I’m a ghost writer. Most customers probably think of me as selling a service. But another way of thinking about what I do is that I’m selling time. When I take on a project, I’m committing to spend a number of months writing the author’s book. I can’t commit to writing another book at the same time. So when I want to calculate my rate for a specific project I begin by calculating, based on 35 years of experience, how long it will take me to write the book. I already know what I want to earn during a year so the next step is simple. Suppose I think it will take four months to write the book. Four months is one third of a year, so I divide my intended earnings for the year by three, and that’s my fee. So if you want to know how much to expect to pay, think about a reasonable annual salary and divide it by three. You won’t be far out.
Occasionally, though, an author will say, “I’ve got lower quotes than that.”
Of course you have. You will have some quotes from people whose native language is not English. You’ll have some from people who will use AI to write your book. They may offer to do the job for $500. I’m not going to compete with that. Four months work for $500? That’s $1500 a year. I won’t work for that – sorry. I can make you two promises. The first is that, if I write your book, agents won’t laugh when (with my help) you send it to them. And the second promise is that, if you get a book written for $500, or a book written using AI, laugh is exactly what they will do.
So there you are. Make your choice, pay your fee, and get what you pay for.
Leave a Reply