The Thing About Ghostwriting

I never thought I would be a ghostwriter.

For a long time, in a different part of my life, I truly just wanted my name out in the world. As weird as it sounds, I still do, but for different reasons than why I wanted to become a writer in the first place.

Ghostwriting has given me the freedom to hone my skills and understand how to work on even tighter deadlines than when I was in college. This career gave me the confidence to share my opinion with people and not worry about if they like my idea or not.

It's also helped me branch out and write different things than I would never have in the first place, which has only helped enhance my writing.

And, while I don't get the book's royalties, I do get paid.

Ghostwriting has helped me discover a little about the writing world while spreading my wings as a writer. Now that I'm more comfortable with myself, I'm ready to strike out and write under my name, which was always the plan. It's nice to know that I'm moving forward step by step.

The most difficult thing about ghostwriting is the reaction people give when they discover that it's a "real" job and that their favorite books might have been written by someone other than the credited author.

Honestly, I have only given the example of sous or line chef in a kitchen with a head chef. The kitchen workers work, but the head chef's name is where the food is associated. This isn't a bad thing, and people need help running a restaurant and running it smoothly.

One person cannot write all the information in the world. Publishing houses want books on specific subjects and cannot keep up with the demands in-house. Busy people want help writing their memoirs, and so on.

No person can do everything on their own, and no one can tackle all the ideas they may have. Ghostwriting allows writers to earn money while trying to build their career—or it allows people who want to write the luxury of writing if they don't want to have their name out in the world.

Either way, it's a pretty good living.