Ghostwriting: The Surrogate Mother of The Writing World
Ghostwriting may not be for everyone, but it is a decision I had to make recently and I am glad I did.
One of the many ways freelance writers can make a bit of money is by ghostwriting. Ghostwriting simply means that you write the article, then give up all rights to your work and someone else takes the credit for the work product you have achieved.
For many people ghostwriting creates a real problem. As writers we become attached to our work and naturally want the credit for all of our well written articles. Making the decision to give up our work can be a painful and difficult decision. It is one I recently had to make.
It was not an easy decision to make. Having just begun writing a few months ago, my first thought was that I was still trying to build my own reputation as a writer. How then could I sell my work to someone else, who would then benefit from the skills I have begun building?
Then it hit me. I have built a reputation, at least a small one, as this job offer came through people reading my work and thinking the quality was good enough that they wanted to lay claim to it.
It also occurred to me that even while ghostwriting I can continue to write under my own name and build my own reputation. Ghostwriting, at least in this particular case will not hinder the building of my own reputation.
What it will do is allow me to make additional income, which may lead to my becoming a full time writer much sooner than I expected. Which from my point of view is why I began writing on line in the first place.
I view ghostwriting as being akin to being a surrogate mother. I am the one who puts forth an effort, bears the pain of seeing my article come to fruition, and then turn it over to someone who longs for a child or in this case an article of their own. For my services I get the great feeling of helping someone else and a modest fee.
Though I will never see it, I have the knowledge that my small contribution will help someone increase traffic to their website or blog or whatever the case may be while I too begin realizing my dreams.
While ghostwriting may not be for everyone, it was a logical choice for me, for the moment. Each time I venture into a new aspect of the writing world, I learn from that venture making my own writing stronger and increasing my skill.
Perhaps, there will come a time when every article I write will bear my by line and I will receive handsome rewards for my writing. In the meantime, ghostwriting to me is simply a job that allows me to do what I love best and make money doing it.
Liked it
Click the icon to the left to subscribe to Writinghood with your favorite RSS reader.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Ghost writing is painful as your brainchild is claimed by someone else. But your observation and reasoning are good.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am
That’s interesting, but I am not sure It is for me. Good luck with it.
Christine
October 26th, 2009 at 11:13 am
An interesting idea. I was just reading about the amount of ghost-writing that goes on with celebrity’s books and I’m not too sure about people being able to lie and say it’s their original material – it just doesn’t seem right. I know what you’re saying about it suiting you, but it’s enabling someone to defraud others… thought-provoking, if nothing else.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Bravo! Good luck!
October 26th, 2009 at 11:29 am
I thought that ghost writing was writing with together with another author as in co-writing. I’m not sure why people want do ghost write. Ah well you can always write a real ghost story.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I’m sorry for the grammar, I thought I saw something looming in the dark.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Interesting article… don’t really like ghostwriting.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I keep my mind open to making more money and opportunities, so I certainly would not turn down a good Ghostwriting offer.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Ghostwriting is better than giving up your rights when you don’t even realize it. A fellow writer sold an article about Dentists to Associated Content with exclusive rights for $5 and they turned around and sold it to another web site for $75. She was hopping mad about it but she went for the extra buck or two AC paid her for exclusive rights without realizing they then owned full rights to the article and could do whatever they wanted with it.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
I have thought about trying this but I am not ready to allow someone else to put their name to my work.