What You Can Expect
We’re honored that you’re considering The Writers For Hire to write your life story and we’ll do everything we can to show your trust in us is well-placed.
A personal project like an autobiography is different from, say, a corporate website or a business book. Our autobiography clients come to us with a very specific set of goals and concerns, but, to a person, they have at least one thing in common: Whether they are purchasing writing services for themselves or for a family member, they want to end up with a book they’ll be proud to share with friends and family.
Here’s what you and your family can expect when you work with us:
- We will take the time to get to know you. Before we write a word, we visit you in your home (or other physical or virtual space you choose) and spend several days interviewing you and your family. We learn more about your story and discuss your style preferences, timelines, additional interviewees, and publishing options.
- We will listen to you. Your writing team wants to hear what you have to say. We come to every interview ready to hear your story — and we take detailed notes and make recordings to make sure that we don’t miss a word.
- We won’t disappear. Ghostwriting shouldn’t imply you’re working with a ghost! Ghostwriting is a collaborative, back-and-forth effort. We communicate with you regularly, and you’ll always know the status of your book.
- If you don’t like something, we’ll change it. It is your book, and we want you to be 100% happy with it. We love getting feedback from you on everything we write. You tell us what’s working and what you’d like to change — and we’ll revise based on your comments.
Our Approach
- We ensure that we capture all the critical aspects of your life, including your childhood, personal background, education, career, achievements, relationships, and major life events.
- We aim to offer insights into your thoughts, emotions, and perspective on life.
- We understand that a great autobiography is so much more than just the facts and figures that comprise your life, no matter how memorable or profound. We work to incorporate your reflections on past events, to show how experiences changed you, and to include inspirational, relatable, and thought-provoking lessons.
Past Ghostwriting Projects
We have written, edited, or consulted on scores of books, and about a third of them have been autobiographies.
Here are just a few examples. Please note that details are intentionally vague to protect our clients’ identities.
- The autobiography of a German war bride. The Writers For Hire conducted several days of onsite interviews with a German immigrant who came to the United States after World War II. The novel-length book chronicled her extraordinary life, from a childhood of surviving air raids in Berlin and running away from a Hitler Youth work camp to an adulthood raising a family and running a ranch in the American West.
- A grandfather’s autobiography, from his childhood growing up during the Great Depression to his military service, his marriage and family, and his career. Commissioned by his grandchildren as a way to preserve a piece of family history, the finished book was self-published and distributed to family members as a holiday gift.
- The autobiography of a female oil company executive, which chronicles the client’s life through some of her most interesting moments. This true tale of life and love shares the experiences of a Virginia woman transported into the Texas oil industry.
- A Houston couple’s story, commissioned as a gift from their family, that traces their ancestral research with their personal journeys. It delves into the captivating stories of their immigrant ancestors, portrays their separate lives from childhood to marriage, and then looks at the legacy they built together.
References Available
Sure, we think our writing team is pretty great – but we’re just a bit biased. If you’d like to learn more about what it’s like to work with us, from our real ghostwriting customers, we can provide references upon request.
FAQs
You do. It’s your book, and you retain 100% of the rights to it.
You do. In addition to retaining 100% of the rights to your book, you can claim sole authorship. Some of our clients choose to credit us as editors or co-writers. Although it’s nice to get a shout-out now and then, the majority of our clients don’t disclose the fact that they used a ghostwriter – and that’s fine with us.
Of course. Your ghostwriter is simply helping you say what you want to say in a clear, engaging way. The ideas are 100% yours – all a ghostwriter does is help you get it on the page.
We take your privacy seriously. Most of our ghostwriting contracts include a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
Our ghostwriters are professional, full-time writers and editors – and in order to keep them on our team, we have to pay them for their time. Our business model simply isn’t set up to take projects on spec.
Yes. Our diverse writing and editing team include experienced writers with backgrounds in science and technology, oil & gas, journalism, education, and software engineering. They’re smart, naturally curious, and genuinely interested in learning more about your area of expertise. And, because ghostwriting is a collaborative effort, you’ll have the opportunity to review and fact-check every page we write.
We can publish your book through CreateSpace, an Amazon subsidiary. If you are interested in other publishing options, we can recommend and provide introductions to several traditional and self-publishing companies.
Technology makes it easy for us to work with anyone, anywhere. Plus, we love to fly and will travel to you if you prefer. After the initial kickoff meeting, most of our ghostwriting clients communicate with us via email, phone, or Skype. We’ve worked with hundreds of happy clients from all over the globe – from Singapore to San Jose to Scottsdale.
Ghostwriting is a back-and-forth process, and we seek specific, constructive feedback from you every step of the way. Once we get a feel for your style preferences, we write a few pages and send them to you for review. You tell us what’s working – and what’s not working – and we send you a revised copy. You see every chapter as we go, which means there won’t be any surprises at the end.
We don’t offer illustrations and infographics in-house, but we can provide introductions and recommendations for design work, and we can project manage the design portion of your book.
A lot of people get nervous about the idea of talking to writers; that’s why all of our family and personal writing projects begin with a face-to-face meeting. A book – especially a biography or family history book – is a big project that requires a lot of collaboration. It’s important that we take the time to get to know you, and it’s also important that you like us and feel comfortable talking to us. (So far, we’ve got a great track record. By the end of most book projects, most of our clients feel like we’re members of their extended family.)
If you are referring to self-publishing, which is now almost 20% of the current market, then yes. If you are referring to traditional publishing, no one can guarantee publication. We can, however, provide you with introductions to a few local or niche publishers, we can help guide you through the self-publishing process, and we can pitch your book to traditional publishers.
A full-length book typically takes between 6 and 12 months. However, a compressed scheduled can almost always be accommodated. Just tell us what your deadline is. Chances are, we can make it.
