Re: Ghostwriting

[Sarah Lee Bihlmayer <tecscrib -at- SIRIUS -dot- COM>]

K.D. Fisher asked about ghostwriting.  Although I've never been asked to
ghostwrite articles for a professional journal, I've had a good half-dozen
ghostwriting gigs.  All were for commercially available computer books.  In
each case, I've received a percentage of the gross profits (i.e.,
royalties), and credit for writing assistance and/or editing on the
acknowledgments page.

The projects break down very neatly into two categories:

1.  The author needs to get a book published for professional reasons and
is doing well enough financially to give up a portion (15-30%) of the
royalties.

2.  The author is an SME who signs a book contract with a publisher,
collects (and spends) the advance, and then can't deliver usable copy.  In
this case, I'm retained by the author to do a developmental edit and total
rewrite of massive proportions.  Since the purpose of hiring me is to avoid
a breach-of-contract lawsuit, I'm able to negotiate a royalty percentage of
5-10%.

In either case, I sign a collaborative contract with the author that
stipulates the percent of the royalties I receive.  And since I receive
credit in print, there is no problem using the books as samples of my work.

|"God is in the details."                             --Frank Lloyd Wright|
|     Sarah Lee Bihlmayer * Print/Online/WWW Documentation Specialist     |
|   Technical Writing * Technical/Developmental/Copy/Production Editing   |
|Indexing * Technical Illustration * Electronic Prepress * Graphic Design |
|POB 27901-312 San Francisco CA 94127 * 415-207-4046 * tecscrib -at- sirius -dot- com|