Ghostwriting marketplaces are proliferating on search engines. They are companies that allow people to post resumes for ghostwriting and editing (along with just about any other service, from plumbing to housekeeping). The writers who post their resumes on these sites are rarely professional writers. The resumes they post are filled with awkward phrasing and grammatical errors. After reading them for years, I have never found one that didn't have egregious errors in the first paragraph. If they can't write a clean, error-free resume, how will they be able to write an entire book. They are moonlighters and people who wish to work from home and have almost no credentials (if any) to call themselves ghostwriters or editors. Let the buyer beware.
If you want the services of a professional ghostwriter, you need to due your due diligence, but first, educate yourself about ghostwriting. Most online ghostwriting is a scam. More to say about that in future posts.
Thanks for stopping by.
William Hammett
William Hammett: Independent Ghostwriter
Friday, December 29, 2017
Friday, May 22, 2015
The Use of Ghostwriters by POD Firms
Print-on-Demand publishing is thriving, and that means both new and established POD companies are fighting for business. For several years, they have added expensive marketing and promotional packages to their original business model of formatting and printing books. iUniverse originally formatted and printed paperbacks on demand for a single fee of $99. Except for honest companies like Booklocker.com, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find a POD that offers to put a book into print for under $2,000. I have spoken to many people who just want the basics: formatting, printing, and eBook conversions, but POD firms no longer offer a basic package with only those three elements. Embedded within almost all packages are the marketing and promotional services. As I have noted in several articles and posts, these services are virtually useless.
But POD companies are now going a step further in trying to grab customers away from other firms: they're offering ghostwriting, and I'm not alluding to the large ghostwriting companies that I've written so much about over the past ten years. More and more companies (Dog Ear is an example) are offering, or are considering, ghostwriting services. Unfortunately, these POD outfits, like large ghostwriting companies, subcontract the work out, and we're back at square one. Ghostwriters who function as subcontractors are usually not high-quality, top-tier writers. Regrettably, the POD firms are looking for warm bodies to give work to so that they may print and promote a finished manuscript.
Self-publishing is not a bad option for authors given the cutthroat competition for mainstream publishing contracts, but as the POD industry has grown, along with the success of eBooks, the self-publishing industry has begun to take advantage of their customers' ignorance of the literary marketplace. Most POD companies lead people to believe, implicitly or explicitly, that promotional services can lead to books becoming bestsellers. And now, in the rush to garner more and more profit, they're adding bad to mediocre ghostwriters to the POD business model.
Trying to find ethical, talented ghostwriters with impeccable credentials is like walking through a minefield. Let the buyer beware.
~William Hammett
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But POD companies are now going a step further in trying to grab customers away from other firms: they're offering ghostwriting, and I'm not alluding to the large ghostwriting companies that I've written so much about over the past ten years. More and more companies (Dog Ear is an example) are offering, or are considering, ghostwriting services. Unfortunately, these POD outfits, like large ghostwriting companies, subcontract the work out, and we're back at square one. Ghostwriters who function as subcontractors are usually not high-quality, top-tier writers. Regrettably, the POD firms are looking for warm bodies to give work to so that they may print and promote a finished manuscript.
Self-publishing is not a bad option for authors given the cutthroat competition for mainstream publishing contracts, but as the POD industry has grown, along with the success of eBooks, the self-publishing industry has begun to take advantage of their customers' ignorance of the literary marketplace. Most POD companies lead people to believe, implicitly or explicitly, that promotional services can lead to books becoming bestsellers. And now, in the rush to garner more and more profit, they're adding bad to mediocre ghostwriters to the POD business model.
Trying to find ethical, talented ghostwriters with impeccable credentials is like walking through a minefield. Let the buyer beware.
