Ghostwriters in 2020: The Current Trends and Beyond

Ghostwriters Are in High Demand

Many traditional publishing houses have admitted that 70% of the books they publish were written by a ghostwriter. Even crazier—99% of books published by artists, celebrities, and politicians were done with the help of a talented ghostwriter. Would you like to be one of those high-paid ghostwriters? Every year, the publishing industry makes more and more room for new ghostwriters to throw their hat in the ring. Some modern ghostwriters even receive a credit—or an acknowledgment—from the publishing author to show their gratitude for the hard work they’ve put into the project.

A trend we’ve noticed in the past several years has also shown us that a lot of entrepreneurs—for big corporations and small businesses—are hiring ghostwriters to help them write a book as another product for their businesses. Some of these books tell the story of the entrepreneur (or the corporation), serve as case studies from their business, or serve as an introduction to how they can help their current and future customers. 

I teach authors all over the world how to turn their books into businesses, but these entrepreneurs are also turning their businesses into books at a rapid rate. And according to an article from smallbizgenius, there are 582 million entrepreneurs in the world as of this year, and that number is going to continue to grow as more people turn their side-hustle into a successful business.

If that number isn’t astounding enough, consider the fact that there are over 600 million bloggers today—all of whom are creating content on a regular basis that could be turned into a book. That’s where you come in as a successful ghostwriter who knows exactly how to turn their blog posts into a book. Some of these bloggers may already realize they have a book floating around inside their brains while others might not already realize what they’ve created for their blog can easily be translated into a book-length manuscript. And for the ghostwriter who loves to research and structure content, this is a dream job.

Throughout history, there may have been a stigma attached to the job title “ghostwriter.” Today, that attitude has shifted, and that creates a lot more opportunity for an aspiring ghostwriter—like you—to come in and grab the limitless opportunities that exist in the market.

One growing trend in the publishing industry—when it comes to ghostwriting—is the number of fiction authors who are hiring ghostwriters to write their novellas and novels. Publishing companies are also hiring these fiction ghostwriters at increasing rates. And though there has been some controversy lately with some ghostwriters with ill intentions, this has not slowed the trend at all. The market is currently wide open for both nonfiction and fiction ghostwriters to take the wheel. Check out this article on Forbes’ website about the future of ghostwriting fiction.

Ghostwriters play a significant role in the publishing industry by helping their clients tell a compelling story. As a result, thousands of people (and maybe even millions) are impacted by a successful ghostwriter-author relationship. Ghostwriters are valuable because:

1. They produce a better book because of their writing expertise.
2. They save their clients time by allowing them to do what they do best.
3. They save their clients money by doing the heavy lifting while the client runs their business.
4. They provide a powerful outside perspective the client might not be able to see.
5. They combine their talent for storytelling with the client’s experience to tell an engaging story.

And, as an added bonus for the ghostwriter, they get paid for writing a successful book without having to worry about marketing or promoting … because they’ve already been paid well for their hard work.

All the books in the above image were written with the help of a successful ghostwriter, probably ghostwriters who thought at some point in their career that they might not rise to the level of success they achieved. Everybody—no matter how successful they are—has to start somewhere. Later this week, I’ll explain exactly how I can help you start and build a successful ghostwriting career.

Can’t wait to find out more? Leave a comment, and I’d love to have a chat about how Ghostwriter Academy can help you. And if you know a talented writer who might be interested, we encourage you to share this post!