The Pros and Cons of Hiring a Ghostwriter: A Guide for CEOs
If meetings, conference calls, and networking events take up most of your day, you probably don’t have the time to write a book, especially one that will land on bestseller lists and propel your brand to even greater success. However, that’s not enough to make you give up on publishing your own book, whether it’s a memoir or a compilation of your knowledge about the industry, leadership, or strategy. Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day, which means you have one of two choices: sacrificing sleep or hiring a ghostwriter.
Entrepreneurs and CEOs are increasingly choosing to work with ghostwriters for the simple reason that being a published author increases their clout and enhances their credibility as experts. However, they simply don’t have the time, energy, or writing experience to arrange and present their ideas in a book themselves. While hiring a ghostwriter to pen your book for you may feel like cheating, it isn’t—all the ideas, thoughts, and content are entirely yours, with the ghostwriter simply using their writing expertise to help you find the right words. Most business leaders who publish books hire ghostwriters.
We offer end-to-end professional ghostwriting services for CEOs who are looking to grow and promote their brand and leave their mark on their field. If you’re ready to solidify your position as a thought leader and advance your career with a ghostwritten book, contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation.
So, what are some of the main pros and cons of hiring a ghostwriter?
Pro: Hiring a ghostwriter saves you time
In the business world, time is money, which is why most CEOs and entrepreneurs choose to hire ghostwriters when they want to publish a book. Unless you’re retired, chances are you can’t just take a few months off to write your book, so why not outsource the heavy lifting to someone who’s skilled and knows how to tap into your knowledge and experience to craft the most engaging narrative possible? After all, there’s a lot more to writing a great book than simply filling pages with words and pressing “print.” A professional ghostwriter knows how to best organize your ideas into a cohesive narrative that will keep readers engaged from start to finish.
Of course, you will still have the final say, but an experienced ghostwriter will handle the hardest aspects of book writing while helping extract your most valuable insights, ideas, and anecdotes. With their creative expertise, they can guide you to new realizations or breathe new life into anecdotes that you didn’t put much stock into originally. Not only will hiring a ghostwriter allow you to focus on your business rather than on writing, but it will ensure your book gets finished in a timely manner, leaving you to reap the benefits of being a published author sooner than you’d imagined.
Con: Hiring a good ghostwriter can be expensive
Hiring someone to distill your life and business experience into a bestselling book won’t come cheap—and that’s a good thing. With writing services, as with any other service, you get what you pay for, so if you want high-quality writing, you’ll have to invest in a high-quality writer. You don’t want your name on a subpar book, which is why you definitely shouldn’t hire the cheapest writer you can find. You have to think of this project as an investment—if it’s a great book, you can boost your brand’s reputation, grow your business, and capitalize on speaking engagements as a thought leader, but you’ll have to pay to ensure your book is great.
You want to hire someone trustworthy with an impeccable track record—someone who won’t plagiarize another writer’s work or subcontract your project to a content mill. Make sure the ghostwriter you hire has professional credits and a solid reputation in the industry as well as experience writing about your field and subject matter. A good ghostwriter will also fact-check and research your book, which is why professionals will charge a higher fee. Ultimately, you decide how much you want to spend, but remember that quality comes at a price.
Pro: Ghostwriting is a collaborative process
Yes, a ghostwriter will take care of the toughest parts of writing a book, but that doesn’t mean you get to kick back and wait for the result—you shouldn’t anyway since this book will represent you, your experience, and your business. Although you want to save yourself time, you also need to be certain that your thoughts, opinions, and insights will be taken into consideration and that your feedback will be thoughtfully woven into the final manuscript. It’ll be solely your name on the cover—unless you agree to share credit with your ghostwriter—so you want to make sure you stand fully behind the content.
From interviews to outline revisions, the author of the book (you) needs to be involved in the entire process to guarantee a successful outcome. That’s why you should hire a ghostwriter who’s curious, knowledgeable, and responsive to your queries and doubts but who will also set boundaries when it comes to the number of revisions and amount of notes they’ll accept. After all, you’re hiring them for their expertise, and the idea isn’t for you to completely take over the process—if that were the case, you’d be writing the book yourself. Of course, you never have to publish content you don’t agree with, but you should be able to trust the expertise of your ghost.
Con: Hiring a ghostwriter means you’re not writing your own book
Some people want to write their own book—every word of it—rather than pay someone else to do it for them. Although ghostwriting is becoming increasingly popular, especially in the world of business, not everyone is on board with the practice because the author is outsourcing the work and not giving credit to the ghostwriter. To some people, this feels deceitful and unethical, and even though ghostwriters are entirely okay with not receiving credit in exchange for a handsome fee, not everyone is comfortable with such an arrangement.
Of course, not all people think this way as many understand that CEOs and entrepreneurs simply don’t have the time to write a book but do have the knowledge to fill one (or more). For these professionals, ghostwriting is a perfectly valid solution for publishing an insightful book without giving up too much of their valuable time. In fact, this is how most business books and memoirs are written. It’s not much different from speechwriters helping public figures compose a speech.
If you’re ready to share your business knowledge with the world but don’t have the time to find a suitable ghostwriter, negotiate a contract, and go through the time-consuming process of self-publishing, reach out to our team of ghostwriting experts, who will support you every step of the way. We can also help you get in touch with agents and publishers and devise a comprehensive marketing strategy to promote your book so you can focus on growing your business while also enjoying the perks of being a published author.