~William Hammett
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Sunday, May 17, 2015
The Growing Number of Incompetent Ghostwriters
In this blog, I have taken quite a bit of time to discuss the pitfalls of hiring ghostwriting companies. But more and more individuals are creating websites and advertising their services online. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of these sites are replete with poor phrasing and both major and minor grammatical errors: sentence fragments, misplaced modifiers, run-on sentences, comma splices, subject-verb agreement errors, capitalization and punctuation errors, misspellings, and so many more.
Here's the rub: if someone needs a ghostwriter because he or she doesn't have good language skills, it's unlikely that the individual will spot these huge red flags that a ghost is not a competent writer. It's a Catch-22. You need someone who can write well, but you can't spot the errors in order to see who writes well.
When I first became a full-time ghostwriter, I had about fifteen online competitors. Today, there are tens of thousands of people posting resumes or adding websites to Google's database. The postings at elance, odesk, and upwork are especially bad when it comes to misuse of language, as well as grammatical errors sitting smack dab in the first paragraph of the resume.
But the mistakes can be found on almost any site, including ones for those people who charge from $75,000 to $250,000 to write your book. If people can't demonstrate the basic elements of style or display a mastery of Grammar101, they should be in a different line of work.
And that's what this blog is about: online ghostwriting is mostly an industry filled with bad or inexperienced writers.
~William Hammett
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Here's the rub: if someone needs a ghostwriter because he or she doesn't have good language skills, it's unlikely that the individual will spot these huge red flags that a ghost is not a competent writer. It's a Catch-22. You need someone who can write well, but you can't spot the errors in order to see who writes well.
When I first became a full-time ghostwriter, I had about fifteen online competitors. Today, there are tens of thousands of people posting resumes or adding websites to Google's database. The postings at elance, odesk, and upwork are especially bad when it comes to misuse of language, as well as grammatical errors sitting smack dab in the first paragraph of the resume.
But the mistakes can be found on almost any site, including ones for those people who charge from $75,000 to $250,000 to write your book. If people can't demonstrate the basic elements of style or display a mastery of Grammar101, they should be in a different line of work.
And that's what this blog is about: online ghostwriting is mostly an industry filled with bad or inexperienced writers.
~William Hammett
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Friday, January 24, 2014
Ghostwriting Companies: Why Don't Most Agents and Publishers Know Who They Are?
I find it nothing less than astounding (and more than a bit troubling) that the A-list literary agents and mainstream publishing houses in New York City have never heard of ghostwriting companies claiming to have produced bestsellers for their clients. This is not to say that no agent has ever represented one of their books or that one of their clients has never received a contract from a publisher. But if one researches the publishing industry and asks top agents, acquiring editors, and publishers about these companies, you will most likely not come across very many people who have ever heard of them.
Well, is it possible that the agents and publishers don't know if a manuscript has been ghostwritten once it has been submitted? Sure. But agents and publishers use ghostwriters all the time. Shouldn't a substantial number of these industry pros know of these allegedly successful companies?
What you don't know can most definitely hurt you. If you don't know much about the publishing industry, you will likely get burned in trying to get a marketable manuscript written. Anyone can put up a slick web site. It's quite another matter to write a great book.
Ghostwriting companies deal in volume. I have yet to hear of a great book coming off an assembly line.
~William Hammett
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Well, is it possible that the agents and publishers don't know if a manuscript has been ghostwritten once it has been submitted? Sure. But agents and publishers use ghostwriters all the time. Shouldn't a substantial number of these industry pros know of these allegedly successful companies?
What you don't know can most definitely hurt you. If you don't know much about the publishing industry, you will likely get burned in trying to get a marketable manuscript written. Anyone can put up a slick web site. It's quite another matter to write a great book.
Ghostwriting companies deal in volume. I have yet to hear of a great book coming off an assembly line.
~William Hammett
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Monday, December 30, 2013
Ghostwriting Companies: Who Are Their Writers?
Isn't it strange that almost all ghostwriting companies won't tell you on their web sites who their writers are? There's a reason. The work is usually subcontracted out to freelancers across the country, many of whom have little or no experience. Do you want a moonlighter to pen your book, perhaps a housewife who "did good in English" and is looking to make a little extra money?
