Wednesday 16 November 2016

How To Break into Ghostwriting

So you want to be a ghostwriter?

Congratulations. It can be a rewarding lifestyle. You have the freedom to work when it suits you. You get to work with wonderful clients. Additionally, you're able to learn new things each and every day and focus on a skill you enjoy. However, as a ghostwriter, competition can be difficult. And breaking into ghostwriting provides some challenges.

Here are the top five tips to break into ghostwriting:


Tip #1 - Focus on a niche. A niche is a specialty. As a ghostwriter, a niche can help you establish credibility and authority. Your niche can be a topic, for example “parenting”, or your niche can be a format like articles or blog posts. A niche will also help clients find you. They may search online for “parenting blog writers” - if you’ve established yourself and created a website around that niche, they’ll find you.

Tip #2 - Remember customer service. One of the most important aspects of being a ghostwriter doesn’t have anything to do with writing. It’s your customer service. This means professional communication, reliability, timeliness and, of course, a professional approach to requests, revisions and feedback. You’re providing a service to a customer – if they have a good experience they’ll recommend you to others.

Tip #3 - Network. Breaking into ghostwriting can be simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. In order to create more opportunities, you may want to network online and off. The more people who know about your service, the more opportunities you’ll come across.

Tip #4 - Price competitively. There are a number of ghostwriters who seem to write for next to nothing. And there are those who charge ten times what the market demands. Your job is to price yourself competitively. You want people to be willing to pay to try out your services and sometimes that means working for a little less than you’d like - especially in the beginning. Know that you can raise your rates once you’re established. You might even consider doing some work on spec. It can pay off handsomely.

Tip #5 - Brag. Often writers are introverts. They also struggle with confidence. Half the time they think they’re an amazing writer and the other half of the time they think everything they write is the worst ever. However, in order to instill confidence in your clients you’re going to need to, at least, fake it. Don’t hesitate to list your writing accomplishments, credentials and experience.

Breaking into ghostwriting isn’t difficult. It takes a plan, a commitment to succeed and the willingness to go out and market yourself. Trust that you’ll soon have a full schedule, wonderful clients and you’ll be living the writer’s life. The life you’ve always dreamed of.

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