5 More Reasons to Ghostwrite

Last post, I talked about how ghostwriting eliminates the need to promote and sell a book after it’s published—that’s the client’s job. That huge time savings (and potential money-making factor) is, in my opinion, the biggest advantage to ghostwriting but there are other advantages as well:

• Bigger advances. If your client is a subject matter expert or well-known person, it’s likely you’ll get a bigger advance (even if you only get a portion of it) than for a book under your own name. Today publishing is driven all by platform—to get a book contract, you’ll need platform, and the bigger, the better. As a fulltime freelancer, chances are your platform isn’t too big, but as a ghost you don’t have to worry about that.

• You can write about subjects that conflict with (or at least don’t contribute to) your overall reputation as a journalist. I’m known as a health, fitness, and nutrition specialist but ghostwriting lets me tackle different subjects without “diluting” my platform. If you’re a well-known parenting writer, for example, you can still ghostwrite a raunchy bio for a former porn star and your readers (and Facebook fans) will be none the wiser.

• If a book doesn’t sell, it won’t hurt you. If you publish a book under your name that sells poorly, that may hurt your chances of selling another book in the future--or at least your chances of getting a decent advance. (Unfortunately I’ve experienced this firsthand.) But with a ghosted book, poor sales figures aren’t your problem.

• You can stretch yourself as a writer. Last year I worked on a memoir for a client that was a far cry from the “how-to” service journalism I typically do. I had to develop a narrative arc, employ telling characterization and dialogue, demonstrate conflict, and develop symbols and an overall theme for the book. Revisiting these skills (I’m a published novelist) strengthened not only my client’s book but my current writing ability as well.

• You can step outside yourself. As a freelancer, you're usually writing in your own voice. It comes naturally. When you ghostwrite, you have information to convey—whether it’s a compelling life story or a new technique to beat stress—and you have to convey it in someone else's words and someone else's voice. That forces you out of your usual writing style, and makes work that may have become rote much more challenging—and fulfilling.

How about it? Let me hear from the ghostwriters out there…what do you find fulfilling about ghostwriting?

Why Invisible Authors Can Make More Money

Writers Digest publisher Jane Friedman recently tweeted an eye-catching stat from Book Expo America, or BEA. According to a recent Publishers Weekly article, 7 percent of traditionally-published books generate 87 percent of book sales, and 93 percent of all published books sold less than 1,000 copies.

For a midlist author like me, that’s pretty scary. But here’s the thing—despite sales projections, marketing plans, big-name endorsements, a kick-butt social media presence, thousands of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, and oh yeah, a compelling book, you simply don’t know how many copies of a book you’ll sell. That’s why as an author, you should assume the advance (the money you’re paid upfront to write the book) is the only money you’re going to see for the book.

The vast majority of books (more than 80 percent) fail to “earn out,” or pay royalties. But you still want your book to sell, right? You want royalties. You want big sales. Let's admit it, you want a bestseller. So you spend months both before and after it’s published securing blurbs, getting reviews, writing articles, blogging, speaking, printing up postcards, visiting bookstores, you name it…all to help sell your book. And it may pay off—or it may not.

Because there's an essential conundrum every book author faces:

1. To sell your book, you must commit substantial time to marketing it.

2. The time you spend marketing will not make you money (unless you eventually earn out and receive royalties), forcing you to either work more to make up the difference in lost time and income or take a cut in what you're making (which most of us freelancers can't afford to do) … or both.

That's why I started ghostwriting and collaborating on books as opposed to only writing my own. As a ghostwriter or coauthor, when the book is done, I'm done. I’m not “stuck” spending my limited, precious time promoting the book and going broke in the meantime--that's my client or coauthor's responsibility.

And ghostwriting can be lucrative, even while the average advances given by traditional publishers stagnate and fall. Here’s what I've made on some recent ghosting and coauthoring projects:

• $20,000 for a 60,000-word book for a nonprofit organization.

• $15,000 for a 40,000-word book for a book packager (the author already had 14,000 words written).

• $12,000 for a 55,000-word book; while this was a “ghost” project, I actually worked more as a developmental editor as much of the book was already written but needed expanding, editing, and rewriting for voice and flow.

