A question I often get asked as a Ghostwriter/Publisher/Marketer is “How Much Do You Charge?” It seems like a fair enough question. The reality, however, is that the answer is not so simple.
It’s kind of like asking, “How much does a house cost?” As you know, there are a lot of things to take into consideration when purchasing a home. For one, where in the world would you like to live? What kind of neighborhood or neighbors would you like to have? What amenities do you want—or need? Do you want a three-car garage—or would you settle for a carport—or for no garage at all?
Aaron Kirman, a west coast realtor, has sold over $14 billion in luxury homes. He has one on the market now for $150,000,000. Check it out. And lest you think that price is outrageous, just know that, earlier this year, Ken Griffin bought the penthouse unit in New York City’s 220 Central Park South for $238 million.
WHY Do You Want a Book Written?
A book can do a lot of things for people. You need to decide what it is you want it to do for you. It could be a legacy project with a small reach. Perhaps you want your “issue” (next of kin) to understand your life a little better, so you compile your memoirs. There’s nothing wrong with that. Or, maybe you have a more ambitious goal of positioning yourself as a Subject Matter Expert (SME). Having a book in your name could do just that. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth is a good example.
Maybe you’re uber ambitious and you have designs on the presidency. A book is a must. Both The Audacity of Hope and The Art of the Deal launched the political careers of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, respectively.
In my interview process I usually ask the person that’s considering working with me a series of questions. One two-parter is often very telling. I’ll ask, “How many copies would you like to sell?” I’ll await their answer. Then, to bring them back down to earth, I’ll follow that up with, “How many copies *realistically* do you think you can sell?” Gulp! If they don’t have any kind of platform, it’s a tough row to hoe.
I’ll also ask people what their budget is (any realtor or car salesperson that doesn’t ask that question won’t be in business for very long). I can’t help laughing when people say they want to sell “a million copies” of their book—yet have no platform to speak of and confess that their budget is in the four-figure range! Obviously, they don’t know very much about how much work goes into writing, publishing and marketing books. Hint: it’s very difficult to get a book written for you for four figures. And that doesn’t even include the publishing and marketing of it.
Maybe you want your book turned into a movie, much like Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella. The book resulted in “Field of Dreams,” which was nominated for three Academy Awards.
Perhaps You’re a Car Person
Another question around budget that I’ll ask is “Would you like the Volkswagen, the BMW or the Ferrari?” If your answer is “the skateboard,” then please look elsewhere. In case you are wondering, the most expensive car on the market, on the day this blogpost was written, is the Bugatti La Voiture Noire. La Voiture Noire is French for…wait for it… ”the black car.” Pretty imaginative, right? It sells for a cool $18.7 million.
The Bottom Line
For context on the “going rate,” check out these links:
As for how and what I charge to ghostwrite a book for someone, it basically comes down to these five things:
- The amount of research I’m going to have to do (or how much time I’ll have to invest in it)
- The complexity of the content I’ll be writing about
- The quality of the source material that I will be provided
- My availability
- Whether or not it is a good fit
Reality Bites
Many people think the hardest part of getting a book out there is the writing process. It’s not. Once the manuscript is complete, the next step (after a deep breath) is to get it published. A Ph.D. friend of mine told me it took him longer to format the written document into a publishable version than it did to write the dissertation itself!
After the publishing process is over, you merely have a published book. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back. Then ask yourself, “Now what?” Surely you want some kind of return on your investment of time (very often, a large chunk of it). Well, now you must market it! Proverbial Marketing (or Advertising) 101 says that (even) “if you build a better mousetrap, the world won’t beat a path to your door.” Well, maybe in a perfect world they would. But we don’t live in a perfect world.
You have to promote it. Market it. Until the purple cows come home. You do that by creating channels of distribution. Getting reviews. You might do a book launch. You could appear on podcasts. Perhaps you’ll do speaking engagements. The possibilities are endless.
Plan B
Of course, there’s always the option of writing it yourself. After all, how hard could it be? As Red Smith was known to have said, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”
About: Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter with the number of books he’s contributed to in double figures.
Image credit: bankdirector.com
