How much does a ghostwriter cost? Here are the real numbers.
Prices you find online range from a few thousand dollars to well over $100,000, and almost nobody explains why. This page does, including exactly what Scribe Media charges and what you get for it.
A professionally ghostwritten and published business book costs $29,000 to $135,000. Here is what moves the number.
Three things set the price: who does the writing, how much of the book is done for you, and whether publishing and marketing are included.
Freelance ghostwriters typically charge $15,000 to $60,000 for a manuscript. You then hire an editor, a designer, a proofreader and someone to handle distribution, and you manage all of them. The writing is one line item in a project you run yourself.
Full-service ghostwriting and publishing, which is what Scribe Media does, runs $56,000 to $135,000 and covers the writer, editing, cover and interior design, audiobook, distribution to every major retailer, and a publishing manager who runs the project. You keep 100% of the rights and the royalties.
If you have already written the manuscript, you are not paying for a ghostwriter at all. Professional publishing of a finished draft is $29,000 with Scribe, and that covers everything from editing to a global launch.
The most expensive mistake we see is not overpaying. It is paying $350,000 to do it alone. Erik Huberman, founder of Hawke Media, turned down a Scribe quote, built The Hawke Method himself over three years, and spent $350,000 doing it. He is not a Scribe author. He still calls the book a great investment, and he now sends people to us. The price of a book is the whole project, not the writer.
Three questions to ask any ghostwriter about their price
Some publishers keep rights or royalties. Scribe authors keep 100% of both. David Goggins kept ownership of Can't Hurt Me and has sold more than 3 million copies.
A manuscript is not a book. Editing, design, audiobook, distribution and a launch plan are where most solo projects stall and where hidden costs live.
The Scribe interview method needs roughly 50 hours of your time in total. Writing a book yourself takes hundreds. Your time is part of the price.
Shaan Patel on what his book returned relative to what it cost.
What a book did for people who asked the same question
Every number below comes from a published success story on scribemedia.com, and each one links to the page it came from.
These are the best documented results among authors who told us. Every one of them had a business or a stage the book could feed. Most authors do not track a number, and a book without a business behind it should not be bought for a financial return.
Chad Willardson, a wealth advisor in Southern California, published Stress-Free Money with Scribe. New clients came from Virginia, Florida, New Jersey, Guatemala and Switzerland, and the book returned more than three times its cost within ten months.
The book became his most powerful lead generator and paid back its cost many times over.
Read the story →You would be in good company
From first-time authors to number-one bestsellers, these are books our teams helped create.
The questions people ask us next
A freelance writer alone can cost less. The difference is what you are buying. Scribe Professional includes the writer, an editor, cover and interior design, audiobook production, worldwide distribution, launch support and a publishing manager who runs the project, for $4,667 a month over twelve months ($56,000 total). With a freelancer you hire and manage each of those yourself. Some authors are glad to do that, and for them a freelancer is the right call.
No. Every package is paid monthly: $4,833 a month for six months for Publishing, $4,667 a month for twelve months for Professional, $9,000 a month for fifteen months for Elite. A $1,000 deposit is due at signing and comes off your first payment.
Yes, all of them. Scribe never takes a share of your book. That is a real difference from many hybrid and traditional publishers.
Start with Compass. For $5,000 you get five coaching calls that produce your North Star, table of contents and chapter roadmap, which you keep. If you continue with Scribe, the full $5,000 is credited toward your book.
That is the craft. Your writer builds the book from roughly 50 hours of recorded interviews with you, in your words and your stories. You review every chapter and approve every word before it goes to print.
Professional runs nine to twelve. We do not rush books, because a book that is not ready costs more than a book that took another month.
When Scribe is the wrong choice
We would rather say this here than on a call.
- You want to sell copies as the business. Royalties rarely repay a professional book; the return is clients, speaking and authority. If copies are the goal, write it yourself with the free Scribe Method and publish on your own.
- You have no business, practice or platform to feed the book into, and this is personal money. Start with the free Scribe Method or the North Star tool, or bring a finished draft to Publishing at $4,833 a month for six months.
- You need the book in under nine months. Scribe runs nine to twelve months from first call to launch and does not cut that short.
The real numbers, before you talk to anyone
Every package is one price, paid monthly, with a $1,000 deposit at signing that comes off the first payment. You own every right and every dollar of royalties. The monthly figure and the total are both here, before any call.
You have written the manuscript. Editing, cover, interior, audiobook and global distribution are handled for you.
You talk, a Scribe writer turns about twenty hours of interviews into your book (about 50 hours of your time in total), and it is published under your name.
A premier ghostwriter and a dedicated team, built to the standard of a major-house book: twenty in-depth interviews, research, ten revision calls, and a $25,000 launch budget.
Five coaching calls over four to six weeks produce your North Star, table of contents and chapter roadmap. You keep all of it. If you continue into Professional or Elite, the entire $5,000 comes off your book.
Talk it through with an author strategist
Fifteen minutes, and it is a sales conversation: we tell you the price and whether you fit, and we will say so if you do not. Your strategist calls during business hours, usually the same day.
Read this before you decide
Most people who search for ghostwriter prices are really asking a different question: is this worth it? The honest answer depends on what the book is for. If you want a book to sell copies, the math is hard for almost everyone, including traditionally published authors. If you want a book that brings you clients, speaking invitations, and the kind of authority that shortens every sales conversation you will ever have, the math is different, and it is why business owners keep doing this.
Chad Willardson did not write his book to sell copies. He wrote it to be the advisor people already trust before the first meeting. Michael Mogill wrote his to become the attorney other attorneys call. Shaan Patel wrote his as the front door to a test-prep company, and revenue doubled from the launch date. In every case the book paid for itself in the business, not on Amazon.
So compare prices, but compare them against the whole job. A manuscript alone is not a book, and a book that never gets published, designed, recorded and distributed is the most expensive one of all. Whatever you decide, we will tell you exactly which path fits you on a fifteen-minute call, including if the answer is not Scribe.