Truth be told — most of the things that you read on the Internet and in print are claimed by a person, such as Stephen King, but they are actually written by someone else. You will never know. That is the point of ghostwriting. Why would a talented writer become a ghostwriter? The answer is simple, which book is going to be the instant best seller — a book written by Joe Smith or Stephen King? Obviously, the book by Stephen King.
Writers do ghostwriting because they want to make money with their writing. If you were to come up with a great story and pitch it to someone like Stephen King, Oprah Winfrey, Nicholas Sparks, or Bill Harris and they like it so much that they were willing to pay you to have the sole rights to that story wouldn't you do it? It is easier then sending out a few hundred query letters to get back a few hundred rejections.
Not everyone who has a great story to tell, or who has done phenomenal research, has the time or the skill to write the story or the report. They then look for ghostwriters. Ghostwriters are those who have the skill and the talent to put their thoughts and research into words that people can understand.
Ghostwriting can be a very lucrative career. There are a couple of sites on the Internet such as EssayWriters, Need An Article, and Mike's Ghostwriting that have a staff of writers who they have screened and hired to do ghostwriting for many of their clients. A client will go to the site, and put in a request of what it is he/she wants written. The client may or may not supply research for those articles; the writer will pick up those assignments for a set price knowing that all rights to that piece will be turned over to the client.
There are numerous freelance sites and job forums that postjobs for writers. On most days when you go through those lists you find that the clients are looking for people to do ghostwriting for them. One day you can be writing a research article for a doctor or a scientist and the next day you could be writing an article on how to get rid of man boobs that will be placed on a website somewhere to help boost content and traffic.
With all this being said, the next logical question you should ask is what are the educational requirements necessary for ghostwriting. Generally speaking ghostwriting has more to do with talent and less to do with education. You need to be an intelligent person who knows how to do research and has who has an understanding of different writing styles. For example you need to know the differences between writing in APA format and Chicago Citation. These can be learned by purchasing a few books from your local bookstore and reading and practicing the styles on your own.
You can also take writing classes that are offered at your local college. There are many writers who have college degrees and have taken numerous collegiate courses in writing. They may even have liberal arts degrees. In most cases, this doesn't mean that they are going to get the job over you. It is highly recommended though that you do all you can to advance your education and improve your skills.
Many new writers want to know what they can make doing ghostwriting. The best answer is, as little or as much as you want. You are going to come to an agreement with your client as to what you will make for the project and how you will be paid. Some writers charge by the project and other writers charge by the word. There is a debate amongst writers as to which way of pricing is more professional.
This is the recommendation to you: take into consideration — the amount of time you will spend doing the research (if needed), how long it will take you to write the piece, proofread it, and then edit the piece. Unfortunately many clients and writers tend to think that all a writer does is write the article. Not so, and you need to think about all these things when you are pricing a job.
There will be clients who will try to get you to do the job for, a penny a word. This may sound great at first. A 500-word article and you make $5. You figure that you can write 10 of those articles a day in only a few hours, until you get going in the business and realize the work that you have to put into each piece, especially if you are writing on something you are unfamiliar with. The fair market price right now is anywhere from .15 - .35/word. There will be jobs that pay more, much more, and there will be jobs that pay less. Whether or not you take those jobs is going to be completely up to you.
Are there pros and cons to ghostwriting? Yes there are. While the writing market is huge, it takes time to get jobs. You have to submit bid and queries, and just because you submit those things to a client doesn't mean that you will get the job. Bids and queries that you will send out today could take a month or two to get a response. This means that you constantly have to market yourself and look for ghostwriting jobs.
The biggest plus is really that you are your own boss. You can set your hours, and determine what type of work you take on. People go into ghostwriting for flexibility in hours, and pay, as well as diversity in the job itself. It is a rare occasion that you will be writing about the same topic day in and day out.
