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Do You Need a Co-author or a Ghostwriter?
“I have a wonderful idea for a book, a sure best-seller. But writing's not really my thing, so I was thinking I'd give you the idea and you can write it and then I'll give you a little of the profit, since, you know, the idea is the important thing and it's a great idea."
People make this offer to writers on a regular basis. When you want someone to help you with a book, you need to decide if you're looking for a co-author or a ghostwriter.
Writing is the most challenging and important part of any book. Every writer has an idea list that would keep him in books the rest of his life. My own list has ideas I intend to write as soon as I work my way down the list to them. It also has ideas I can’t yet write because I don’t have the skill or the talent. I may never be qualified to write them, but they are there just in case. This means the authors you know or are contacting don't need your ideas. It's usually not so much the idea as the presentation that makes a book successful. Twenty people can write a book on the same idea and come up with twenty completely different books. Whether or not the book is a hit depends a great deal on the approach the author takes and the stye and skill in writing it.
You'll offend the author you approach if you treat him as though writing was no big deal for a writer. If it were easy to write a book, you wouldn’t need someone to put your idea into writing for you. A well-written book requires six months to a year of an author’s time, not counting rewrites and various other publishing tasks, and that won’t come cheaply.
No matter how great your idea might be, you probably won’t get rich, since very few writers even earn enough to live on. Getting on the big talk shows is hard until you’re already famous. Publishers no longer pay for extravagant publicity or even book tours. You’re largely on your own when it comes to promotion and that costs money also. So, if your motivation is wealth or fame, choose another avenue. If you have an idea that is monumental, a book might be a good tool.
Co-authors each bring something to the project at hand. Just bringing the idea isn’t enough. If your partner is the skilled and published writer, you need to be famous or have the topic credentials. For instance, suppose you wanted to write a book about parenting. If you're a well-known doctor or psychologist, you have a talk show or teach at a famous college, your reputation is a significant contribution, and your knowledge of the subject will be important. Your well-known reputation enhances the actual writer’s chances of getting the book into print and onto the best seller lists.
If you don’t have something like this to offer, published authors have no benefit from working with you. They can earn more on their own. Instead, hire a ghost writer. The ghost writer works for an hourly rate, and you pay her whether or not you make any money. In fact, you pay her even if you never find a publisher who is willing to publish the book, and you pay her in advance, normally a large deposit up front and the rest on completion. This is entirely fair because her name isn’t on the book and she gets nothing from it if it doesn’t sell, and often, nothing more if it goes on to become famous. Since it isn’t her idea or material, she can't control some of what makes a book successful. She can only shape the material you provide into a book.
You'll need a detailed outline with the research done and permissions gathered for quotes. In fact, if you had a basic manuscript, it would save you a great deal of money. Choose a ghost writer you trust—read some of her work before hiring her—and then give her a fair amount of control. Remember, if she’s published and you aren’t, she knows far more about what is needed to make a book sell than you do. She may need to restructure the material or remove items that are off-topic or don’t move the book forward. (No matter how much you also care about cats, you can’t have a cat chapter in a parenting book.) Each ghost writer has her own requirements, so talk it over and get a detailed contract of expectations and finances.
The other option is to get your grammar and writing skills in good shape, read some books on writing, and write your own book. With the advent of self-publishing, you don ’t even have to seek a traditional publisher.