• $25,000 for an 80,000-word manuscript for an expert who had a contract with a major publisher; my client wrote one-third of the manuscript while I wrote the rest of it and edited her section for voice and consistency.

These numbers aren't huge advances, true. But I'm being paid for the writing of the book, not its promotion, and that more than makes it worthwhile.

What about you? Are you ghosting, or considering it? What do you want to know about this niche?

In future posts, I’ll report more on the lucrative field of ghostwriting, how to break in, and how to determine whether it’s right for you. In the meantime, for an insider’s look at ghosting, check out http://ghostwritingrevealed.blogspot.com/, an excellent blog hosted by two smart, successful ghostwriters.

More Talk about Money...How Much are you Making?

Let’s talk money some more. How much are you making this year? How does it compare to last year?

Here’s the thing—I talk about money. Maybe it's a character flaw, but I think other writers should, too. There’s a perception (a misconception, in my opinion) that freelancing is a good way to starve. But for me, and thousands of other successful self-employed writers, freelancing more than pays the bills. So why isn’t that info getting out there?

Sure, plenty of writers are making little money. But are they going where the money is—in other words, writing for clients who pay reasonably well? Are they writing what people want to pay for, not what they particularly feel like writing that day? Hey, I would love to be a fulltime novelist—and I already have two published novels under my belt. But I can’t make a living writing fiction…unless I can figure out how to live on $7,500/year, which is what I got as the advance for each of those novels. (Insert dejected sigh here.)

Anyway, there isn’t a lot of info out there about what freelancers are making money-wise today. Writer’s Market includes an annual roundup of going rates for different kinds of work, and if you’re a member of ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors), you have access to Paycheck, where members anonymously report what they’re paid by different publishers. But what are we making annually these days?

When I was working on Six-Figure Freelancing, I found only two surveys about freelancer's income. One was a 2003 survey of 369 ASJA members. At that time, 41% made more than $50,000 a year, including 12% grossing more than $100,000 annually. Another survey of nearly 500 freelancers conducted by Doreesa Banning in 2004 found that while nearly 68.9% of respondents made less than $50,000 a year, more than 30% made more than that, including 7% who made more than $100,000 annually. (Visit http://www.asja.org/pubtips/050324a.php for more about the survey.)

What about you? Where do you fall on the income bell curve? I’ll tell you that in 2009, I grossed about $52,000 last year, working an average of 15 hours/week. In 2008, I made $57,500, working about 18 hours/week. However, this year I’m on target to make significantly less than that, which means it’s time for me to market myself much more aggressively.

Still, I’m curious about what other freelancers are making and thought about asking for feedback here. Then reality interceded; after all, I do realize not everyone is as willing to share their annual income in a public forum. So I’ve set up an anonymous survey to report on the current state of what we're making as freelancers. Please visit http://www.kwiksurveys.com/?s=KNMIOF_cdf53ce4 to participate in the survey (it will take you 3 minutes or less!) and I’ll report on the results by the end of June. After all, more information about money=more power for freelancers. And that is an excellent thing.

Market like a Maven (or, How to Succeed in your Freelance Biz)

Hopefully my post from earlier today (see below) didn’t scare you. The message? Marketing is critical to any freelancer’s business but it doesn’t pay off until you get paying work. So how exactly do you do that? By marketing efficiently, effectively, and consistently.

If you freelance for magazines, websites, and/or newspapers, the query letter is the most important weapon in your freelancer’s marketing arsenal. Use these 6 techniques to make your queries stand out from the pack:

• Capture the editor’s attention. Let me tell you about my first few queries. They sucked! I started most of them with language like, “I am a freelance writer who is interested in writing for your magazine...” Snooze alert! Now I start my queries with a lead—almost always the lead I use for the article itself. You want to intrigue your editor just as your story will intrigue readers.

• Pick up the phone…or at least send an email. Magazine editors come, go, change positions, titles, and responsibilities with alarming speed. Don’t rely on outdated writers' guidelines to tell you who the appropriate editor is—pick up the phone and ask the receptionist for the name (and correct spelling) of the editor you’re looking for. Got “phone phobia?” Then send out an email…but I find calling gets me the info a lot quicker.

