boo who!? 3 qualities you need in a ghostwriter

The deadline is approaching for a quarterly rah-rah speech to shareholders, or a first-person column in a popular trade pub, or a CEO-penned website letter meant to recruit the best and brightest.

But all you have is an empty page, a taunting cursor and 11 passive-aggressive reminder emails from stakeholders. Plus, you’re a little busy; in fact, your to-do list has its own to-do list.

Hiring a ghostwriter is a great way to both increase bandwidth and help elevate your content. But not every junior copywriter fresh out of college has the chops and maturity for tag-teaming such critical projects.

Here are five important qualities to seek out in potential ghostwriters:

1. Passion
   I almost put empathy here, but the truth is that you don’t need to have walked 100 miles in someone’s funky Birkenstocks to see their soul. Or their soles. Being an accomplished ghostwriter doesn’t require one to go full Daniel Day-Lewis method acting. You just need to really care, damn it. Find someone who can get fired up about igneous rock collecting, who makes international trade finance accounting add up to more than numbers, or approach whatever that thing you do is without having the effect of Tylenol PM plus a bottle of Boone’s Farm. Even more importantly, find someone who can get others excited about your niche expertise. That’s the real challenge.
   
   
2. Trustworthiness
   Not every word you speak or write during your ghostwriter engagement is going to make the final cut. Together you may sweep skeletons, repressed memories, embarrassing CD purchases and Ikea hardware out of the closet before deciding on what’s included in the book, speech or column. Sure, you have lawyers and mountains of paperwork to protect trade secrets and whatnot, but you don’t need mutual friends or randomly shared LinkedIn connections snickering at you for owning The Best of Enya.
   
   
3. Humility
   Reliable ghostwriters know their role. These writers perform their job, and they walk away into the mist. Their names may be featured somewhere in fine print – or not at all. They may even have signed away their right to specifically reference the work that they’ve done or the client they’ve done it for. It’s not about them, it’s about you. So if you meet a writer who needs an ego stroke just to consider the collaboration, release him or her back to the wild.
   
   

You’re hiring a literary stunt double who can do things you cannot. Someone who can paint a picture through your knowledge, memories and lexicon better than you can. Finding a ghostwriter who’s passionate, trustworthy and humble will go a long way to finding the right partner for your project.

Curious about using ghostwriting services for an upcoming project or event? Drop me a line at mward@milepost0creative.com

---