Any Ghosts out there?

[Dave]

I recently had to stop working because of my disabilities. Helped by
voice-to-text software I can still write, so I've been advertising my
services, as both copy writer and ghost writer for the last couple of
weeks.

Today I got an email from someone looking for a person "to write my life
story" asking to know my rates.

Well, I wasn't expecting responses so soon, I blush to admit, but I'm
looking for advice on what to charge.

Any ideas?

Dave

[Derek Moody]

Post by Dave
I recently had to stop working because of my disabilities. Helped by
voice-to-text software I can still write, so I've been advertising my
services, as both copy writer and ghost writer for the last couple of
weeks.
Today I got an email from someone looking for a person "to write my life
story" asking to know my rates.
Well, I wasn't expecting responses so soon, I blush to admit, but I'm
looking for advice on what to charge.

Obviously not many - or they're all to busy to read usenet.

I would expect charges to be very variable, rather like translation. If the
copy is *urgent* then the price can be correspondingly high but otherwise
it might be no more than a fair wage.

You have to assume that as a book is a book it's going to take 6 to 9 months
work and charge what you would otherwise earn in that time. No need to tell
them that a writer thinks 10K is a pretty good year ;-) Give them the time
based on some sort of wordage - say 2000-3000 words per week to allow for
rewrites - and then pause just in case they want to suggest a fee based
on more remunerative fields of employment.

If the ghostee is sufficiently famous then you -could- go for a royalty in
the 2 - 3% range but you'd pretty much need a footballer or pop star to make
that worthwhile.

Cheerio,