Photo by tnarik used under CC 2.0
I was listening to Chris Garret’s pod cast today as he was interviewing Gary Vaynerchuck on Gary’s new book, “Crush It”. One of the questions Chris asked was how he (Gary) found the time to write a book between all the keynotes, appearances and running a business on a daily basis. The answer was simple: he hired a ghost writer.
I was surprised by Gary’s answer because a lot of folks don’t usually admit that they’ve had a ghost writer to write a book for them. It’s a grey area that people tend not to ask or tell but almost everyone in the industry know about it. A lot of companies hire ghost writers for either part time or full time basis. I’ve done my share of ghost writing too when I started my freelance writing career. Most of the time you can’t disclose who your client is or what you’re writing for. Depending on how good you get as a writer, you might be required to write as a particular person, personality or even a brand that is part of a larger marketing campaign.
I don’t think the Clintons wrote their autobiographies all by themselves, and I know I’m not the only one who think that. Famous and successful people are busy, they need others to help out with their stuff like writing a book. People still need to write books because it gives them credibility. There’s a lot of writers out there who either on a part time basis or full time basis write, edit, and/or proof read. Don’t rule out ghost writing as part of the offerings that you give as a writer. Ghost writing start anywhere from writing company press releases, articles, and blog posts. The more diverse your writing skills are the better. Even when you’re employed full time, your skills might be required to help out the company.
Transcribing is another process of writing. It’s not as creative as writing articles but a lot of media companies require them. Transcripts are traditionally produced for medical and legal professions but film, TV and video production offices use them heavily as well. I had to transcribe a lot of stuff when I was interning at a production company in high school. You have to look at the footage, record whatever the person is saying on and off camera, record the time on the track and describe the shot at the same time. Needless to say, it can improve your typing speed.
In Gary’s case, he recorded his voice and had someone transcribe it for him. Then he probably edited later or had an editor do it for him. So if you’re starting out your writing career or are already writing for clients, keep in mind that you can always ghost write while we work on that dream novel or book on the side. If you’re seriously consider writing a book under your own name, the process of writing a book most likely will give you many valuable lessons that you can use on your own book.