How much does it cost to have a book ghost-written?

For many businesses and professions, publishing a book can be a really great tool for adding credibility and setting you up as an authority.

If you’ve considered this, and plans are afoot, you are probably starting to appreciate just what is involved in writing a book. If that excites you, you’ve most likely made a start but if it daunts you, your book will probably already be sliding down the priority list. However great the idea and the benefits it might bring, it involves work – lots of work.

At which point the idea of outsourcing might have popped into your head.

Using a ghostwriter

There are a vast array of services to help you with a book – once it is written: Editing, proofreading, design and publishing services all abound. If you don’t want to write the book yourself, however, you need a ghostwriter.

The premise is simple. They do the writing, you get the credit. Great!

But what would you expect to pay for this wonderful service?

It depends …

As a general rule, all costing is a factor of time (take a look at our blog on costing <<hyperlink> for how we arrive at prices in general). For ghostwriting, the biggest factors at play will be:

1. Who will do the research?

In other words, are you asking the writer to create a book on the topic of ‘x’ and leaving them to it, or will you feed them your wisdom and knowledge for them to develop. The first option means the writer will do all the research and give you a great book on the topic – the second will give you something that reflects your propriety methods and systems. The second option means more of your time and therefore less of theirs.

2. How long do you want the book to be?

Word count is a major factor in how long things take to write. A short booklet on a single topic is inevitably shorter than an 80k word book on a complete business methodology.

3. What outcome do you want from your ghostwriter? How much would it cost to have a book ghostwritten?

In other words, how far along the process do you want your writer to get you? A rough first draft for you to then play with and finesse? Or the finished product so all you need to do is get it published? You need to allow time for reviews and polishing in the latter case.

So, what does that all mean in terms of the cost for having a book ghostwritten?

Every book is different, so a simple number isn’t going to be easy to present here. Instead, here are some examples that might give you an idea.

For a 60k book:

• With author (i.e. your) input, edited and ready for typesetting: £14,000
• With author input, first draft for you to edit: £10,000
• Researched by the writer, edited and ready for typesetting: £18,000

For a 10k short book on a single topic

• With author input, edited and ready for typesetting: £2,500
• With author input, first draft for you to edit: £1,500
• Researched by the writer, edited and ready for typesetting: £4,000

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that the costs aren’t a ‘straight line’ (a fully researched book of 60k words is 30p a word, a shorter book is 40p per word). It always takes proportionately longer to write shorter content, so knowing your goals will be really important before you ask us for a costing.

If you have a book in mind and would like to get an idea of what it might cost, then contact us for a chat.