At any given time, The New York Times‘ Best Sellers list is riddled with the memoirs of celebrities who earn up to seven figures from rabid publishers who are more than willing to buoy sagging profits with a salacious tell-all. But here’s the thing: Most entertainers can’t actually write. That part is left to collaborators who are able to capture the celebrity’s authentic voice and weave in a compelling narrative.
For those willing to forgo the notoriety that accompanies a prominent byline, the work for collaborative writers is plentiful — whether as a co-writer who does get a small mention on a book’s cover and spine, or as a ghostwriter who, as the title suggests, completely disappears from public awareness. And for writers who have been in the game for a while, collaborating on multiple books and scoring a few of their own best sellers, the pay can be substantial.
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It’s a sweet gig — so sweet, in fact, that competition for the best projects has become increasingly fierce. And the market is growing, too, as publishers increasingly turn to celebs with built-in fan bases for product. Breaking in to celebrity ghostwriting isn’t easy, but if you’ve got the chops and the persistence, you can certainly claim your piece of the ever-growing pie. Here are five tips to help you get started.
1. Get published (a lot).
Madeleine Morel is the only literary agent who solely represents ghostwriters, but she doesn’t represent just any ghostwriters. Her client list is composed solely of veteran collaborators who have worked on multiple high-profile projects and, in most cases, have a few best sellers in their portfolio.
So what’s the best way to make it onto her short list for representation? “Byline, byline, byline,” she says. “You really have to get your name out as many places as you can. The more you can build your inventory of published material, the better chance you have of being taken seriously.”
Fantasizing about penning Oprah’s autobiography is great, but unless you establish yourself as a credible journalist, that dream will likely never come to fruition.
2. Be strategic.
In the process of building your portfolio of published writing, it’s very important to seek out assignments that you can leverage to gain a foothold in the celebrity space. If you want to write the memoirs of the lead singers of ’80s rock bands, for example, you’d be better off aligning yourself with publications like Billboard or Rolling Stone than, say, Better Homes and Gardens.
And once you’ve established your beat as a music writer, you can even start to pitch articles that will provide interview opportunities with potential book subjects.
That’s exactly how Karen Hunter, New York Times best-selling author and creator/owner of the Simon & Schuster imprint Karen Hunter Books, got her first book deal while she was working at the New York Daily News.
“I had just spoken with an agent friend, and he asked me who I could do a book on,” she explains. “I said I was interviewing LL Cool J and maybe that would be interesting.” During the interview, Hunter asked the rapper if he had ever considered doing a book and, when he replied yes, she said he should do it with her.
“It was just like that,” says Hunter. “I had never met [LL Cool J] before that day and we hit it off. And I guess I was bold enough to ask the question and then follow up with his manager. Thirty days later, we had a book deal with St Martin’s Press [for 1997’s I Make My Own Rules].”
3. Be brave.
Sometimes the best-laid plans go awry, and it isn’t possible to finagle an interview with Solange to ask her what really happened on that elevator — before you offer to write her book. And in that case, it’s time to get creative and courageous.
“If you want to break into collaborative writing, you just have to find a way,” says Michelle Burford, writer of The New York Times best seller Finding Me: The Cleveland Kidnappings, written with Michelle Knight. “You have to talk to as many people as you can. You have to get out there and — I hate to use the n-word — but you have to network.
Maybe you have to make a cold call to another freelancer who’s already in your business and say, ‘Hey, if you ever turn down a project, could you give it to me?’ I don’t think there’s one way.”
Burford’s first collaborative project actually fell in her lap by way of an editor friend who works at the Christian publishing house Zondervan. The editor had just signed Olympic gymnast Gabrielle Douglas to a book deal following her gold-medal run in London and needed a writer who could take on the project and turn it around in four weeks.
But Burford quickly notes that personal connections aren’t the only way to get in the game. “In my life, as a freelancer, I try to do one brave thing every day,” she says. “You just have to keep pressing until you get where you’re trying to go. Use what’s in front of you, whatever resources you can come up with, and before you know it you’re swinging.”
4. Hone your skills.
It’s no secret or surprise that some of the top celebrity collaborators are former or current working journalists. Burford served as lifestyle editor of Essence magazine before becoming a founding senior editor of O, The Oprah Magazine, and Hunter got her start covering everything from sports to news and music at the Daily News.
Now, as a publisher, Hunter is in the position to hire other collaborators, and solid journalism skills are always at the top of the list of what she looks for in a candidate.
It’s critical that writers meet deadlines and turn in clean copy, says Hunter, but she also wants someone who can dig below the surface and get the real scoop on a celebrity. “I’m looking for writers who are going to ask the question that nobody’s ever asked because, to me, that’s what makes a great journalist,” she explains.
“Celebrities have been asked everything, so you have to do your homework and figure out what they haven’t been asked. What about them is interesting to you that you haven’t seen anyplace?”
Hunter is also willing to take a chance on a good journalist who doesn’t have a ton of book experience. “Everyone has to get their first shot, so what I’m looking for is somebody who has journalism chops, because those are the foundational pieces that make for a good collaborator,” she says.
“As a sportswriter, for example, you have to create drama in your writing and not be ridiculously sensational, but at the same time you have to be ridiculously sensational. It’s a balance. So you are naturally looking for that kernel that’s going to pop.”
5. Start small.
Once you have your sights on becoming a celebrity ghostwriter, it can be tempting to hold out on other projects until you snag your high-profile deal. But that can be a mistake, says Morel, who believes that starting small is actually a great way to develop the experience necessary to secure a celebrity deal down the line.
“You probably should go to the smaller independent houses, like Adams Media and Sourcebooks, who use a lot of ghostwriters but barely pay a living wage,” says Morel. “They’ll probably pay you $5,000 to write a 100,000-word book, but it’s a way of getting your foot in the door.
And, of course, just because you’re a ghostwriter doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a ghostwriter who does books that are published by the publishing houses. There must be hundreds and hundreds of ghostwriters out there, thousands probably, who write books for [self-published] people who find them on the Internet.”
Even Burford, who has now notched two best sellers in her relatively short collaborating career, is not opposed to taking on a small project in between her bigger book deals. “I’m of that school that you should just get on the train that’s moving because you will arrive somewhere,” she says.
“So I’m not in the habit of turning down smaller projects, especially if they’re projects that I believe in. My feeling is that one shouldn’t get lazy or rest on one’s laurels. Even with New York Times best sellers, you’re only as good as your last book, so I still need to challenge myself. I still need to not be so arrogant that I don’t take on smaller things.”
But that doesn’t mean that you should not still shoot for the stars — in the figurative and literal, collaborative, sense. “It’s like working in any job,” Morel says. “The longer you’re there, hopefully, you’ll work your way up the corporate ladder. For some people, they’re just lucky and they get a break.
For others, it’s because they’ve really worked damn hard and they have a dream. And their dream is to become a leading ghostwriter. And they get there and they make good money.”
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