Preditors & Editors ™
A guide to publishers and publishing services for serious writers
Ghostwriting Scams
by William Hammett
With the advent of print-on-demand (POD) technology, many ghostwriting companies are offering to write, publish, and promote your book. Self-publishing a book is relatively easy and inexpensive, but promoting it can be quite difficult. Large ghostwriting companies, therefore, are now offering to make you a rising literary star-if you pay them an outrageous sum of money for promotion.
I first became suspicious of package deals for ghostwriting, publishing, and promotion when approached by a young woman who had been charged $18,000 for a children's book of 124 pages. The editing was terrible. There were numerous grammatical errors, dialogue was incorrectly punctuated, paragraphing was arbitrary, and the phrasing was awkward in many chapters. Black-and-white illustrations having nothing to do with the text had also been inserted into the finished book without the author's knowledge. Additionally, the editing had not dealt with internal plot contradictions.
Some companies offer to ghostwrite your book for $25,000 to $200,000. A potential client of mine had previously called a firm that claimed to be one of the tops in the country-an industry leader. Suspicious, he came to me for advice and then made follow-up calls. He asked to speak with potential ghostwriters who might handle his project, but his access was limited to the sales rep. My client pushed on. Had all staff ghostwriters written book-length manuscripts? What kind of credits did these talented young professionals have? "I'm sorry, but I can't divulge that information," was the rep's response. My client then asked how ghostwriter selection was determined. Incredibly, the sales rep informed him that the more money he paid, the better the writer assigned to his project.
The client then asked several more questions, and the gist of the rep's answers was as follows. The percentage of ghostwritten books not published could not be divulged. Likewise, the rep refused to disclose any information about promotional fees or alleged contacts with literary agencies. The rep was more than happy, however, to quote the basic fee schedule: thirty percent up front, another thirty percent paid one quarter of the way through, with the remaining forty percent paid when the job was completed. Finally, my client was told that his project, a complex book on science, could be no more than 200 pages in length because readers were not as intelligent as they used to be!
We then looked up the owner of the company and learned that he was under thirty and had no significant writing credentials. We made other calls to this "leading writing service" and asked to speak to the owner, office manager, editors, promotional experts - anyone other than the sales rep - but they were always "out of the office." Other large ghostwriting companies are similar. You don't get any basic information unless you agree to listen to a "hard sell" from the company rep. Consider the following, however.
- Any company that tells you that your idea, no matter how marketable, will only get a "more qualified writer" if you pony up extra money must be regarded with suspicion. Is it your story that is important - or your bank account? How can the company take a first-rate idea and assign it to anyone but its best writer?
- Why can't the company divulge its success rate or provide access to its writers? The answer is that successes are few (or nonexistent), and the ghostwriters are often young graduates who have written a few articles or short stories.
- If you're paying sixty percent of the entire fee by the time the first fourth of the book is written, how can you be sure that you will be satisfied with the entire project? This kind of fee schedule ensures a profit for the company when clients grow unhappy.
- A book is as long as it needs to be. Restricting complicated matter to 200 pages ensures a maximum profit for a minimum of work. No such restriction on length exists in the publishing industry.
- Where is the office staff of a company that claims to ghostwrite and promote over one hundred books a year?
Other scams prey on potential clients' ignorance of the literary marketplace. Many ghostwriting companies offer publishing and promotional packages that range from $2,000 to $40,000, and this doesn't even cover the actual ghostwriting fees.
First, with each jump in price, the successive packages offer to give you the names of more and more industry contacts to help promote your work that the ghostwriting company is in the process of publishing. Many of the contacts are literary agents, editors, and publishers, but these can be obtained by anyone willing to buy Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents or Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents. More to the point, why do you need the names of editors and publishers at all if the ghostwriting company is already editing and publishing your book? Secondly, no agent will handle a self-published book coming from a ghostwriting company unless it sells approximately ten thousand copies.
One of the most ludicrous scams is charging thousands of dollars to write a simple query letter. Query letters are usually one page long and are sent to agents or publishers to see if they are interested in your manuscript. Once again, why would you send query letters to agents and publishers when the book is already being published by the ghostwriting company?
For a few thousand dollars more, the companies promise to put your book online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders. Anyone with a credit card can do this in a matter of minutes. For even more money, the companies will monitor your online sales campaign. You can register your website with Google or Yahoo for free, however, and bid on search engine rankings with a simple "point and click" of your mouse.
Think you've been ripped off enough yet? Keep reading. Pay even more money and the company will handle your press releases. The companies do the mailings for you for a hefty price. The truth is that you can assemble contacts and send out publication notices yourself. The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter (the bible of self-publishing) tells you how to find and target the right trade magazines and newspapers. His book sells for under $25.
Lay out even more money-thousands more-and many companies will contact bookstore chains around the country for you. Unfortunately, a simple notification that the company has published your book does not result in orders. If you're one of the lucky ones to actually get into a bookstore, be aware that you must buy back all copies that don't sell.
Perhaps the most unconscionable practice these companies engage in is that they don't seriously (if at all) evaluate your project in light of current conditions in the literary marketplace. They will publish virtually anything if you are willing to pay the price. They are predators, preying on a client's desire for large royalty sums and/or notoriety.
Sometimes, two or three ghostwriters will form a partnership. I have come across small companies that seem to be honest, and the writers have solid publishing credits and apparently have produced professional-caliber work. Always do your homework, however. Look at the websites. Examine the fine print and follow the links. Read about publishing-there are dozens of online watchdog groups and writing organizations. Above all, ask the tough questions when contacting companies, and don't let them cut you off in mid-sentence or dodge your questions.
There is nothing wrong with hiring a ghostwriter or deciding to self-publish, but a potential client needs to be educated about the realities of the publishing industry. Never be rushed into reviewing a contract or submitting a down payment. If anyone refuses to discuss your project unless you listen to a sales pitch, hold on to your wallet and hang up!
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Quick Bio: William Hammett is the author of The Erotic Manifesto, a satire on the advertising industry's exploitation of sex originally published by Word Wrangler Press. He is also an independent ghostwriter who has written on such topics as school violence, quantum physics, and personality disorders. He collaborated with Lou Federico on One Hell of a Ride, a memoir recounting Mr. Federico's adventures in Baja while building resort hotels for sportsmen and Hollywood stars. His website is http://www.freelanceghost.com/ .
