Every form of artistic expression starts as an uncut stone—a concept waiting to be properly shaped and polished by the right person. When it comes to writing, this shaping process can be both incredibly personal and incredibly intense. You know you have something valuable, and you know the end result will be great, but you haven’t quite been able to figure out how to bring out that inner brilliance.
Unless you have the knack of writing and writing well, you’ll need a ghostwriter (or a few) to market yourself and your ideas properly.
In case you aren’t familiar or need a quick refresher: a ghostwriter is a writer skilled in the art turning your insights and ideas into clear, catchy content written in your or your brand’s tone of voice.
Let’s say, as an example, you have decades of experience navigating the dynamic world of business leadership. You’ve honed your insights and amassed a ton of knowledge you now want to share with the world. But there’s a lot of ground to cover, and you’re finding it hard to figure out how or even what to write.
A trustworthy writer can easily turn your vision into a reality, and, like the metaphorical gemcutter, polish your content by deciding what to keep and what to carve away.
They can save you valuable time and effort, offer deep research and content expertise, and keep you on track for your content output goals.
If you’ve never done it before, working with a writer might seem overwhelming, maybe even intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be.
How the ghostwriting content creation process works
The writing process is easier to grasp when we break it down into a few steps. These steps aren’t prescriptive—each writer and each relationship will naturally vary—but we’ve found this framework to work well for getting writers and clients on the same page:
Find the right ghostwriter
A trustworthy writer is the main element of your content creation equation. Spend time and effort to find a ghostwriter that understands your project vision. Consider their experience, subject matter expertise, storytelling ability and their pricing. Review their portfolio and, optionally, engage them in a trial (paid, of course). Ask for referrals from trusted sources or engage an agency or company with a network of talent. You’ll be working closely with your writer and the relationship should be comfortable, so pick one that shares your values, your interests, and is passionate about what you’re trying to accomplish.
Define goals and expectations
Once you’ve found and engaged your ghostwriter, go over your campaign or project goals with them. Be clear about any expectations and define the overarching goal(s) of your content: to inform, to persuade, to drive sales? If you’re not sure where or how to start, it never hurts to ask; some writers are more willing to discuss content strategy than others. Mapping out your audience and their journey can also bring clarity. Be sure to discuss your personal branding insights, any brand voice considerations, and share any brand or copy guidelines you have. Lastly, remember that writing is personal both in terms of content and process. Sharing your story and journey can create a genuine connection with your writer, allowing them to write about and for you with more warmth and colour.
Agree on scope
For each project, and especially in the beginning of your working relationship, define the key aspects of what your writer needs to produce. This could mean objectives, timelines, wordcounts, keywords, requirements, exclusions, number of revisions, even special processes if other creatives like designers or video professionals get involved. The goal is to minimize misunderstandings, frustrations, and roadblocks as much as possible. The clearer you are, the better and smoother the writing process will be.
Set up your interviews and other meetings
This is where the actual production process begins. Depending on the size of your project, you might need one or more meetings; larger projects might need a kickoff plus a mix of status and working calls. For collateral with well-defined scopes, however, we’ve found interviews to work well. Think of these interviews as information-transferring exercises that take the form of conversations. Talk about your topic in a way that’s meaningful and authentic to you. Specific anecdotes, experiences, case studies, challenges, industry insights and supplementary documents are all excellent grist for the writerly mill. The more you offer, the more material your writer has to work with—and the more likely it is that you’ll be able to turn this one interview into additional future deliverables. Keep your objective in mind, but don’t feel too restricted: a good writer will prepare insightful questions to steer the discussion while allowing the conversation to evolve organically.
Receive and review the initial draft
At this point, your role becomes a bit more passive. Your writer takes away all the information you’ve shared and begins creating the initial draft. Guided by the project scope, they’ll sort, organize, and set your ideas into copy. Your ghostwriter will work diligently to match your brand voice and tone. Stay alert, however: as the draft develops, writers will sometimes need to clarify specific details, and it’s your job to be quick on the response. Once you receive the initial draft, it’s review o’clock. Set aside adequate time to go over the initial draft in detail, and get ready to prepare your feedback.
Provide good feedback to drive revisions
Your feedback is crucial to refining the content and getting you towards the finish line. Does the draft meet your content requirements and project objectives? Is the information accurate and clear? Are you satisfied with the voice and tone? Make your feedback constructive, specific, and detailed—it’s what your writer will use to inform and revise the next draft. It might also be valuable at this to revisit the end use for this piece and see whether your writer has any insights into how the content might be positioned, packaged, or repurposed to maximize its impact and reach a wider audience. Collaboration is the name of the game during this revision process. (And if you need some tips on how to make sure you’re giving good feedback, we have you covered.)
