As the demand for professional ghostwriting services has grown, many ghostwriting companies have entered the market. When you look around online, they tend to offer the same types of services, making it difficult to figure out who’s actually legitimate.
Choosing the right service is imperative because hiring a ghostwriter for a book is expensive. If you make the wrong choice, you can end up wasting a lot of time and money.
The challenge is figuring out which ghostwriting company to hire. That’s what this article will help you figure out.
Below, I cover:
- 4 ways to tell if a ghostwriting company is legitimate.
- Why the best ghostwriting companies will help you self-publish your book.
- How our ghostwriting services work at Scribe.
Note: We’ve worked with over 2,000 nonfiction Authors, including New York Times bestsellers like David Goggins and Tiffany Haddish. Our proven process can take you from book idea to published book in under a year. And we offer a money-back guarantee. If you’re serious about writing your book, schedule a free consultation with one of our Author Strategists.
How to Tell if a Ghostwriting Service Is Legitimate
Here are 4 specific criteria to help you determine if a ghostwriting service is legit:
1. They List the Books They’ve Ghostwritten
Examples of books Scribe has ghostwritten or published.
When you review book writing services online, you’ll notice that many of them don’t list the books they’ve ghostwritten. At best, some will have a few screenshots of obscure books you’ve never heard of.
You should avoid working with these companies. Legitimate services will be transparent about the books they’ve worked on. Why wouldn’t they?
If they’re proud of their work, they’ll show it.
For example, we’re extremely proud of the work we do at Scribe. You can see every book we’ve ghostwritten on our published books page.
2. They’ve Published Case Studies or Author Success Stories
Most ghostwriting services have a few testimonials sprinkled throughout their website, but testimonials are easy to fabricate. Often it’s just a quote and a first name, and it’s hard to tell if it’s even real.
On the other hand, if a service has published detailed case studies or success stories of clients who’ve become published Authors, this is a much better indicator that they do high quality work.
This allows you to see the kinds of Authors they’ve worked with, the experiences those Authors had, and the results they achieved with their book.
To see examples of what quality case studies look like, you can find dozens of them on our success stories page.
3. They’ll Pair You with Another Writer If the First One Doesn’t Work Out
Working with a ghostwriter is a collaborative process that requires chemistry between you and the writer.
Great ghostwriting services spend a lot of time on finding the right match for you. However, no company bats a thousand. The first writer you’re paired with won’t always work out.
The best ghostwriting companies will pair you with a second writer when this happens. If you’re considering a company that doesn’t offer this, I’d be wary of hiring them.
We have a defined process at Scribe for pairing our clients with writers. In cases where it’s not the right fit, we find a writer that is.
4. They’ve Helped Clients Become Bestselling Authors
This isn’t a prerequisite for choosing a service, but the best ghostwriting companies have helped at least some clients become bestsellers.
Any company that’s done this will feature it on their website, so it’s another easy criteria to watch for.
We’ve helped dozens of Authors publish bestselling books. You can see them here.
Why the Best Ghostwriting Companies Will Help You Self-Publish Your Book
First-time Authors often don’t know this, but many ghostwriting companies only offer writing services. You pay them, work with your ghostwriter, and receive a completed manuscript as your final product.
You’re on your own to publish your book—whether you manage the self-publishing process yourself, hire a separate professional publishing service, or try to get a deal with a traditional publishing house.
Whichever path you choose, getting from manuscript to published book requires significant time or money. However, choosing a ghostwriting company that includes publishing as a part of their service has several advantages:
- You often get a better price when choosing a package deal with one company.
- You save the time and energy it takes to find and vet separate services.
- Your entire book is written and published by one cohesive team.
At Scribe, both of our ghostwriting packages include comprehensive publishing services. You also get a publishing manager who works with you for the entirety of your ghostwriting project and a team of writers, editors, and book publishing experts who cohesively produce your book.
Here’s how our ghostwriting services work and what each includes.
Scribe’s Ghostwriting Services for Nonfiction Authors
We offer 2 premium ghostwriting services at Scribe:
These are interview-based ghostwriting packages designed for entrepreneurs, consultants, and executives who want to write and publish a professional book in their words and voice—but don’t have the time or desire to type it themselves.
We work with Authors in a wide variety of genres, including:
- Finance and business books
- Marketing and advertising
- Self-help and personal development
- Sports and fitness
- Health and wellness
- Relationships
- Memoir
- Travel
- And more
Our ghostwriters must have at least 10 years of experience and have published a minimum of 3 nonfiction books. Our acceptance rate is less than 1% (that’s lower than Harvard and Stanford), so our clients get to work with some of the best ghostwriters in the world.
Scribe Professional costs $48,000 ($4,800/month for 10 months), and we offer a money back guarantee. It includes everything you need to get your book out into the world:
- Validation, structuring, and positioning of your book idea.
- Comprehensive interviews get your ideas out of your head and into a book (in your words and your voice).
- A completed book manuscript with expert proofreading and editing services.
- A beautiful book cover design and interior layout.
- Full coordination of all book publishing details (ISBN, author bio, description, etc.).
- An eBook format of your book.
- Full printing services, with the ability to order unlimited copies at production cost (with an initial 100-copy gift from us).
- Full distribution through major online retailers (Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, iBooks)
- 100% ownership of rights and royalties.
- First week promotions to help you become an Amazon Bestseller (including a scheduled podcast interview, social media templates, and more).
- Marketing strategy and consultation by our experienced team of book marketers.
In addition to Scribe Professional, we offer Scribe Elite Ghostwriting, which starts at $135,000. You get everything in the Scribe Professional package plus:
- Guaranteed pairing with an award-winning ghostwriter who will fly to interview you in person.
- A complete PR and media campaign, starting prior to launch and lasting a minimum of 3 months.
- Audiobook creation using a professional voice actor and top of the line studio production.
To learn more, check out our ghostwriting service Scribe Professional or Scribe Elite—or schedule a consult to get in touch with our team.
