My wife and I both have degrees in communications and work in the field full-time (doing book ghostwriting, editing, and coaching). A good day for us is when we understand each other 51% of the time, a feat we last achieved on October 13, 2017.  

Communication is hard—even for professionals like us who love learning and sharing people’s stories and passions. And if you’re working with a ghostwriter or editor, you may have encountered this yourself, which is why I wrote this article to help both parties get the most from the process.  

Around 375 BCE, Plato wrote something truly profound. But since few modern readers understand ancient Greek, we needed Benjamin Jowett (1817–1893) to translate those words into something we could grasp: "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention." Today, we just say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

History lesson aside, many clients have told me something like, “I want to work with you. But I can’t afford it.”

I understand completely. I meet with about twenty clients before I find one with the passion and financial resources to hire me. But what about the other nineteen? Should they just give up on their dreams? Of course not.

Here’s what I tell those who aren’t in a place to hire me as a ghostwriter.

A ghostwriter is a paid professional who gives each client their time, expertise, and talent to complete a writing project to the best of their ability in exchange for compensation for their skills. Ghostwriters are paid in money; clients get to have their story told in the most engaging way possible.

But how much does a ghostwriter cost?