Ghostwriting Companies: Use of the Closer

Have you ever bought an automobile and, when the negotiations with the salesman reached an impasse, you were brought to the sales manager?  He's the real deal-maker, the closer.  Ghostwriting companies have closers as well.  The writer you talk to in order to close the deal may not be the writer who executes your manuscript.

Here's how it works.  You call the company (or it calls you in response to your email query) and you talk to a secretary, who then puts you in touch with "one of our top-selling authors."  This person may have a writing credit or two and is paid a fee by the company to close the deals and get potential clients to sign contracts.  But he's not necessarily the writer who will compose your manuscript--not the person you will work with for three to four months.

Next, the "closer" explains company policy to you, giving a hard sales pitch full of promises that the client can expect great results and fantastic writing.  He or she then says that it might be best if you talk to a few other writers and, gosh darn, you yourself can make the selection.  The three or four writers you talk to will usually be inexperienced writers since these companies pay very little--they keep about 70% of the fee--and almost no writer with any real credits or experience is going to work for these outfits, especially for the low wages they pay.  By now, your head is spinning, but the closer will pop in and try to confuse you with a lot of talk about ghostwriting and publishing that is pure hype since the potential client knows nothing of the process and simply receives some technical jargon and more promises.

It's a shady business, in my opinion.  The companies don't break the law (although some do, and they've been prosecuted and convicted), but they certainly violate dozens of ethical standards.  The owners of these companies are simply executing a business model.  The owners usually have no background in writing.  In the age of the Internet, they can reach millions of people who have always wanted to write a book, people who don't realize that the ghostwriting company is simply going to take their money and give them a manuscript that is substandard and will be printed on-demand, if at all.

Want a book written?  Talk to an honest independent ghostwriter.  Talk to a writer and not a closer.

~William Hammett

Contact wmhammett@aol.com

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