Complaints about Ghostwriting Companies: Twenty Things You Need to Know

The complaints against ghostwriting companies are out there if you do your due diligence.  In fact, ghostwriting companies are far more vested in being vanity publishers and marketers.  Ghostwriting is a way for them to bring in customers for these other services.

If you don't believe me, Google the name of the company you've seen advertising online and type the words "scam" or "ripoff" after the company name.  After you recover from shock, ask yourself if you really want to give them your money.

Here are some of the things you'll learn about these companies.

1) Many subcontract writing to inexperienced writers across the country.

2) Many companies abandon customers after they get paid.

3) The owners and CEOs of most of these companies have no background in publishing.

4) The companies have been sued several times and have complaints lodged against them with the Better Business Bureau.

5) Some work is outsourced to other countries.

6) The sales reps, owners, and department heads at some companies are often lawyers, not people in the publishing industry.

7) The contracts at many companies are detailed, and if you read the fine print, you'll learn that you have no recourse for work that is not performed or just plain botched.

8) Complaints against these companies exist on dozens of sites online (and the best place to begin is the trustworthy "AbsoluteWrite WaterCooler")

9) The editing at many companies betrays a lack of basic knowledge of grammar and punctuation.

10) Marketing and promotion are usually package deals that offer to send your finished book to reviewers who are not interested in your genre or category of book.  The press releases they send out are almost always ineffective.

11) The claims that they have handled bestselling books are usually false or based on a different definition of "bestseller."

12) One company features pictures of book covers on their websites even though it never handled the books.

13) Most mainstream publishers, as well as most reputable literary agents, have never heard of these companies, which claim to be industry leaders.

14) Sales reps know little of the publishing industry and frequently tell potential customers things such as "Successful books are rarely longer than 200 pages anymore."  The statement is totally false.

15) To keep their costs down, many of these companies try to restrict the length of a book, sometimes to 200 to 225 pages long.  The truth is that books are as long as they need to be.

16) Offering you coffee mugs, T shirts, posters, postcards, and other "stuff" with your book's name will probably not result in sales for your books, but this is another part of the "package deal."

17) Prices for creating cover art and eBook conversion are extremely high.

18) Most companies deal in volume, meaning that one-on-one contact is often limited.

19) Ghostwriting and self-publishing are simply business models that some entrepreneurs found lucrative. when POD became popular.

20) Many companies prey on customers' lack of knowledge about the publishing industry.

When searching for a quality ghostwriter, it's better to hire an independent writer who has training, experience, credentials, and knowledge about the publishing industry.  Let the buyer beware.

Finding a Ghostwriter Capable of Writing Your Bestseller

The ads on the Internet for ghostwriters and ghostwriting companies claiming "Clients have become bestsellers" just go on and on, don't they?  Unfortunately, this is a hollow claim.  A potential client last week told me that he'd contacted one of the big ghostwriting firms and been handed over to a young girl, an English major, who had just graduated from college.  She'd never written a book in her life let alone a bestseller.

I have written for fiction writers and businessmen and businesswomen who are tops in their fields.  One client has been affiliated with Doubleday, Random House, Oxford University Press, and Rizzoli.  Another recent client has sold books in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

So how can you find a ghostwriter who can make your novel or nonfiction book a contender?

First, don't believe everything on the Internet about ghostwriters.  In fact, believe almost none of it.  Most ghostwriting websites are filled with glitzy ads that don't hold up under scrutiny.  Choose an independent ghostwriter since almost all ghostwriting firms deal in volume and are really POD companies attempting to get customers who will pay to have a book printed after a rookie has produced a poorly-written manuscript.  These companies couldn't care less about your dreams, goals, or the quality of the writing.  They just want your money. 

Contact a ghostwriter with a query email that summarizes your proposed book.  You own the copyright to your material, so be professional and don't merely write an email that says "I want to know about your service.  Call me at 555-5555."  Agents and editors in New York City delete these kinds of queries or throw them in the trash.

Talk with the ghostwriter on the phone and/or exchange emails to see if the ghostwriter handles your kind of book or story, but beware.  Most low-level ghostwriters will handle any job even if they have no expertise in a given area.

Next, check to see if the ghostwriter has a publishing record, both for his clients and under his own name.

Finally, select a ghostwriter who shares your passion and interest.  Make sure you're not just another job or number.  The ghostwriter should be able to connect with you and your ideas at a deep level.  Remember that online ghostwriting is becoming both a scam industry and a place for amateurs and moonlighters to earn some extra money.  In the end, you get what you pay for.  You don't pay a doctor five dollars to take out your tonsils.

~William Hammett

Contact: wmhammett@aol.com

The Latest Ghostwriting Scams: January 7, 2015

Always perform your due diligence when searching for a ghostwriter. 

I've already described in detail how most ghostwriting companies are really vanity publishers attempting to get POD clients by offering to ghostwrite books for prospective customers.  And then there are clearinghouses such as odesk and elance, claiming to have thousands of professional ghostwriters and editors to choose from, writers and editors who are moonlighters and can't write a single sentence without a grammatical mistake.

Now, however, there is a new scam.  Individuals advertise themselves as independent ghostwriters--accomplished men and women who will work for you personally--but when one examines their websites carefully, it becomes evident that these individuals are just "front men."  Scroll down far enough or click on enough pages, and the site visitor is suddenly reading about "our staff of talented writers" or "our creative team."

One site now up on Google for "ghost writing services" ("ghostwriter" and "ghostwriting" are one word, folks) has a picture of a handsome man on its home page, and the text beneath talks of published books and how "I can help you turn your ideas into books, novels, and plays."  There is no name associated with the picture.  Read further, and the "I" suddenly becomes "We can also help you publish your book and give it the marketing muscle it deserves."  We?  Publish?  Market?  No wonder the man in the pic has no name.

The individual who is really a company--that's the newest scam.  Ironically, these sites warn against the unethical and deceptive practices of companies, such as subcontracting books to writers across the country.

I was the first ghostwriter to alert people to the fact that ghostwriting (online) was becoming a scam industry.  Each time I place a new warning on my site or blogs, my competition (which studies me carefully) finds a new business model to try to get around their misleading advertising, poor writing, and unethical business practices.  Or they echo my own warnings to mask that they themselves are the offenders.  It appears they've done it again.

~William Hammett

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Contact: wmhammett@aol.com