If the ghostwriters who work for these companies are such pros--and if they are company employees--why can't we know their names? I am a ghostwriter, and I openly list my name and credits on my web site. There's no secrecy. We don't know the names of people working for ghostwriting companies because the companies subcontract work out to whomever is available, with some exceptions.
So here's the scenario: you want a book written and think that the word "company" holds some special legitimacy. You are therefore willing to listen to a sales pitch and speak with a salesman who, in turn, puts you in touch with writers that neither you nor anyone else has heard of. Is this how you want to spend thousands of dollars?
If you want a book written, contact someone who is not afraid to put his name on a web site, someone who openly gives you a resume, complete with education, writing background, and writing credits.
~ William Hammett
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If the ghostwriters who work for these companies are such pros--and if they are company employees--why can't we know their names? I am a ghostwriter, and I openly list my name and credits on my web site. There's no secrecy. We don't know the names of people working for ghostwriting companies because the companies subcontract work out to whomever is available, with some exceptions.
So here's the scenario: you want a book written and think that the word "company" holds some special legitimacy. You are therefore willing to listen to a sales pitch and speak with a salesman who, in turn, puts you in touch with writers that neither you nor anyone else has heard of. Is this how you want to spend thousands of dollars?
If you want a book written, contact someone who is not afraid to put his name on a web site, someone who openly gives you a resume, complete with education, writing background, and writing credits.
~ William Hammett
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Ghostwriting Companies: The Hype Continues
Some ghostwriting companies, still making money by promising bestselling books when they actually produce poorly-crafted manuscripts, continue to use advertising that makes it seem as if they are powerhouses in the publishing industry. Most of these companies are surely not. Agents and legitimate mainstream publishing houses have never heard of them.
These companies talk about their phenomenal success stories, although the names of their authors and books are never disclosed. They talk of the veritable army of new ghostwriters being added to handle the great demand for ghostwritten genre fiction. I'll let you in on a little secret: there are many people who claim to be ghostwriters, but there are not hundreds of people waiting for assignments to write the next bestselling breakout fiction title. The work is almost always subcontracted out to freelancers and moonlighters across the country. Some are just breaking in and have little or no experience.
Writing any book, let alone a bestselling novel, is a difficult, labor-intensive enterprise. There is no pool of ghostwriters waiting around to write blockbusters for almost no money for companies who contact them when they get a few extra customers. The books produced by a majority of ghostwriting companies are print-on-demand titles that sell very few copies--usually to friends and family members.
If you want to have a book written, my ongoing advice is to contact an independent ghostwriter with experience, not a company or a moonlighter.
~ William Hammett
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These companies talk about their phenomenal success stories, although the names of their authors and books are never disclosed. They talk of the veritable army of new ghostwriters being added to handle the great demand for ghostwritten genre fiction. I'll let you in on a little secret: there are many people who claim to be ghostwriters, but there are not hundreds of people waiting for assignments to write the next bestselling breakout fiction title. The work is almost always subcontracted out to freelancers and moonlighters across the country. Some are just breaking in and have little or no experience.
Writing any book, let alone a bestselling novel, is a difficult, labor-intensive enterprise. There is no pool of ghostwriters waiting around to write blockbusters for almost no money for companies who contact them when they get a few extra customers. The books produced by a majority of ghostwriting companies are print-on-demand titles that sell very few copies--usually to friends and family members.
If you want to have a book written, my ongoing advice is to contact an independent ghostwriter with experience, not a company or a moonlighter.
~ William Hammett
Contact wmhammett@aol.com
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Monday, June 17, 2013
The Round Table Companies: Can You Trust Their Claims?
The Round Table Companies is one of many online ghostwriting outfits trying to dissuade individuals from hiring independent ghostwriters. They offer eight reasons why people should hire their creative team and not ghostwriters. The reasons hold no truth when applied to quality independent ghostwriters. Here are the reasons and the truth behind them.
