Memoir Ghostwriting – How Much Does A Co Writer Cost?

Working with a ghostwriter can be a costly venture. Depending on the length you wish for your memoir, it may take months and even years to complete your book. Understandably, people want to know how much ghostwriting will cost. Here are a few considerations for you to ponder over as you assess the cost of a ghostwritten memoir.
1. Asking “How much will it cost to have my memoir written?” is like asking “How long will it take to cross the lake?”
Many factors will affect the time of crossing: the wind, the distance from one shore to the other, the design of the boat itself, the number of people on the boat, whether or not you wish to cross directly or whether you would like to make a few forays into coves and inlets.
In the same way, there are many factors that will affect the cost of your memoir. How much have you already written? How much of the materials (letters, photos, articles, journals) have you collected and annotated? How much will you participate in the writing itself? (Some people regularly turn in text while others prefer to let the co-author do all the composition.) Will the ghost do the final copy edit (commas, periods, etc.) or will you do that with family and friends who are “good at that sort of thing.”
If cutting costs is important, do as much of the work yourself as you can.
2. The truth is that working with a ghostwriter will cost a lot.
You can shop for a ghost based on price. You can shop based on quality. In the end you have to be financially vigilant so as to be able to finish the project, but “bargains” are not what you need.
3. What will be the cost of not hiring the ghost and foregoing your story?
If you do not preserve the story of your life, or of your parents, or of your ethnic group, it will be lost. After you are gone no one will have access to it. That is a price of not writing.
4. If you sell copies of your book you will recoup some expenses.
Most writers I have worked with recoup printing and ghostwriting cost between 650 and 1,000 copies. Marketing your book is an excellent way to pay yourself back.
5. After telling your ghostwriter how much you will be contributing to the writing of the book, s/he ought to be able to share a “ballpark” figure with you.
This figure will most likely be based on a “per 100 pages of text turned in.” This cannot be a hard and fast figure. You need to have more in reserve than the figure.
6. OK. So how much!
My best guess is that a quality ghostwriter will cost you in the vicinity of $8,000 to $12, 000 per hundred pages, depending on how much you do as suggested in #1 above. Any less than that and you are probably dealing with a hobby writer who will be difficult to work with.
Hiring a ghost writer will likely not cost more than redoing your kitchen and will cost a lot less than buying a summer home. It comes down to this: you buy what you value.