TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
If this is essentially one person's memoirs and is not going to be a work
of researched non-fiction that requires interviewing other parties or
fact-checking, then reminiscences that you can organize into an
outline/draft and then come back with more questions to flesh out with
details may work just fine. The important thing is to spend enough time
with the client to get a feel for how the client talks and tailor your
writing style so that it will be credible to the average reader that the
finished work could have been written by the client.
Ghost writing is most commonly a "work for hire" arrangement, so you will
be billing by the hour, page or on a flat rate for the project and will
have no copyright or royalty expectations as you might in a co-writer
arrangement. Be sure your contract includes language that specifies that
your work is limited to organization and presentation and that you will not
be adding any content, to help protect you against potential liability from
other parties named in the book who may have issues with what your client
has to say about their roles in the failed venture.
Gene Kim-Eng
On 2/22/2012 7:05 AM, Matt Gras wrote:
>
>> OK - not strictly a tech- writing question -- but I've been approached to
>> ghost-write a book about a failed high-tech startup. Anyone here have any
>> experience ghost-writing books? I'm particularly interested in thoughts
>> about how to (I'm thinking of suggesting that the author record his
>> thoughts, with me transcribing them) and how much (an hourly rate? project
>> rate? a percentage of royalties should there be any?)
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need.
Try Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