Approve and publish (and promote)!
Once you’ve hit the end of the review process, you should have a final version ready for your sign-off. Confirm your approval. Celebrate, but not too much: there’s still a bit of work left. Hand off your new content to your content manager or, if you’re a solo show, tackle the next steps yourself. These could include setting up your content on WordPress (and checking every hyperlink), getting your social media graphics and captions in order, or adding an excerpt as the finishing touch to a draft newsletter. Take a deep breath… and push the button. Now, having shared your insights with you audience at last and made sure to respond to any engagement across your platforms, you can really relax. Until next time, that is.
Do it again
To stay relevant, you need to be consistent in your output. This means always having material ready well ahead of your publication schedule. Fortunately, a ghostwriter is just the ticket to keep your content ball rolling. Touch base with your writer to thank them, resolve any process snags, and go over next steps and new ideas. Consider that your priorities might have changed. Do you want to go ahead with the next planned project? Would you rather explore ways to spin this latest piece into additional collateral? Has something unexpected but exciting come up you want to pursue? Finish strong by agreeing on the actions you both need to take, and then it's once more unto the breach.
These steps lay the groundwork for a successful, mutually beneficial partnership with your ghostwriter. Over time, you’ll find your process evolving, the steps changing, your collaboration becoming more streamlined—and your work better and better every time.
How to develop an authentic creative partnership with your ghostwriter
The writing process is about more than just writing. At its best, it is a true collaborative and creative alliance; that’s why finding the right writer is the first and most important step in our process.
In this partnership, you’re the driver, but you and your writer are in the same car, and like every road trip, you’ll get to know each other better the longer you spend together.
To make sure you stay firmly on the road, there are a few things to keep in mind as your professional relationship develops.
Your ghostwriting team runs on communication
Mutual respect, shared understanding, clear goals, and open communication are foundational to a smooth partnership. A common concern, for example, is that a writer will diverge too much from your established voice. This risk can be mitigated through open dialogue. Explore the nuances of balancing creative expression and brand compliance. Discuss any deviations constructively. Revisit process questions and requirements as needed. Clarify decisions and actions. Consider your writer’s feedback with due significance. If you and your ghostwriter aren’t equally committed to communicating, your efforts won’t prosper.
Collaboration: It takes two to tango
Engaging a ghostwriter frees you from the actual work of writing, but you still need to be an active participant in the creative process. You will have to dedicate at least some time, effort and attention to collaboration. And you should be learning from each other; ideally, your partnership should have a push-pull dynamic, with you occasionally trading places. You might push your writer with demanding projects, highly specific requests, or new and unfamiliar formats and topics. Your writer might push you to take more creative risks, make more ruthless cuts, or challenge disparities between your goals and your instructions.
Publishing content is personal
Even if you’re engaging someone else to do it. Good writing requires you to put something of yourself on the line. Writing in partnership with someone else requires trust. We’re not suggesting you and your writer become drinking buddies; just bring your authentic self to the table. This doesn’t only build rapport—people (including writers) are more responsive, engaged, and committed when they can tell you’re being genuine. Plus, in order to speak with your voice, writers need to become familiar with the external expression that’s unique to you—expressions, mannerisms, philosophies, stories and more.
As the client, you always have the ultimate say. You have the vision, and you establish the requirements, goals, and tone. Your expertise and unique perspective fuels this entire effort. Your decision to engage a ghostwriter is like summoning a sculptor to free your valuable insight from a block of lifeless marble. A ghostwriter simply carves out the David you see in the stone so that everyone else can see it too.
Your collaboration has the potential to bring about more than your individual growth, financial or otherwise. Ghostwriting has the power to leave a lasting impact on your target audience. A powerful piece of content resonates and inspires. It can spark discussions, changes, actions, even movements.
Who knows, maybe your joint efforts can have the power of bringing a foundational shift to your industry.
Wouldn’t that be something?
Ready to team up with a ghostwriter and create content magic?
If you have unique stories and experiences you find yourself referencing often over the course of your work, and they always seem to be a hit with whoever you’re talking to, chances are you’ve got the makings of some killer content already.
Why not take a chance, plant that seed in different soil, and grow it into a fully formed content plan? Stop letting your lack of capacity hold you back. Leverage the power of ghostwriting so you can concentrate your efforts and hand off the tedious parts of writer to someone else.
If you need a hand finding the right writer, or if you need a little more guidance with strategy, content mix and other details, Community & Company is ready to help. Let’s set up some time on the calendar and chat about how we can help you achieve your goals.
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