SBW 187: 5 Reasons Ghostwriting is a Great Business for Writers

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One of the most fascinating things about being a ghostwriter is seeing people’s responses when you tell them what you do.

People will say things like, “What is ghostwriting, exactly?” “How does ghostwriting work?” or “I had no idea that was a thing.” Some people wonder why a writer like me would want to write articles, books, or other content for others without getting credit.

No matter the response, there is one thing they all have in common: curiosity. People are generally very curious about ghostwriting.

As I was planning the next couple of months’ worth of episodes, it dawned on me that maybe you’re curious, too. So I thought it would be fun to share why I chose ghostwriting as my primary way to make income as a writer. I think these reasons will probably resonate with you as well.

But first, let me give you a little backstory. I need to set the context because getting into ghostwriting was a very strategic decision. This is not something I fell into randomly.

Let’s back up several years. Around 2013, I started to blog on a regular basis. I had no intention of making money at that point. I was just writing to express myself and teach others what I was learning about creativity, writing, or life in general.

Then I wrote my first book in 2014, which was a very niche book on Evernote, the productivity. It didn’t do very well but I will be eternally grateful for ChurchMag Press, which gave me the opportunity to publish it. That gave me the confidence to write my second book in 2015, which was The Artist’s Suitcase, a book about creativity.

I started to make just a teensy-weensy bit of money from my book, which gave me the confidence and the desire to start thinking about building a business with my writing.

Around that time, I started getting involved in an online community called 48days.net, which was the precursor to Dan Miller’s 48 Days Eagles Community (you can go back and listen to my conversation with Dan just a couple months ago on Ep. 158). I met a guy there named Rye Taylor, who was a podcast producer. We got to be friends, and he invited me to write show notes for a podcast he was producing.

Over the next few years, I continued to expand by writing podcast show notes for several other clients, as well as doing editing and some other writing-related work for people. But I was also going too many different directions and had no real focus in my business.

As my connections expand, so did my focus. In fact, my focus expanded way too much because I didn’t know which direction to go. At one point I was focused on speaking, at another point I was focused on becoming a consultant, and at yet another point I was focused on just writing books. I was like a dog who is constantly distracted by squirrels. Every few months, there was a shiny new direction.

It all came to a head last summer. I had an opportunity to put together a consulting proposal for a prospective client. It was the biggest proposal I had ever put together by a very large margin. I spent about 50 hours putting this proposal together and knew it was really solid. However, the client decided not to move forward with it, and it would be an understatement to say I was disappointed.

Now, in hindsight, there were a lot of things I did wrong with that proposal. I wasn’t ready at that for the scope of the project I was proposing, and my connection at that company ended up leaving a short time afterward anyway. So it all worked out. But at the time, I was very frustrated and completely confused about my direction.

I knew I needed to get some clarity about my direction if I was going to build a side business that was successful on any level. I realized that I had been approaching it all wrong. Up to that point, I had been chasing whatever sounded interesting, and whatever business were helping others be successful. And I’m embarrassed to admit how many courses, programs, books, webinars, and free PDF’s I went through that I thought would help give me the answers.

It dawned on me that instead of jumping from opportunity to opportunity, I needed to figure out what kind of life I wanted, and then use that as a basis to decide what my business would be. In other words, I needed to find a business that fit my ideal life, instead of trying to fit my life around a business.

So one evening late last summer, I grabbed a pen and a legal pad and wrote down all the qualities I wanted in an ideal business. This was going to become my filter for opportunities.

I boiled it down to 5 things, which I’ll share with you now:

1. I wanted to set my own schedule. I did not want to be confined to a schedule, or work hours, that someone else imposed on me
2. I wanted the ability to work from anywhere. I did not want to have to go into an office or be confined to working from a particular place.
3. I wanted to do work that potentially paid well, instead of doing low-paying freelance jobs. I know that a lot of writers were making really great money, and I did not want to become a commodity, like so many other writers who are putting themselves on work-for-hire websites where you have no relationship with the client.
4. I wanted to use my writing gifts. This is my most marketable skill, so it made sense that I would use something I already had, rather than having to start from scratch and develop a brand new skill.
5. I wanted to work with high achievers and successful people. I knew that if I wanted to grow as much as I could personally and professionally, I was going to need a business that put me in the orbit of highly successful people. This meant people who are forward-thinking, visionary, have a great network, financially successful, and can afford high-end services, whatever that might be.

you boil all this down, what I was really looking for is freedom: freedom with my time, money, and location, as well as the freedom to use my gifts, and the freedom to network with high achievers.

I shared these with my wife, who was fully on board with these criteria. And I was set on all five of these. Whatever direction I went in building a side business, it must have all five qualities.

