From basic proofreading and copyediting to ghostwriting: What services the author can expect and what those services cost

By Les Foxman

Whenever I led a magazine writing seminar, university students learned--often quite surprisingly at the outset--they would be working on just one manuscript for the semester. However, they quickly realized the real emphasis came in the extensive rounds of editing where their peers scrutinized their work not only for the technical elements of grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax and diction but also for the elements of content, voice, moments of narration, transitions, and unity driving deep into the underlying themes and epiphanies that define a publishable manuscript.

Throughout the editorial workshop, the students quickly gained hands-on experience with the different levels of editing that transform an awkward, clunky draft into a compelling narrative or essay with the broadly diversified appeal of human interest. In rare instances, some student writers required only standard copyediting and proofreading in their first drafts for technical elements of writing, syntax and diction. However, during the peer-editing workshop, these writers also quickly acknowledged the benefits of brush stroke editing where simple changes in words or paragraph transitions effectively sharpened the manuscript’s focus and prosaic structure.

More commonly, writers discovered their manuscripts required substantive revisions not particularly for the basic technical elements of writing but more evidently for the development of topic and theme as represented in the content, interviews, facts, and organization of the manuscript’s content. In many instances, the peer editors suggested revisions directed at fixing lapses in voice, aligning moments of narration appropriately with the degree of detail and commentary being presented, incorporating literary devices and strengthening continuity in narrative. Often, these suggestions came in reorganizing and rewording existing sentences and paragraphs or in asking for additional background material in the form of statistics, facts, research, and interviews. In some cases, especially where students had unwittingly buried the most compelling core of their story in the deepest recesses of their manuscripts, students needed even more guidance in rewriting whole series of paragraphs or the entire manuscript. Frankly, some students would have benefited from the services of a ghostwriter.

When is ghostwriting permissible?

Naturally, students face serious sanctions for plagiarizing, ranging from a failing grade to expulsion, especially if they represent another author’s words as their own. However, for many writers, whose work is not based on the expectation of earning academic credit and is produced outside of academia, requesting ghostwriting services from a professional ghostwriter is permissible. Ghostwriting is a legitimate option particularly for those writers who clearly need a professional writer’s help in creating a cogent, publishable manuscript that brings to life the general structure of original ideas and themes the author of record has conceptualized along with the facts, statistics, interviews, and background research he or she already has gathered but has difficulty compiling into meaningful chunks.

In some instances, the author of record might not have sufficient time to pen a publishable manuscript so hiring a ghostwriter makes good sense. Regardless of the circumstances, the author of record and the ghostwriter should agree at the outset of the project how and in what way, as needed, the ghostwriter should be acknowledged. As the author of record, one fully accepts his or her responsibility for every word in the final manuscript. The ghostwriter typically is declared in the acknowledgments page of the published book, and an author of record is ethically obligated to disclose publicly that a ghostwriter was used. This avoids any pretense or assumption of plagiarism.

Good ghostwriters are particularly sensitized toward capturing the distinctive voice of the person who will “own” the words, so to speak. While the author of record likely will write a good number of pages and chapters of the book, the ghostwriter will be chiefly responsible for putting that content into publishable form. Through extensive communications with the author, the ghostwriter will be able to fine tune and situate the written expressions to match the author’s genuine voice with little doubt of its authenticity. The ghostwriter has a quick learning curve, because the nature of his or her training ensures that capturing the appropriate author’s voice is an automatic, if not instinctive, process.

The author of record also should understand that while ghostwriters do not typically conduct interviews or gather research for supplementing the content in a book, they will check the content for factual accuracy and will offer constructive suggestions for strengthening the presentation of facts that direct the reader to the most important epiphanies in the book. It’s wise to provide the ghostwriter with between three and five times the volume of information that is being considered for the book. This assures the ghostwriter clearly understands the book’s topic and theme in selecting and highlighting the most salient content.

What does good editing and ghostwriting cost?

Ghostwriting services are like good pizza, sushi, medical care, and a new laptop – you get what you pay for. Services involving creative and intellectual energy are not to be discounted merely for the whims of a client author trying to save a few coins. Getting a manuscript into publishable form cannot be achieved realistically if an author tries to cut corners in costs. With each level of editing service, the suggested pricing rate not only represents the editor’s skills and competence but also the degree of engagement, the extent of communication (e.g., phone conferences) and time commitment required to workshop the developmental manuscript into a publishable book. The benchmarks provide the pretext for negotiations representing equally the good interests of the author and editor.

Basic proofreading or copyediting services generally run between two cents and four cents per word. Brush stroke editing – where transition, syntax, and diction fixes sharpen a manuscript’s textual integrity – runs four cents to ten cents per word. Depending upon the nature of the book and technical sophistication of the topic, developmental editing that involves reorganizing and rewording existing sentences, paragraphs, pages, and chapters or in asking for additional background material in the form of statistics, facts, research, and interviews often starts at the absolute minimum of four cents per word and, more frequently, begins at six or more cents per word.

Ghostwriting services often start at five cents per word – although they can be as little as a penny per word – and can run as high as 60 cents or more per word, according to various industry estimates (e.g., technical vs. nontechnical). These rates will fluctuate depending on the topical discipline or literary genre involved as well as the extent of ghostwriting requested, whether for portions of text or the entire manuscript. Translated in other ways, ghostwriting fees can run between $30 and $125 or more per hour or between $10 and $150 per 250-word page. (Remember that a book of 80,000 words translates into roughly 250 printed pages, the standard preferred length for most first-time submissions to agents or publishers.)