You might think that selling yourself short is a sure way to not be a success in the ghost writing field. And your eyes are probably dancing with the very large figures of money that you've heard ghost writers pull down, in yearly figures such as ,000 to 0,000, or amounts such as ,000 to ,000 per each book you write. You're a writer, you love to write, and you believe that this is the way to go when it comes to writing.
This is especially so when you've started to break into the field and you're a ghost writer -- or ghostwriter -- who has never really ghosted a book for someone else before. You're probably thinking big bucks, major book contracts, large amounts of cash advances from publishers and huge percentages from the books you will be anonymously writing for big time authors.
But let's face some facts. The first time writers, people with no time to invest in writing a book, and who may have fantastic stories to tell don't always have the enormous amount of financial capital available to hire any such cheap ghost writers. They simply don't have the money. They're bound to enter some psychological difficulties when they see that the payments to you are the whopper figures such as those listed above, and that those are the only sorts of prices accessible to them. By laying out such enormous fees, you could be stuck losing a huge customer base of clients with fantastic stories to tell -- but without the major wherewithal to pay you to tell them. What if, say, your potential author, the person hiring you to write his or her story, has only 00 or less to spend?
I know what I'm talking about, and I can create a decent work of cheap ghost writing in a month or so for that amount of money. You do that, and there's your ,000 per year! It really isn't all that hard.
Most other ghost writers I know are as capable of doing so as I am, but some of them do charge the higher amounts. The clients of the latter group tend to be people with enormous sales potential, not the typical first time authors who have a great story but often don't really go anywhere with it the so called sucker market.
It might be worthwhile to consider charging less, or negotiating a deal with such a first timer. Over the years, I have drawn the conclusion that there are an awful lot of such people out there. I have been ghost writing books for people for as low an amount as 00 per book, and as I have sources of income from other types of writing, I have been finding an immense amount of personal satisfaction from helping such would be authors actually obtain what they are looking for in a cheap ghost writer who charges a reasonable price for the quality and quantity of work done for them.
This works out to be less greedy on my part and more of a service that I provide for authors who are typically dreaming of getting their books on the top of the New York Times Bestseller lists. They often know that such are their dreams, not necessarily their realities. These are frequently people who have reached the ends of their ropes when it comes to negotiating a lower price for their books. They usually have nowhere else to turn when it comes to putting out their own personal stories, and they need someone with a willing ear and pen to listen and help them set down their tales before it's too late for them to be told. Also, some of these people simply don't know what they're doing and need a guiding hand to help them. They usually need their letters of query written up, their brief biographies put together, and their book proposals crafted. They are dipping their toes into the writing field and getting them wet for the very first time.
People like that don't need to face down what looks like to them to be a million dollar price tag when what they are looking for is describable as a cheap ghost writer. They want an actual inexpensive ghost writer or ghostwriter who understands their needs, both budgetary and otherwise. Someone capable needs to be able to sit down with them and negotiate a fairly low amount of money to be paid out by them, so they can figure on at least getting some kind of returns from their own books.
These potential authors are not Presidents of the United States or famous movie actors, whose books are guaranteed to sell. Many of them find themselves stuck with what used to be called vanity publishing, nowadays called self publishing. They won't necessarily find a commercial publisher who wants to take a chance on huge returns from their books in today's multifaceted but still challenging world of publishing.
These clients need literally cheap or inexpensive ghost writers. They don't need to spend a small fortune on their books to find out that they dead ended in a huge warehouse, didn't sell as widely as they thought they would, or they otherwise came out on the short end of the stick. They need good, cheap professional assistance and publishing help to face down today's Internet oriented book market, and multiple inexpensive ways to promote their books.
Help them. Consider bargaining and bartering at a lower price sometimes, and not at a higher price. It might be worth your while. Try it and see!
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