Getting Started:
Got a great idea for a new story? Need your memoirs written in book form but your writing skills are not so good? Hire a ghostwriter and get it done. You will love the results!

Writers advertise their services just like other crafts but writing samples are very quick and easy to obtain from a prospective writer. Simply ask for them and any writer of experience and pride will gladly oblige with as many as you may require.

Your first contact with the writer will be by email and this will be your first opportunity to get to know them. Since emails are electronic mail as in ‘the written word,’ it should provide a good semblance of your writing skills.

  Providing the Task Description:
This is the most important step in the hiring process because a writer can only write what they can understand. That is to say that all writers can write for themselves but when it comes to writing for others, the writer wants to get it right the first time. They want to get the job done correctly and please the person who is hiring them; perhaps get return work and then get paid according to the mutual agreement they make.

So if you want to hire a writer, do your homework first and know exactly what you want the writer to do and how the finished product will appear to the reader.

Note: Never spend a lot of time describing the task on the phone. The written word has staying power and the spoken word falls into eternity moments after it leaves the speaker's mouth.

A hard copy is a key and a hard copy is what the writer needs to refer to when completing the task.

    Providing Files and Data:
Providing data to your writer is the most critical step in the setup process. Never lose that communication linkup with your writer at this stage.

• Never send over bulk data or bulk files within the first couple of days of meeting your writer. This is counterproductive as it will generally bog things down out of the chute
• The best approach to files when beginning with a new writer is the simplest one
• Use the General Directives system whenever you can. This means that if you provide exacting information as to your vision for the project, chances are you will get the best return from the writer. This is the simplest form of instructional application
• Always send over files or data and maintain a clear line of communication. Then, if there is a problem in understanding the directives, you can resolve it before it becomes a “dead” file. A file the writer does not understand and subsequently no longer opens

    File Systems and Keeping Order:
Never send your files raw in emails. This creates disorder and bogs things down.

    Always use Microsoft Word 365 or Google Docs:
This oils the wheels and moves the project forward.

    The IN and OUT box:
You will be sending the writer files and receiving files from the writer.

    You must have a Desktop or a Laptop Computer!

1. On your desktop or laptop: make a folder on the desktop and call it the project title.


2. Create 2 files inside this folder: Received and Sent, or IN and OUT if you like. When you receive a file from your ghostwriter, it will have a file number, a word count, and a date in the composition title. It will look like this: “Title-008-1023words-07.27.21” Then, when you get the incoming email, download the incoming file and the file numbers should order the file list in the “IN,” box. Don’t worry too much about raw data file titles you send “OUT,” because your writer will convert them into the filing system we are using as described above.


3. Be certain to keep the files your writer sends you or the completed files in order. We may look over them at a point being one-third or one-half of the way through the project to re-order them as we assemble all the parts to your book. This is modular.

This is a good file management system and all part of the General Directives System which I created.

    The General Directives File System:
The General Directives approach to guiding your writer to the results you need is limited by the vision of the result requested. This system is great for most uses, however, may be expanded, based on your needs as a client, to contain multiple files as long as it does not convolute the process.

The General Directives system for client/writer communication provides a portal that transfers the clients vision in the form of the written word to the machine that then creates an essential product as requested. Your writer can only write what you can clearly explain!

The requested written work can only be accomplished when the client sends all raw data to the writer in a file. The most commonly used files for this purpose are Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Microsoft Word is my chosen instrument for the task of writing and I pay by the year to do this. Google Docs is a free source application and is available to everyone at no cost.

    How to acquire Google Docs:

1. Go to your Google search page
2. Click on the nine dots arranged in a square pattern at the upper right corner of the page
3. Scroll down and select Docs
4. Select the 'Blank' icon at the upper left
5. Paste your data into the document
6. Select the blue square labeled 'Share,' enter your writer's email and send the data

The nuts & bolts of the General Directives system are critical but if done properly, you will only need to do this once the writer should comprehend your needs, and can then move out of the instructional phase and into the production phase getting the work completed on your behalf.


  Google Docs & How to set it up

One: Set up a Google account

Two: On any Google page, go to the upper right corner of the page and find the 9 dots in the shape of a box.

Three: Click on the dotted box and select Google Docs.

Four: Start writing or copying from elsewhere into Docs. You are then ready to write your book or project.

  Cost and Payments:
I personally charge $0.05 per word. I use the Progress Payments method in that the work is segmented into either 3K or 6K segments.

Here is how this works:

• You generate work by sending your writer's payment utilizing the program of choice for the 3K or 6K words
• Your writer will send you back the completed work for your review and approval
• You may take as much time as you like between segments
• This allows you to accumulate data and order it or make edits and write more content

I have found this method to be the finest available in that it gets the work done in an orderly fashion and does not require any exorbitant up front fees.