You want to write your memoir and you’ve decided to hire a ghostwriter. But where do you find one?  

There are numerous memoir ghostwriting services available all over the world, and it can be a minefield navigating your way through them to find the perfect one for you.

How To Choose A Ghostwriter For Your Memoir

If you’ve been searching online, you may have noticed that there are two distinct categories of ghostwriters - those who work as individuals, and organisations who hire out ghostwriters. 

The Hiring Process

With individual ghostwriters, you are, right from the moment you contact them,  talking to the person who will be writing your book if you hire them.

You’re able to ask questions about the process, timeline, and anything else, ask to see samples of their work and a copy of the contract, and discuss price.

Consequently, you can determine quite quickly if this is someone you think you can work with over the next few months to write your book.

Memoir Ghostwriting Services Questions

Any initial questions you have will be answered by someone in administration or marketing, and you usually don’t meet your ghostwriter until after you’ve signed on the dotted line.

However, if for some reason, you and your ghostwriter are not a good fit, the company will find another for you.

Ghostwriter Fees

Each memoir is very different in its length, amount of work required to write it and your particular wants and needs.

Usually individual ghostwriters will quote you a tailor-made fee based on these and other factors.   

Hiring a ghostwriter through a company is more expensive. This is because there are company overheads, including the payment of the ghostwriter. Usually there is a standard fee, which is not negotiable. 

Publishing And Marketing

If you do want your book commercially published and marketed, some individual ghostwriters provide that service, and will include it in their fee. 

Unless they have skills in those areas, they will contract the tasks to professionals on a project management basis.

The Writing Process

During the writing process with an individual ghostwriter, you only deal with that one  person.

With a company, you will deal with many people, apart from the ghostwriter. The professionals generally work in teams, so you’ll have contact with the editing team, the publishing team, the art team, the PR and book launch team and so on.

This is purely a personal choice. Some authors enjoy the process of working closely with a team of experts, while others prefer to work with just one person.

Apart from that, the overall writing process of both individual ghostwriters and those working for companies is similar, though they may vary in the details.

They both interview you to obtain information, work with material you already have or have written, consult you regularly along the way and invite your feedback on the finished manuscript. 

Your Finished Book

Provided your individual ghostwriter is an expert in memoir writing, and has contracted experienced professionals to do all the tasks involved in publishing your book (editing, cover design and formatting), the quality of your finished book will be just as good as one produced by a ghostwriting company.

If your story is just for family, an individual ghostwriter will usually help you to find a printing service that will transform your story and photos into a beautiful book that will be treasured by your family.

I have written more about finding a ghostwriter in my blog post 5 Steps To Finding the Perfect Ghostwriter.

If you’d like to investigate a ghostwriting company for your memoir, Scribe is a popular company based in the US.

If you’d prefer an individual ghostwriter and would like to speak with me directly, click the button below and simply enter your name and email address. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can and we can set up a time to chat, or to learn more about me and my memoir ghostwriting services, go here.