Knowing these criteria that were important to me actually made the process very simple because it eliminated a bunch of other things I could potentially do for a side business. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Example #1: A few years ago, I signed up to be a seller for Fulfillment by Amazon. If you’re not familiar with that program, it basically means you are selling stuff on Amazon. There are a lot of people who make a great living doing that. In fact, I gave FBA a try a few years ago. I spent the better part of a summer learning the system, getting the supplies, listing about 1,000 books on Amazon, and then shipping them all. Talk about a lot of work!

I did make some money, around $1,500 after my expenses. But it was a lot of work, and for me, it was not fulfilling in the least. I had zero interest in continuing to ship books to Amazon and sell them. I know there are a lot of other ways to sell stuff on Amazon, but for me it didn’t work out.

And here’s the kicker: once I decided to shut down my Amazon FBA business, I had three options for what to do with my remaining inventory of about 800 books. I could pay Amazon to keep storing them, pay Amazon to ship them back to me, or pay Amazon to destroy the books. In the end, I just wanted to be done with it, so I paid Amazon to destroy the books. Talk about an ironic end to a failed business!

As you can see, Amazon FBA did not meet all my criteria. I could work from anywhere and do it on my own schedule, and I COULD potentially make a lot of money. However, it was not emotionally fulfilling because it didn’t involve writing, and it also did not help me connect with other successful people.

Example #2: In my day job, I’m a college professor, and a lot of college profs also teach for other schools. In fact, I used to direct our college’s online program, and we used a bunch of part-time teachers, which we call adjunct instructors. It is very, very common for adjunct teachers to teach online classes for several schools at once.

So teaching online courses for other schools is a direction I could have also gone with my side business. However, it doesn’t meet all the criteria. I would have location freedom, but not time or money freedom. Adjunct teachers are usually not paid very well. (Trust me, I processed all the invoices for our online program for a long time. I knew what each online adjunct was getting paid.)

Plus, when you’re teaching online courses part-time, you are absolutely shackled by academic deadlines. My idea of freedom is not grading 60 assignments in one sitting while getting paid very little—no offense to adjunct instructors. If that’s your thing, more power to ya!

I could give you many other examples of POTENTIAL side hustles that don’t meet all the criteria. Again, those criteria were: work on my own schedule, earn more income, work from anywhere, use my writing gifts, and work with highly successful people.

As I thought about all the potential things I could do for a side business, there were only two that I was really interested in, that also met all my criteria: copywriting and ghostwriting.

They are very similar, and there is a bit of overlap. But they are distinct. Copywriting is more concerned with sales letters, marketing copy, and using words to sell things. I’m very interested in that, and honestly, anyone trying to persuade other people uses copywriting to some degree.

But in thinking about these two areas, I chose to focus on ghostwriting because I prefer writing books and articles to things like sales letters and website copy. All things being equal, I lean toward the teaching and storytelling side more than the marketing side, so ghostwriting is a natural fit.

Let me break down how ghostwriting fits my five criteria:

1. I have time freedom. I can set my own schedule for when I work with clients or do writing.

2.  I have location freedom. As long as I have a computer and internet connection, I can do ghostwriting from anywhere.

3. I have an opportunity to earn as much as I want. It just depends on how fast I work, how I grow my skills, and growing my business so I can earn more money per book. In fact, I’ve signed my first two book clients in the last 3 months.

Please don’t misunderstand me—that’s not a boastful thing at all. These were actually lower-end book deals in the ghostwriting world. It’s just the blunt reality that ghostwriting is a highly-paid service. I have done freelance writing, but here is the cold, hard truth. When you call yourself a “freelance writer,” most people view you as a commodity because there are a million people who call themselves freelance writers.

But when you call yourself a ghostwriter, that’s a whole different category. The term “ghostwriter” is a little bit mysterious, and it evokes people’s curiosity. No offense to freelance writers, but I don’t want to be competing on price with a bunch of other freelancers who offer the exact same service. I want to position myself as a ghostwriter who offers highly personalized, exceptional service to people who can invest in the type of service I provide.

4. I want to use my writing gifts. That’s a slam-dunk with ghostwriting. But that’s not all. I also have many years of teaching and ministry experience. As a pastor, I did a lot of counseling, listening, problem-solving, and writing content. As a college prof., I have written a lot of content, organized courses and curriculum, and advised many students. My skills and experience in all those areas play directly into what’s needed as a ghostwriter.

5. I want to work with highly successful people. One of the most fun things about ghostwriting is that I get to spend a lot of time talking to high achievers. For example, I’m writing a book for a client in the fitness industry. Her life story, and what she’s teaching in the book, is really inspiring. Just being around her and her husband makes me a better person.

So there you have it. I’ve shared five reasons why I chose ghostwriting as my side business. If you relate to these reasons I shared, maybe ghostwriting is a great potential business for you also.

The main takeaway from this episode is for you to figure out the kind of life you want, develop a list of the criteria you want in your job, and then figure out what kind of business meets that criteria. Our business is here to serve our lives, not the other way around. There are way too many people whose whole life is their business.

So let’s be intentional about the kind of life we want, and the kind of businesses we are building.