The Round Table Companies overtly claim (or strongly imply) that ghostwriters do not care about clients, do not maintain contact with them, walk away from jobs after completion, cannot capture a client's narrative voice, don't meet deadlines, do bad work and waste a client's time, never write books under their own names, have no relationships with publishers or agents, and do not know how to help clients brand themselves or their work.
Really now? These claims are utter nonsense when applied to seasoned ghostwriters who have produced dozens of great books.
The above claims are certainly true for the thousands of people who, lacking serious credentials and experience, call themselves ghostwriters--people on elance.com, donanza.com, odesk.com, and many others. These clearing houses list resumes for many people (perhaps not all) who have resumes and writing samples riddled with rookie writing mistakes. But let's avoid hasty generalizations, shall we, gentlemen? The fact is that highly talented independent ghostwriters have produced successful books for laymen, celebrities, businessmen, and politicians for many years.
Experienced, talented ghostwriters do indeed meet deadlines, write under their own names, know the publishing industry, help brand authors, keep in touch with their clients, write sequels, know how to skillfully vary narrative voice, and work closely with authors for months at a time. They care deeply about their work, their clients, and the success of the books they ghostwrite.
I've accomplished all of the above tasks with clients for over fifteen years, and I know other professional ghostwriters who can make the same claims. Perhaps The Round Table Companies should concern themselves more with a fair, balanced assessment of the ghostwriting industry than with their own business model that closely parallels that of ghostwriting companies. Yes, there are bad ghostwriters out there . . . just like there are really bad ghostwriting companies and print-on-demand companies that shouldn't be trusted.
For my money, clients should work one-on-one with a veteran ghostwriter. Working with creative teams? Not for me, thank you very much. Do you want corporate guidance that transfers your work from one department to another or do you want a close working relationship with a single writer who will give you his time and expertise during and after the collaboration?
Let the buyer beware.
~ William Hammett
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The Round Table Companies overtly claim (or strongly imply) that ghostwriters do not care about clients, do not maintain contact with them, walk away from jobs after completion, cannot capture a client's narrative voice, don't meet deadlines, do bad work and waste a client's time, never write books under their own names, have no relationships with publishers or agents, and do not know how to help clients brand themselves or their work.
Really now? These claims are utter nonsense when applied to seasoned ghostwriters who have produced dozens of great books.
The above claims are certainly true for the thousands of people who, lacking serious credentials and experience, call themselves ghostwriters--people on elance.com, donanza.com, odesk.com, and many others. These clearing houses list resumes for many people (perhaps not all) who have resumes and writing samples riddled with rookie writing mistakes. But let's avoid hasty generalizations, shall we, gentlemen? The fact is that highly talented independent ghostwriters have produced successful books for laymen, celebrities, businessmen, and politicians for many years.
Experienced, talented ghostwriters do indeed meet deadlines, write under their own names, know the publishing industry, help brand authors, keep in touch with their clients, write sequels, know how to skillfully vary narrative voice, and work closely with authors for months at a time. They care deeply about their work, their clients, and the success of the books they ghostwrite.
I've accomplished all of the above tasks with clients for over fifteen years, and I know other professional ghostwriters who can make the same claims. Perhaps The Round Table Companies should concern themselves more with a fair, balanced assessment of the ghostwriting industry than with their own business model that closely parallels that of ghostwriting companies. Yes, there are bad ghostwriters out there . . . just like there are really bad ghostwriting companies and print-on-demand companies that shouldn't be trusted.
For my money, clients should work one-on-one with a veteran ghostwriter. Working with creative teams? Not for me, thank you very much. Do you want corporate guidance that transfers your work from one department to another or do you want a close working relationship with a single writer who will give you his time and expertise during and after the collaboration?
Let the buyer beware.
~ William Hammett
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