Am I A "Real" Writer (If I Hire a Ghostwriter)? 3 Ways to Know

One reason business leaders hesitate to write content or books is they feel they should not “outsource it."?

Maybe you’ve had similar thoughts: “Isn’t it ‘cheating’ if I hire a ghostwriter?” or, “Will it really be ‘me’?” In past conversations with clients, I've observed they’re skittish about their work being “exposed” or “debunked.” And in times like today, who can blame them?

This sets up a difficult decision. On the one hand, if you do nothing … then yes, you’ll preserve your reputation.?

But every time you say “Yes” to one thing, you say “No” to something else.

With your reputation intact, you now have an easy excuse for procrastination. After all, you’re not a full-time writer … you have a business to run!

Maybe your business is growing fast, and writing would be a distraction. Or maybe you’re in a slump, and you need to concentrate energy on “RGAs”—revenue-generating activities. Congratulations—by doing nothing, you protected your good name.?

There’s only one problem … you still haven’t written anything.?

Imagine telling great singers like Frank Sinatra or George Strait that they should not have recorded albums, because they didn’t write their own original songs.

“But that’s different,” you say. “They’re performing the material.”

To which I say, “Well … what do you do with your material?”

If you’re a CPA who wants to write a book that helps people save on taxes, does it qualify as “performing” when you help them save on taxes? Or could they save even more by hiring their landscaper to do it??

Of course not. Whether you came up with the tax strategy or not … it doesn’t really matter. I don’t pay my CPA because she wrote the tax strategies; I pay her because she studies them, and knows how to execute on them without moral, ethical, or legal compromises.

Ghostwriting, in many ways, is already something everyone does—even the most original content creators.

None of us are really “innovators.” We’re all borrowing from (and building on) ideas and concepts that came before us.?

If you sit down today and write a 100% original, authentic book … you’re going to borrow on things you learned from interacting with others. You’ll quote famous people. You’ll cite others’ research and statistics. You’ll defer to certain writers’ ways of expressing themselves. You’ll tell stories from interacting with previous clients.

You are, in a functional sense, already a ghostwriter. Whatever content you create is, to some extent, “ghostwriting” what you’ve learned from other people. And that’s a very good thing.

Why Villages Create Better Books

I’ll go a step further and suggest that content created by teams is far superior to content written in isolation. Author Christopher Paolini once said:

“The advantage of writing from experience is that it ... provides you with details you would never think of yourself, no matter how rich your imagination.”

Mr. Paolini’s comment refers to the advantage a 50-year old has against a teenager, when attempting to write in the voice of an adult. It’s a lot easier to channel the mind of a fully-grown adult when you already hold the title.?

?But there’s a dimension to this quote most people miss: the advantage of writing in your voice, from other people’s experience is even stronger than your own.?

One of our clients (I’ll call him Steve) is a financial advisor. In his book, he wanted to explain to readers how the game of saving, investing, and avoiding high taxes is one of camouflage. The message was, “If you want to become wealthy without paying high taxes, you must appear poor.”?

Steve devised an analogy of salmon swimming upstream. “When it comes to money, most people are like the salmon crowding together, trying to force their way up-river,” he told us. That part made sense; most people are, financially speaking, crowding their way into a long line that leads to nowhere.

But Steve couldn’t connect this to “camouflage” without the presence of a predator, which is why we came up with the idea of the IRS as “a grizzly bear, walking along the riverbanks.”

I’ve seen plenty of nature shows where grizzlies leisurely capture unsuspecting salmon during their spawning season. It’s a “fast food bonanza” for the bear, requiring little work or sacrifice. The IRS behaves in a similar fashion, when it comes to collecting taxes.

The plot began to thicken. The best way to avoid the IRS “grizzly” was to appear like a “confused, lost” salmon, swimming in circles. Away from the schools trying to force their way up-river.?Dead in the water, so to speak.

While grizzlies can probably spot such fish … they aren’t known for wading or swimming way out into the deepest parts of the river to capture them. Grizzlies stay comfortably on the banks of the river, on dry land, swatting easy targets and enjoying easy meals.

Steve loved the analogy. He took it and ran with it. Could he have thought of it himself? Of course … but who knows how long it might have taken him? Would he have written it with the same verbal panache as our team? I believe he could, if he really applied himself … but Steve would be the first to disagree.?

Steve’s clients don’t hire him because he’s a great writer. It’s not his job to sit poring over words, struggling to form sentences. His job is to pore over numbers, generating success for clients and new business for his firm.

