Ghostwriters are everywhere if you know where to look for them.

But where to start looking?

And – once you’ve found a ghostwriter – how can you judge their quality before you spend too much time and money?

A lot of “famous name” books by celebrities are ghostwritten. Sometimes they will be honest and credit the ghostwriter, other times they won’t.

Either way, it’s common practice.

And if you’ve been struggling to get words onto paper (or screen) then maybe it’s time you considered hiring a ghostwriter.

You need to start by deciding the area your book will be in, because there are different places to look depending on what you want written.

If your book is to be fiction, you’ll likely go to different places than if your book is to be non-fiction.

I’m going to concentrate here on non-fiction as that’s where my experience lies.

Regardless of who you use to write your book, you should have an outline. That way you know where the project is headed and can make sure that your writer keeps on track. Whereas if you simply ask them to write a book on a subject and only give them the title, the content of the book could go anywhere. And probably will.

So set aside a bit of time to write an outline.

Mine tend to look like this:

• Chapter 1
• • Section 1
  • Section 2
  • Section 3
  • Section 4
  • Section 5
  • Section 6
  • etc…

Each chapter and section heading will be what I’d like covered.

If it’s a more detailed book, I might even take each chapter section and split that into a handful of sub-sections.

If you’re handing your writing to a ghostwriter, I strongly suggest that you take that approach.

That way, they can’t stray too far from the intended subject matter.

Depending on the site, you may get the chance to ask the potential ghostwriter to write a sample chapter. Some freelance sites will let you do this, others won’t.

For instance, iWriter doesn’t offer that kind of preview but it does screen out writers who are generally below a certain quality level. Plus you get the reassurance that you have 48 hours to accept or reject the finished work (or ask for it to be corrected) so it’s as close to try-before-you-buy as you can get with ghostwriting.

The iWriter system works well – the author ratings are much like the phone a friend option in Who Wants to be a Millionaire – they operate on a “wisdom of the crowds” basis and I’ve found them pretty reliable in that respect.

You also get the option of up to 50 chapter headings – that works well with the outline system I suggested earlier.

If iWriter doesn’t appeal – or if your subject matter is too specialist for their writers – then you need to move on to other freelance sites.

There are lots around – I’ve used Freelancer a lot and (once) Guru for ghostwriting.

Those kind of sites can work well but they’re very much “buyer beware” and you need to specify your ghostwriting project carefully and monitor progress.

Unless you’re prepared to do a lot of editing, keep to people based in English speaking countries even if they’re more expensive and the other bidders claim to have a good level of English.

Contrary to popular belief, accent does come out in writing – typically in the way that certain words and phrases are used.

If you use a site like Freelancer, definitely start by asking for a sample chapter to be written and tell the coder up front that they will get the project for the rest of the book if the sample is up to scratch.

When I do this, I tend to pick a two or three freelancers for the sample chapter and then pick the best for the main project. That means I pay slightly more as I’m effectively throwing away two sample chapters (although since I paid for them, I can use them as a short report or a series of articles) but the flip side is the final quality is better.

A third option is to use me (sorry for the self promotion).

If the project is in an area I work in – internet marketing, health or self help – then I could be able to help.

Drop me a message via the contact page with a brief outline of the project and I’ll get back to you.