How to Work with a Ghostwriter on Your Non-Fiction Book #ghostwriter

Did you know that some of the most influential nonfiction books of our time weren't actually written by their authors? Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time reportedly worked on with editor Peter Gazardi. Le Iacocca's Autobiography worked with William Novak. Jack Welch's Straight from the Gut worked with John Byrne. And the list goes on and on and on. And about 30% of the books we help authors publish at Book Launchers are written by one of our writers. But we'll never tell you who. Ghostwriters have shaped the literary landscape more than you might think. And not all ghostwriters are the same or work the same. But there are some universal truths to ghostwriters, and knowing them before you hire one will save you time, money and heartache. And if you're going to work with Book Launchers and have a writer assist you, well, all of those reasons, good news. This video is for you.

Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and four time author and including of a book that topped Amazon in print books. And in fact, one of my books was partially written by one of our writers. But more on that in a minute. First, before I give you some expectations for a writer, let's cover what our writers at Book Launchers are expected to do at the start. Well, actually, this isn't just our writers, it's our writing coaches. And if you take my course, Self Publish and Succeed Live, this is the first thing we do in that course too. Basically, all Book Launchers projects start in the same place. This is Hook, Ideal Reader and Outline. This is your roadmap. And while the book may not end up exactly what you plan at the start, having a plan will save you time and energy. And when it comes to working with a writer, usually it will also save you money. So what do you need? Well, it's important to identify who your readers are. This is your audience, and which of their needs your book will meet with helps you form the hook. Armed with this information, you and your writer can create the outline, which is your book's roadmap. It will map out where your book begins and ends, begins and ends, and everything in between. Once those elements are in place, you and your writer have the foundation to begin writing, during which it's an iterative process. So let's break these pieces down just a little bit more. Okay. Your hook it a statement that tells the reader what your book is about, what problem it solves for the reader, and how it impacts the reader's life. I always call this the outcome of the outcome, because it's not just about inspiration or a strategy to do X. It's about how life is different for the reader as a result of that. You really need a good hook because it guides the planning, writing, marketing and promotion of the book. And it really becomes the spine of your outline, which needs to include what your book is about, what the reader's problem is that's your unique to your topic, how you're going to solve that problem, and how the solution impacts the reader as they move forward in your life. Let's take a look at one of our recently published books, Unglued the Secret Science of Stem Cells that Dissolve the Effects of Sugar. This is all about if you're tired of battling diabetes, inflammatory diseases, or you have a sugar addiction despite trying diet and exercise and all the things don't Dr. Richard P. Jacoby, the author, has five decades of experience and he's an expert in regenerative medicine and stem cells. And his whole research has revealed that sugar is the root cause of many modern diseases. And he critiques the medical and food industries for misleading the public about sugar's dangers and introduces his global compression theory and explains how sugar leads to chronic inflammation and nerve damage. So so hopefully you understand what the problem is and what the solution the book offers and for who. It's all right there and having that creates that spine that you're working from for the writing and then later for the marketing. Working with a writer, the writer should be able to tell you what the hook is. We always ask our writers to draft a hook statement that's going to cover who is the audience, what's the book's topic, what the reader will learn based on the book's message, what problem is solving, how this will change the reader, and what the reader's life will look like as a result of this change. If your writer can't explain that, then they're not ready to write your book. For example, my book Self Publish and Succeed helps a subject matter expert write, publish and promote a book that is set up to be a tool they can use for business and brand growth. When a reader buys a book, they're not actually looking to buy a book per se. I mean really, when it comes to nonfiction, we're not really looking for something else to do. We're looking for a new skill, a promise of transformation, an answer to a question, or just a new way of seeing the world, or maybe an escape from your reality. Your book must fulfill the need or desire of that reader. I'D also add, it's important for everyone on your book team, not just your writer, to know your bigger picture goals. It's why we always connect marketing to a project at the start and have team meetings where we can flag hey, remember the author's goal was speaking, or it's to do something else just to make sure the whole team keeps the big picture in mind. Like if you're writing a book to get speaking engagements in the business world, like Brent Pullman, Brent's booking speaking Engagements on the regular Now Way to go Brent. Taking that into consideration as you write the book is important. It might be about seeding talks you've already given into some of the stories, or making sure that you have thought about the reader and the buyer, the person who might put you in front of business audiences to teach leadership. This is subtle, but important to your overall success with your project. Armed with all of this, your next step is the outline. And again, working with our writers. They're crafting this, but they need you to give them a lot of the bullet points that the book is going to need to hit. So if you have key stories or a signature process or a whole bunch of research like Richard Jacoby, the writer needs to know all of this so it can be collected and considered as a plan is formed for the book. So again, the outline is that roadmap for your book. It maps out where your book begins and then where it ends and everything in between. I'm going to link to a couple of videos I have on outlines to help you with this piece. Specifically, regardless of the shape your book is in, when you start with a ghostwriter, you should always cover hook, outline and audience on the outset. Now let's cover what works best when working with a ghostwriter. Before I share that though, let me share that every project does function a bit differently. Some of our clients have intense schedules, which is why they need a writer. This means they can't meet weekly, but in between they going to record voice notes or they'll send an email