Is hiring a ghostwriter for your next book the new wave?

Publishing a book is the mark of true expertise in one’s field, and yet many don’t ever pick up the proverbial pen to do it. Author Joseph Epstein has said that approximately 81% of Americans feel they have a book in them.

And it’s true: we all have a story to tell, research to share, or an opinion that could necessitate a book. What’s stopping you from bringing that wish to fulfillment? 

Most will say a combination of a lack of time and a lack of writing skills gets in the way of their big book writing dreams. Writing a book requires a significant amount of time investment: time that could be otherwise spent working on one’s business, spending time with family and friends, or showing up to work.

 That time can easily be doubled or even tripled if you lack a belief in your writing abilities. For some, writing comes naturally – and for others, it simply doesn’t.

This was the case for technical recruiter Scott Turman, who was trying to write his own first book. “I knew I had the expertise to do it, but I couldn’t actually get the words on the page,” he confided.

Luckily, the ‘next big thing’ that many thought leaders and entrepreneurs are looking to do is hire a ghostwriter. Believe it or not, many of the books on your local bookstore’s shelves weren’t actually written by the name on the front of the book.

The chance of a book being ghostwritten goes up even higher if the book is nonfiction and/or “written” by a celebrity or public figure. You may think that these individuals are more qualified than anyone to write a book, but the truth is, they probably have less time than anyone else to actually sit down to write it.

Instead, they look to hire author assistant services, so they can pump out a book into the world with limited time investment on their hands. You can hire a content creator to help with this, too.

What the Ghostwriting Process Looks Like

Scott Turman is now the founder of BrightRay Publishing (https://brightraypublishing.com/), an all-in-one service that solved the problem he had with his first book. The publishing house will write, edit, publish, and promote the book you want to write. 

“When I realized the book was not coming out onto the page, I decided to look into hiring some help,” Turman explained. “I found Zoe Rose, who is now my co-founder, and between the two of us, we were able to get the book onto the market within weeks.” 

Rose has been writing her own fiction books since high school, and was seamlessly able to pen the expertise that Turman had to get the book actually, physically written.

“Ghostwriting is about taking the main lessons, stories, and pointers that you want to get down, and doing it in a way that flows for a reader,” Turman noted. “This way, everything you want to say is in there, but you don’t have to mess with the flow of the chapters or wrestle with your words to make it sound good. A ghostwriter does all of that.”

But it doesn’t stop there. BrightRay takes it beyond the actual writing of the book, which is the second obstacle where many get stuck. Once the book is actually done, what do you do with it? You’d be surprised how many individuals are sitting on fully written books because they don’t know the next steps.

Publishing the Book

BrightRay Publishing also specializes in getting the book published so it gets out onto the marketplace, and then promoted to get the marketing it deserves.

This looks different than the ‘traditional’ style of publishing (but, by the way – don’t be fooled by those who have traditional book deals. Almost all traditional publishing houses have in-house ghost writers or a rolodex of content creation clients to “assist” in the writing process for the authors they sign). 

In the traditional route, an author (represented by a literary agent) will pitch a book to a publishing house, then write under their watch. Then, the publishing house will get it into the world.

There’s another process for those who don’t have traditional book deals, though – and this is independent publishing. BrightRay helps authors do this. 

“It’s not just about getting the book out onto the marketplace so readers can order it. It’s about positioning it in the proper light so it reaches new audiences and actually does something for the author’s reputation.

For example, one of our most recent books hit the Top 10 list for negotiation books on Amazon. That’s visibility and credibility, which will help the author moving forward,” Turman said. 

Speed is a factor for many, too. It doesn’t have to be a year-long process to write, edit, publish, and promote (even though that sounds like a fair time assessment to most).

BrightRay cares about getting great work done on an expedited timeline, so that you can have a book on the market sharing your story and expertise within months if that’s what you want. “Our comparatively short time frame separates us from the competition,” explained Turman. 

So, if book writing has been on your bucket list but under the ‘maybe one day’ column, consider an authors’ assistant. More than you can see when scanning Amazon’s selection of books or your local bookstore’s aisles, ghostwriters have taken over for authors who have something to say but are lacking the literary talent and/or time to do something about it.