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We should reject the notion of the self-made, rugged individualist author, burning the candle at both ends, writing late into the night to finish their magnum opus.?

Literary luminaries like Tom Clancy, Ian Fleming and Michael Crichton all employ ghostwriters and teams to enrich their works. So do prolific business and cultural influencers like John Maxwell, David Goggins and Oprah Winfrey.

Politicians, military leaders and professional athletes do this all the time. We don’t begrudge their success or ability to influence, do we?

We should also disregard the “Cinderella story” narrative about prominent authors. Just like stories of Hollywood stars being “discovered,” and suddenly elevated to the silver screen - in real life, that isn’t how authorship works.

Somehow, myths persist that legendary celebrities got noticed while sitting quietly in diners, sipping on soda. A casting agent wandered in, and suddenly they were “discovered.” This is absurd.?

What’s far more believable is that Miss Monroe went to one audition after another, met people, made good impressions, and built relationships … and eventually, the right opportunity came along.

But the binary cultural myth persists, and many authors believe it—either you “get lucky” like Marilyn Monroe, or you “do it all yourself,” through force of will, like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. In supreme irony, the loudest proponents of this fairytale are usually cynics—people who write columns and reviews for publications.?

Fathom it: the same people who point crooked fingers at you for hiring a ghostwriter … depend on others for their livelihood? Isn’t it interesting how deeply critics depend on a system they didn’t design, didn’t build, can’t maintain, and barely know how to operate … to survive??

Columnists at the New York Times and USA Today don’t do much (and won’t) if their publications don’t pay them. They don’t know how to start a thought leadership brand. Without others’ work to criticize, they don’t have much to write about.

Imagine how helpless and voiceless they’d become if their electricity or internet went down!

The truth is, neither Marilyn Monroe nor Elon Musk got anywhere … without others.

The most successful people in the world figure out how to work together with others, especially if others have more time or talent for the task.?

This is no less true for the world’s most successful authors, whether or not they actually write their own works. Great authors need great editors, publishers, publicists … and ghostwriters.

So, if you’re struggling to write a book or create content, let’s review your options:

1. Do Nothing.

You can save all your headaches, time, and money by doing nothing. Completely forget about creating content or writing a book. Let others take the risks, and reap the rewards. Abandon the idea, and you’ll be fine.

It happens often, and there’s no sense presenting this as a life-or-death decision. You get to hang on to artistic purity and integrity; no one can ever accuse you of anything related to insincerity, when it comes to published work.

1. Do It Yourself.

You can write a book. It is possible. You might be a great writer, and resourceful enough to self-publish and promote your own work. Why would I want to stop something like that from happening??

Using the DIY route, you preserve 100% purity on your original manuscript. Although—you’ll want professional editing. Any editor worth their salt will recommend rephrases, rewording things, and cutting certain passages that don’t support the book.

(Don't get a traditional publishing deal if you go this route. They may wipe out as much as 70% of what you write, in favor of content they write for you … do you see how this works?)

3. Hire a Ghostwriter.

You can write, edit, publish, and promote a book with a dedicated team. You still retain 100% editorial oversight and ownership of all content; none of it can go to print without your permission.?

With the Reluctant Thought Leader, you also get our Anonymous Guarantee—we will NEVER charge additional fees for authorship credit. And unless you disclose that you worked with us, the world doesn’t need to know. We won’t tell them.?

(And the truth is, they don’t care. Only critics care, because it gets ratings.)?

Now, with a ghostwriter, your manuscript is by no means 100% “pure,” as though it’s “you and only you” writing.?

It is influenced by others, but only for the sake of clarity—descriptively telling your story, and communicating your value.?

It is written by others … but it isn’t “made up out of thin air.” The content is pulled directly from the author whose name appears on the cover. You simply speak it, and we capture it and arrange it in flowing, page-turning format.

It is edited by others (as happens to any good book or piece of content). We can help you self-publish, or connect you with a publisher.

But there are two things you no longer have to worry about when you hire a ghostwriter:?

(a) Provided you stay proactive and engaged, that project WILL be completed and ready to publish, and?

(b) You have our word—NO ONE will ever know we wrote it without your express, written permission.?

I hope this helps you think through this a little better. In some cases, you might get a deeper sense of the complexity you face.

If you feel like it might be wiser to explore writing your book in partnership with us … click here to schedule a complimentary, no-obligation discovery call.