• Demonstrate familiarity. Let the editor know you’ve read her publication by saying something like, “Interested in this idea for your ‘Latest News’ [or whatever section/department is appropriate] section?” You’re not just another writer trolling through Writer’s Market for a quick sale—you’ve done your homework, so let him know.

• Make it easy for him to say yes. When I pitch a story, I suggest a working title, word count, possible sidebars, and list the types of sources I plan to interview. If he likes my idea, and my angle, all he has to do is pick up the phone and assign the piece. Think like your editor, and offer him a package, not just an idea.

• Strut your stuff. Highlight your relevant writing experience and demonstrate to the editor that you are “uniquely qualified” (keep reading this blog and you'll hear me use that phrase again and again!) to write this article. If you’re pitching a gardening piece and grow award-winning cucumbers, mention that. If you’re writing on social media and have 10,000 followers on Twitter, include that. If your profile subject has agreed to be interviewed for the piece, let the editor know. You want him to read your query and think, “Wow—this writer is the perfect person to do this story!”

• Don’t give up. When you get a rejection (what I call a “bong”) from an editor, follow up immediately (with a day or two) with a new query. Start off saying something like, “thank you for your response (not rejection!) to my query about [fill-in-the-blank.] While I’m sorry you can’t use it at this time, I have another idea for you to consider.” Then include your new query. By doing this, you’ll start developing a relationship with the editor…eventually nail an assignment. Case in point: it took me multiple queries to crack big markets like Woman’s Day, Redbook, Health, and Fitness, so don’t give up. The next query you send may be the one that nets you your first assignment from that magazine...and turns your marketing into actual money.

How to Fail in your New Freelance Business

Here’s what no one tells you about starting a freelance business. At the onset--and for some time thereafter--you're going to spend the majority of your time marketing, whether that means researching and writing query letters, making cold calls to potential corporate clients, sending LOIs (letters of introduction) to trade or specialty magazines, and/or contacting book packagers or other potential ghostwriting clients. And that marketing time never pays off…unless it turns into assignments.

Hey, I don't want to have to market myself. I’d be a happy little clam if I never had to write another query, LOI, or book proposal. I’d just sit at my desk (better yet, play basketball outside with my son) and field offers of work on my Iphone. And some work does come to me…a lot, actually. But even today, the majority of my work still comes as a result of me selling me, and marketing my business to potential clients. It's time I have to put in to remain busy and successful.

What about you? Remember that marketing yourself is only one aspect of your business that doesn’t produce income. There’s also business management tasks like sending invoices, following up on late payments, filing, organizing giant piles of papers on your desk (maybe that's just me), tracking expenses, keeping up on email, doing online networking (like this blog), replacing office supplies, you name it. My point is that when you launch a freelance career, only a small percentage of your time will be actually writing for money, so you need to market yourself as efficiently as possible.

My first six months of my writing career, my time broke down like this:

Marketing (including research, writing queries, cold calls) 75–90 %
Writing for pay (including research/interviews/writing) 10–20 %
Business management tasks 5–10%

Get the idea? The vast majority of my time was spent marketing, but once I started getting assignments and developing regular clients, that percentage started to drop as the percentage of time I spent writing for money went up.

Within 18 months, I had a handful of steady clients, which significantly reduced the amount of time I spent looking for new markets and researching and writing queries. Plus, my queries were more likely to result in sales. All good news.

Now my time broke down like this:

Marketing (including research, writing queries, cold calls) 10–20%
Writing for pay (including research/interviews/writing) 60–80%
Business management tasks 5–10%
Speaking/teaching 5–10%

If your marketing never results in assignments, or doesn’t result in enough assignments, your freelance writing business will tank before it ever gets going. That’s why you have to make the most of your marketing time—and next post I’ll talk about how to write queries that will boost your chance of getting paying work.

Forget per-word rates

So, what are you making per word for your magazine articles? $1/word? $2/word? $0.40/word?

Who cares? I only care about what I make per-hour.

