Why would anyone want to provide ghost writer services?
If you desire fame as well as fortune, maybe ghost writing is not the way to go. Your name won't appear on your work. You'll never be the next Robert Ludlum or J.K. Rowling CDRReports
But look at it this way. What's the biggest problem for anyone hoping to produce the next blockbuster novel? Yes - it's finding that big idea. So often, the only time you come up with your great plot idea is when someone else has already had it! If only I'd got there first, you think...
Well - that's the big thing about providing ghost writer services. Finding the idea isn't your problem! The client has the idea and pays you to write it. All you have to worry about is what to do with the cash.
Of course it isn't really quite that simple. Writing is actually pretty hard work. And then, of course, there's the client. Anyone providing ghost writer services will recognize the unworthy thought: it would be fine if it wasn't for the client! Clients come in all shapes and sizes and they can be a pleasure or a pain. The problem is, you don't know in advance which they are going to be!
So what kind of clients can you get? Well, they do fall into a number of types.
- The tire kicker. Somebody expresses apparent interest in using your services. They e-mail or call you time and time again, asking detailed questions about your methods of working, terms of service, how much research you are prepared to do, etc., which you patiently answer. Then suddenly you don't hear any more and realize they were just picking your brains - probably with the idea of starting in business for themselves. Meanwhile they have wasted a whole lot of your time!
