How much does a ghostwriter cost?
What ghostwriting a book actually costs, what moves the price, and the cheaper ways to get a good book made.
In short
- Full-length ghostwriting commonly runs from the high tens of thousands of dollars into six figures.
- Price is set by the writer's experience, the length, the research, and the interviews and revisions.
- Cheap ghostwriting usually costs more in the end, in rewrites or a book you cannot use.
- A method and a tool can give much of the result for a fraction of the price.
Ghostwriting is one of the larger cheques a person writes outside a house or a car, and the range is wide enough to be confusing. Here is what a book actually costs to have written for you, what moves the number, and where the cheaper routes are.
The broad range
For a full-length book, an experienced ghostwriter commonly charges from the high tens of thousands of dollars into six figures, paid in instalments across the year or so the work takes. Shorter books and less experienced writers cost less, sometimes a few thousand, and the quality tends to track the price. The fee usually covers the interviews, the research, the writing and the editing, with design, printing and publishing charged separately.
What moves the price
Four things drive the number: the writer's experience and track record, since a ghostwriter whose books sell charges accordingly; the length and complexity of the book; the depth of research, because a heavily sourced history costs more than a personal essay; and the amount of access and revision, since more interviews and more review rounds mean more of the writer's time, which is what you are paying for.
Why cheap is usually expensive
Faced with a five-figure quote, the temptation is to find someone cheaper, and sometimes that works. Often it does not. A writer who charges a few thousand for a book is usually inexperienced or moving too fast, and you discover the problem after you have paid, in a manuscript that needs rewriting or cannot be used at all. If you hire, hire on the strength of the writer's other books, and treat a low quote as a question rather than a bargain.
The cheaper ways to a good book
You have two real ways to spend less. Write it yourself with a method that holds you to a professional standard, and pay only for a human editor's read at the end, which runs a fraction of a full ghostwrite. Or use a tool that does the ghostwriter's process with you, the gathering, the drafting and the editing, while you keep control, and again bring in an editor only to finish. Both give you most of the result for a small share of the price, in exchange for some of your time.
The cheaper path
Incipit is the tool version of that cheaper path. It runs the same process a ghostwriter uses, interviews and sources, a held voice, a developmental and line edit, and facts checked against your sources, for the price of the software rather than a five-figure fee, with you in charge the whole way.
Request early accessCommon questions
Why is ghostwriting so expensive?
Because it is months of skilled, full-time work by someone who can write a publishable book, plus the interviews, research and editing. You are buying months of a professional's time, and that is what the fee reflects.
Do ghostwriters charge upfront?
Usually in instalments, a deposit and then payments tied to stages or months. Agree the schedule and what each payment covers before you start.
Is a cheaper book-writing tool any good?
A good one gives you the structure, the drafting help and the editorial read that make a book work, for far less than a ghostwriter, as long as you bring the story and the time.