Per-word rates are the norm in the magazine world. This figure, multiplied by word count, tells you how much you’ll make for writing a particular story. But it may not tell you whether it’s worth it to take it on. The real question is how much time the story will take—the assignment amount divided by the number of hours you put into it gives you your hourly rate for the piece.

Knowing how much time an article (or any other project, for that matter) will take gives you a concrete idea of the return on your time. And those $1/word and up assignments can be mighty misleading. Sure, it’s a bigger check than writing for a market that pays a lower per-word rate. But are you really making more money?

For example, let’s say I do a 1,000-word story for a national magazine that pays $1.50/word. Fair enough—I’m getting paid $1,500 for my work. But what happens if between researching and writing the query, writing an outline (per my editor), researching the article, finding sources, doing interviews, transcribing interviews, writing the piece, turning in the piece, revising the piece (per my editor’s request), finding new sources (per my editor), interviewing those sources, turning in the final revision, submitting my backup material, answering additional questions from the editor (say, nine months later…it happens), I’ve put 25 hours into my story? That means I’ve made $60/hour on that story.

Not bad, but here’s the thing—compare that to a 1,000-word piece on the same topic for a smaller magazine that pays only $0.35/word. Yet I know the editor and my query is just a short paragraph. The story requires some background research and several interviews, and takes me a total of five hours to write. (No revisions requested! Yay!) That a total of $350, for five hours’ worth of work—or $70/hour.

At first glance, the $1,500 piece looks like a better assignment—and it is a bigger check. But my experience has been that national markets (and I’ve written for more than 50 of them) expect a lot more work from you to earn that higher rate. In many cases, I’ve found that regional magazines, trade publications and specialty magazines actually pay better per-hour than their national counterparts. And that makes them worthwhile markets for me.

What about you? Are you tracking your time…or just your dollars?

One idea=one story? Wrong!

As a freelancer, you have a limited number of hours to dedicate to earning money from your work, whether you’re writing part- or full-time. That’s why I make the most of mine by squeezing as much as I can out of my research—by selling “reslants” to other markets. I never write about an idea only once. I'm always looking to cover it again for another magazine.

Reslanting is writing about the same topic more than once, with a different angle, for a new market. And it’s a way to work much more efficiently, boosting your hourly rate.

It took me several years to grasp this fact, though. When I first launched my career, I dug for story ideas, looked for appropriate markets, and queried magazines. When I got an assignment, I wrote the article. Then it was on to the next idea, the next market, the next story.

I wrote about topics ranging from how avoiding employment discrimination claims to memory improvement techniques to animal dissection alternatives to religious weight loss programs. Each story took a considerable amount of time to research, but once I was finished with it, I never revisited the topic. Not smart.

Does that sound like how you work? Then break yourself of the one idea=one story habit right now. Instead, start thinking about the different ways you can reslant material to different markets. That lets you take advantage of the information that’s already in your head, in your interview transcripts, and on your hard drive, reducing the amount of time you spend researching and writing your next piece. Sure, you may do additional interviews, but the lion’s share of the work (wrapping your brain around a new subject) has already been completed.

Not sure how to do it? Put your brainstorming hat on. You pitched a specific angle on a particular topic to one market. You wrote the piece--or you're writing it now. Don't stop there. Think about the different angles you can take with the subject, and which markets might be interested in them.

For example, last year I was assigned a piece on the health benefits of gratitude for a custom magazine. (I'd never written about gratitude before, though I am the mistress of thank-you notes.) Using the same basic research and one additional interview, I wrote a piece on helping your kids become more grateful for a major newspaper. Then I wrote a piece on surprising ways to be happy (including becoming more grateful) for a woman’s magazine. Get the idea? The idea—gratitude is good for you—was the same, but by coming up with different slants and markets, I sold three stories based on the idea. And I’m still pitching related stories now.

So break free from the concept that one idea=one story for one market. Instead, think one idea=multiple angles, multiple stories, multiple markets, multiple checks. Reslanting lets you cover a subject more than once, and each subsequent story takes less time to research and write than a wholly original idea. Bottom line is that you're making making more money…in less time.