Tips on working with articles ghostwriters

Believe it or not, all ghostwriters are not created equally. There are some that are good, and some that are bad. Each has their own writing style. Some ghostwriters can write on any topic that you can imagine, while others only write on specific topics. Some offer one service: writing. Others offer multiple services, such as writing, compiling documents into PDFs, submitting articles, and formatting documents. When you visit a freelance site, and post a bid proposal for a ghostwriter, you will get numerous bids from which to choose. You must use caution.

Most of the freelance sites have a rating system. You want a ghostwriter that has a high number of good ratings. You do not want a ghostwriter that has bad ratings. You can work with a ghostwriter that is just starting out, and you may find that you save money this way.

Before you hire a ghostwriter, ask to see samples of their work. If they are just starting out, they may not have any samples. In this case, you need to give them a test. Ask for one article. You will need to pay for it, but paying for that one article may save you a great deal of money in the future.

Once they have submitted this article to it, read over it and see what you think. Use your article recon, or a site such as CopyScape at http://www.copyscape.com to ensure that the article is original. If you like the work, you’ve found a ghostwriter.

Next, when using a freelance site, you will need to put the money to pay for the work into escrow. That money is held until the work is complete, and you have approved it. If you are not happy with the work, the writer should have an opportunity to make corrections, and failing that, the money is returned to you.

It is important to establish a relationship with a ghostwriter – or several ghostwriters – that you can work with over long periods of time. This will help to ensure that all of your writing has a familiar tone to it. If you use numerous ghostwriters, however, your readers will notice that all of your writing does not have the same tone.

Therefore, you need to find a good ghostwriter that you communicate well with. The ghostwriter should be able to meet your deadlines, and charge prices that you can afford to pay. Again, the going rate for an article is about $10.

When you post bid proposals, you will see people that are bidding very, very low. Take a look at their profiles. You will find that they bid low for one of three reasons: Either they have bad ratings, they live in a foreign country (which means that they probably can’t produce the quality of work that you want because they don’t speak the language), or they are brand new to freelance writing.

Again, it is fine to try out a new writer, just do it on a small scale – one or two articles – to see how they do. Never assign a big job to a new writer without testing the waters first!

Communication is important. There are ghostwriters that can take a topic and run with it, with little or no further instruction. Then there are writers that want so much detail that you would save time writing the thing yourself. You may not be comfortable just giving a topic. If this is the case, give detail. Note, however, that some writers actually can’t write around your details.

Again, ghostwriters are not machines. They have their own style, and their own way of doing things. You just have to find one that has a style that you like, and does things the way that works best for you – naturally.

While ghostwriters must communicate with clients, a good way to lose a good ghostwriter is to require constant communication with them. For example, they don’t want to be called daily or emailed daily about the status of the work. Once a week for a status report is sufficient, and some won’t even do that. They are busy – writing your content!

If you do want communication at specified intervals while the work is in progress, you need to let this be known from the outset. This way, both you and your ghostwriter know what is expected of each other.

Before hiring your ghostwriter, you should also establish whether or not rewrites will be done, how many, and at what point or level of dissatisfaction that the writer will not be paid. You should also establish how the writer will be paid, if you are not using a freelance site that has a payment system in place.

The second fastest way to lose a good ghostwriter is to not pay them in a timely manner after the work has been finished, or to not pay them at all. Lawyers golf together, and then battle it out in the courtroom – after court, they are playing tennis together, having dinner together, etc.

Don’t think for one minute that ghostwriters don’t communicate with each other – they do. If you are a bad client, it’s just a matter of time before every ghostwriter in the industry knows it, and then, you won’t be able to find a ghostwriter to work for you…unless it’s a ghostwriter that you didn’t want in the first place.

Most ghostwriters already have contracts ready to go. If you require a Non-Disclosure agreement, or if you want the copyright to the work transferred, in writing, just let them know. However, you are already protected under law regarding the copyright – work done for hire belongs to the person that did the hiring, legally, once that work is paid for.