with answers to questions just to keep the project moving. When you have a writer on your team, it's possible to move a book forward with just a little bit of effort. In general, weekly meetings with your writer are important, so set a schedule and plan to meet with your writer most weeks so they can ask you questions and share what they've been doing since your last meeting. This is also your opportunity to give them input and feedback on the work they've sent over. Spending time talking with your ghostwriter is Important because then they can get the gist of your voice and make the book send sound as if you wrote it again. The process is iterative. You provide materials, the writer drafts a chapter, you review that chapter, the writer makes revisions, then on to the next chapter, wash, rinse, repeat. That said, if you have existing content like podcast transcripts or a lot of video transcripts, it's less important that you meet all the time. But it's still important. You're reading what the writer sends over to you. I can't tell you how many times we've heard from an author after a writer is done the entire book, that they want to make a substantial change. And the reason isn't because our writer did anything wrong. The reason is the author didn't read anything until the book was done and then realized something was off or missing. This is a collaboration, and if you don't contribute and participate, you can quickly end up with something you didn't expect or even want. Now, I'm going to come back to this thought of existing content in a second. Because a lot of people have a lot of podcast interviews or video content they want turned into a book. But most projects are written from interviews. Interviews are the main way that a ghostwriter will collect information from your head to go on the paper. We had one client who gave the writer one word answers. Well, you can imagine she struggled to write that book. Eventually we realized that she needed a different partnership. A different kind of person could unlock her information from her head and ask her different kind of questions. So sometimes it's just a matter of making sure you have a great relationship with the person writing your book. All right, so what do these interviews or weekly meetings look like? Well, that's going to depend a lot on you. A video call or a telephone interview is common. You could absolutely expect them to record it. They need the transcriptions from this, and many of our writers are using automatic transcription tools now. You can also conduct some interviews through email. Usually each interview covers a specific chapter or significant event. In the case of a memoir. But be sure to let your writer know if there's certain topics that are time sensitive and need to be addressed first or that are just hard to talk about it. Sometimes it's better to save the harder topics for later in the process because you build a rapport and a relationship with your writer and you'll feel more comfortable. You don't have to have the writer write the book in order. All right, so just a tip on feedback. The more actionable feedback you can provide the better. And the sooner you do it in the writing process, the smoother it will all be. Please don't be afraid to be direct. That said, remember, the writer is a human and while they want to capture your voice and get your material right so they want this feedback, it does help to give positive reinforcement along the way. Treat them like you'd want to be treated when working hard on someone else's project. So back to those meetings. I highly recommend you read the material your writer sends to you. Be prepared to tell them what has worked for you, what didn't, and what you'd like to see changed moving forward. Show up to these meetings and be on time. If you're running late, send a quick message. Cancellations pile up and stall the project. And there's nothing worse than than having your writer stall out because they will potentially take on other projects, fill their schedule with other things, or just lose commitment and motivation to their project. Again, they're humans. Now, when you do have the meeting, be present with your writer and your project. The faster this goes, the easier it is for the writer, the less it will cost you overall and the more likely you are to get the product that you want at the end. Last thing is to go back to the situation of existing content. It can work in your favor, but it can also work against you. Where it works for you is an example. Like my own situation, I was three quarters of the way through writing Self promote and succeed and I got stuck. If you watch the video on our seven year anniversary at Book Launchers, you'll find out some of the stuff I was dealing with in that year. Mentally, I did not have the capacity to finish that book. Finally, one of my smart team members mentioned that we have some great writers. We gave the project to one of them and in four weeks the book was done. I had to have two calls with her and she spoke to Sarah Bean, our book marketing manager, and she took the rest of the material from video scripts that I gave her. I can't tell where she took over. It was so easy for her to capture my voice because so much was written and the material was there for her to adapt. Now, where having content works against you is when there's just a pile of material and no plan. One of the first projects we ever did with existing content was a lesson in all the things not to do. We had a pair of podcasters hand us 100 hours worth of transcripts and told our writer to turn it into a book. On the subject of their podcast. They gave the writer free rein and just wanted a book with minimal discussion or involvement from them. They thought it would be easy because of all the content was there in their mind. We never do this anymore because the writer had to spend four times as long on this project as a normal project. And in the end the pair didn't even like the book and stopped working with us. So what do we do instead? Well, we start with the audience, the hook and the outline. No matter what you have for existing content, this allows us to create a great plan for a book independent of the material. Then you can point to it and go, okay, chapter two comes from episode 21 and chapter six is this video transcript. You still need to be involved. It's a collaboration and the writer will probably have to interview you to fill in some gaps. Essentially, you're just not the one sitting at the keyboard trying to figure out how to structure the sentences into stories, into chapters. But it's still going to be a little bit of work, but it's going to be your book at the end of the day. Now, how do you find a right writer? Well, that's a topic for another day, but of course you can always work with us and our team of writers. Set up a call@booklaunchers.com apply to chat about it now. If you are going to write the book yourself, here are five tips to be a better writer. And this one is on the Tools to Outline a book. And this is on the seven year anniversary video at Book Launchers that I mentioned.