Getting Started With Your Ghostwriter
Now that you’ve identified your project, ploughed through a stack of submissions from writers and have selected someone to work with – how do you get started?
First you want to have either an understanding or an actual agreement in place before you do much, including make the first payment (most writers expect an up-front payment to get started, see below). There aren’t too many ways a ghostwriting relationship can go wrong, other than just not working out, but you should be aware of them:
Avoiding Potential Problems
There are three basic “bad things” that can happen when you hire a ghostwriter. They’re probably fairly obvious but we still think they’re worth spending a few minutes thinking about:
1. The writer is not good
2. The writer is too slow
3. The writer is submitting plagiarized materials
Two out of three of these are more or less “gut” issues but there is a proviso for the time issue – and some serious potential problems with number three.
If, in the course of the project, it becomes clear that the writer is different than you thought, doesn’t understand what you’re trying to achieve, is not a fit from a management or personality point of view, you should have already made an understanding of some kind about what happens if the project is stopped midstream.
Generally speaking you should be prepared to forfeit your deposit if there has been good faith work done by the writer, as well as be able legally own whatever materials have been written so far. If you feel a project is getting a little off track, such as in the tone or style of the writing not matching your expectations, we’d recommend a phone call rather than emails to try to resolve it.
Why? Remember, you hired a ghostwriter because your writing skills are not absolutely perfect! So pick up the phone and tell the writer what’s concerning you before calling the whole thing off.
The most common problem is a buyer’s perception that the writer “doesn’t get it.” This may be a function of the writer actually not getting it, of course. It may also be a function of the buyer not explaining “it” quite clearly enough or in a way that the particular writer fully understands. Have a few a conversations at the start and anytime things seems to be heading in the wrong direction.
Speed is another issue. Half of ghostwriting projects have real deadlines. But half don’t. If for example you have promised an article for publication to someone that you are actually having ghostwritten, you are working against an external deadline.
You should not keep that deadline from your writer! In fact you should make it a basic aspect of the way the project is framed up from the beginning.
On the other hand, you shouldn’t create artificial deadlines, and you have to keep in mind that you contribute to the speed of a project yourself.
Be responsive. We knew of one situation where a writer presented a client with a couple of dozen pages within a few days of starting a one-month project. The client did not respond with comments for three weeks. The changes requested were significant and could not possibly be finished in a day or two – the project was “late” but whose fault was that?
If a writer is truly taking forever, or continually misses deadlines, then yes, you need to find a new writer. Whether it’s appropriate to ask for any partial payments back will depend on the situation.
On the other hand, being given plagiarized materials is not merely a nuisance. It can cause you serious problems, especially if you are planning on publishing these materials under your own byline and asserting copyright in them.
Most writers – and all reputable writers – will strive never to even accidentally infringe on someone’s existing copyright.
Still, a surprising number of writers do cut corners, and in some cases, will lift material wholesale without attributing it properly. Research citations are one thing. Ripping off someone else’s work is something else.
To protect yourself we recommend you:
· Require all writers to state in writing (email or contract) that their work will be 100% original
· Ask writers who are willing to do so to sign an indemnification clause relating to originality of content – in other words, if someone later sues you for copyright violations, you can turn around and sue the writer or join the writer in your suit
· Invest the time to verify the originality of content if you have concerns. Again, it should be fairly obvious from interacting with a writer whether they are capable of writing, on their own or with approved resources from their team if they have one, what they are submitting to you. If you have doubts, or if you think you read something someplace before, there are online services that can help, among them www.plagiarism.org and http://www.web-miner.com/plagiarism#tools and others.