50 Essential Questions for a Prospective Ghostwriter

You may remember our recent article, "Portrait of a Ghostwriting Editor," in which New York Times bestselling author, William Dean "Dino" Garner, shared with us his experiences with ghostwriting.*

In it he stated that "a ghostwriter can assume different shapes and sizes, depending on the project." He said that a successful ghostwriter must be "a good storyteller, grammarian and editor who takes even the smallest of ideas from a client, and adds the tissue, blood and guts, bones and brains, and then gives it a nice electric shock that brings it to life."

We followed up with Garner to find out exactly how to gauge the potential success of a ghostwriter for those who may be interested in working with one. What should the terms be? What is involved in formulating the author-ghostwriter relationship? Where do you begin?

Garner was gracious enough to provide us with a comprehensive list of 50 "essential" questions to ask a prospective ghostwriter, the top 10 of are below for your reading pleasure:

1. How long have you been a professional ghostwriter?

2. Did you formally study creative writing in college? Where?

3. How did you learn your craft?

4. Do you have other experience that makes you a better ghostwriter than your competition?

5. For example, are you also an editor?

6. How many of your ghostwritten books have been published by New York trade publishing houses?

7. Which publishing houses?

8. Who else published your work, i.e. non-New York trade publishing companies?

9. Name a few books, please, if they’re not under a non-disclosure agreement.

10. Would you be willing to give me a list of, say, five happy former clients of yours, so that I can interview them about you and your work?

...

Be sure to tune in for the complete list later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com/blog.

*"Portrait of a Ghostwriting Editor" can be found at: http://blog.theprose.com/blog/index.php/2015/06/15/portrait-of-a-ghostwriting-editor/