thanks for the link to the PDF, Got it! I’m a hip hop/rap artist thinking of getting into Ghostwriting for some new and upcoming artists. I ran across your article while searching for info on average royalty percentage for ghost writers in music….
Glad to help, DaCandyLady. Interesting niche—please drop by with an update sometime!
Hello there Dr Freelance!
I am about to embark on My first ghost writing job and I have some questions.
Is it appropriate for me to request a few chapters for reviewal before giving a quota? And how do I negotiate a part of the royalties?
The job is to rewrite, polish and Edit a fiction That is currently in rough form at 45k.
Appreciate your help,
Hannah
It sounds like Hannah and I are in a very similar position. I would appreciate feedback as well!
Josh
What about eBooks?
Hannah, Josh, Susanna—good thoughts across the board. Will post up some ideas in the coming days.
Hi, I just agreed to “edit” a book for a friend-of- a-friend-type-thing and threw out a rate of $4-$ 6 per page, depending on how much they needed from my end. After really talking with the authors, they are hoping for me to do some interviews and pretty much write the whole story. The two authors have no real money, and I am a reporter/copy editor, so am new at working on books. We’re both sort of unproven, so I felt bad charging them a lot. Now, I think I just agreed to working for beans! Is my rate too low?
Great advice above, by the way!
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