First-time authors
One book in you, a clear sense of what it should say, and no idea how a manuscript is actually built. The most common conversation we have.
Professional Ghostwriting Services
Ghostwriting Services for People With Something to Say
You have the story, the expertise or the experience. A professional ghostwriter has the months, the structure and the craft to turn it into a manuscript. Splintify works from interviews, notes, recordings and research to develop your book behind the scenes, in your voice, published under your name.
- Written from interviews, not from a brief
- Developed in your voice, under your name
- Confidential, with terms set out in writing
- Quoted per project after we understand the book
The Short Answer
What Is Ghostwriting, and What Does a Ghostwriter Actually Do?
Ghostwriting is professional writing produced for someone else to publish under their own name. A book ghostwriter interviews the author, gathers source material such as notes, recordings, research and existing drafts, establishes the author's voice and the structure of the book, then writes the manuscript chapter by chapter while the author reviews and directs. The ideas, expertise and experiences remain the author's. The writing is done by the ghostwriter, who is not named on the finished book.
What the author supplies
- The subject, the story and the point of view
- Expertise, memory and lived experience
- Time in interviews, which is the main demand on you
- Feedback on chapters as they arrive
- Final approval on everything before it is finished
What the ghostwriter supplies
- Interviewing, to draw out what you know but have not written
- Structure, deciding what belongs where and in what order
- Voice capture, so the prose reads as yours
- Research and verification where the book needs it
- Sustained drafting across months, which is where most books stall
- Revision until the manuscript holds together as one piece
The common misunderstanding is that a ghostwriter invents the book. They do not. A ghostwriter is closer to a translator working between two forms: what you know and how you say it out loud, and what a reader can follow across three hundred pages.
Who This Is For
Who Hires a Book Ghostwriter?
Almost never people who cannot write. Usually people who can write perfectly well and have no realistic prospect of finding six uninterrupted months.
Founders and executives
A thesis worth publishing and a calendar measured in fifteen-minute blocks. Interviews fit that reality in a way drafting chapters never will.
Consultants and coaches
A methodology that works in the room and needs to exist as a book to travel further than you personally can.
Subject-matter experts
Deep knowledge that comes out fluently in conversation and goes flat on the page, because professional register and readable prose are different skills.
Speakers and thought leaders
A talk that lands every time. A book is the version that works in rooms you are not standing in.
People with a life story
A memoir, a family history, or an account someone should have written down years ago. Interview-led by nature, and the projects that matter most to the people in them.
The Real Reasons
Why Hire a Professional Ghostwriter?
The time is not there and never will be
A full-length manuscript is several hundred hours of concentrated work. Not busy hours, quiet ones. Most working people can find the material but not the months, and waiting for a clearer year is how a book stays unwritten for a decade.
Structure is the hard part, not sentences
Books fail at the outline stage far more often than at the paragraph level. Deciding what belongs in which chapter, and in what order, is most of the work, and it is genuinely difficult when you are too close to the material to see its shape.
Momentum breaks and rarely restarts
Most abandoned manuscripts stop somewhere around chapter four, when something urgent happens and the file goes unopened. A ghostwriter is under contract and on a schedule, which is a duller reason for a book existing than inspiration, and a more reliable one.
Expertise does not translate itself
You can explain your subject perfectly to a colleague. Writing it down for a stranger who lacks your context is a different task, and one that consistently defeats people who are excellent at the subject itself.
Someone has to hold the whole book in mind
Consistency across eighty thousand words is a technical skill: tracking what has been said, what repeats, what contradicts, and whether chapter nineteen still matches the promise made in chapter one.
Interviews surface what writing does not
People say things out loud they would never think to write. A good interviewer gets the anecdote you had forgotten, the objection you always answer, and the way you actually explain things when nobody is watching you type.
The Process
How the Ghostwriting Process Works
Six stages, though the shape varies by project. A memoir built from forty hours of interviews runs differently from a business book built on an existing framework, and the scope agreed at the start says which applies to yours.
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01
Discovery
A conversation about the book rather than a brief. What it is, who reads it, what you want to be true after they have, and what already exists. We also establish here whether we are the right fit, and say so if we are not.
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02
Interviews and source material
Recorded sessions, transcribed, plus whatever you already have: notes, recordings, drafts, research, documents. This is the heaviest demand on your time and the single most important stage.
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03
Voice and structure
Your voice documented from the interviews as a working reference, and the manuscript architecture mapped chapter by chapter. You approve the outline before any prose is written, because changes here cost minutes and the same changes later cost weeks.
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04
Drafting
Chapters written and delivered in agreed batches rather than one silent handover at the end. You read as we go, which is how voice drift gets caught early instead of discovered late.
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05
Review and revision
Your notes on voice, accuracy and emphasis, worked through in defined rounds with an agreed scope, so revision does not become an open loop neither side can close.
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06
Final manuscript
The full book read and refined as one piece rather than chapter by chapter. Repetition removed, transitions strengthened, and the manuscript delivered according to the scope agreed at the start.
Want to know what this would look like for your book?
Discuss Your Project
Voice
Good Ghostwriting Should Sound Like You
The failure mode of ghostwriting is not bad writing. It is competent, polished, anonymous writing that could have been produced for anyone.
Voice matching is a technical process, not an intuition. During interviews a ghostwriter is listening for a specific set of things and writing them down: the words you reach for and the ones you avoid, sentence rhythm, how long you take to get to a point, whether you explain through argument or through story, where you become animated, what you repeat, what you refuse to claim, and the opinions you hold that a cautious writer would soften.
That becomes a documented voice reference, and every chapter is checked against it. It is also why you read chapters as they arrive rather than at the end: voice is the one element that cannot be corrected retroactively without rewriting everything around it.
What a voice reference actually records
Vocabulary and register
Sentence rhythm
How you open a point
Argument or anecdote
Humour, and where
Level of formality
Opinions you hold firmly
Claims you refuse to make
Recurring phrases
How you handle disagreement
Source Material
You Do Not Need a Manuscript to Start
Most projects begin with nothing written down. Interviews alone are enough source material for a full-length book, and anything you already have simply reduces how many we need.
Spoken
- Recorded interview sessions
- Voice notes and memos
- Existing podcast or talk recordings
- Interviews with family, colleagues or subjects
Written
- Handwritten or typed notes
- Partial drafts and abandoned chapters
- Articles, newsletters or blog archives
- An outline, however rough
- A previous book
Professional
- Presentations and keynote decks
- Frameworks, models and training material
- Case notes and project documentation
- Research files and reference material
- Approved correspondence
If you have nothing but the intention, that is a normal starting point. If you have a folder of half-finished material you have been avoiding for two years, that is also normal, and usually faster.
Confidentiality & Rights
Is Ghostwriting Confidential?
Yes. Professional ghostwriting is confidential by default: the material you share, your identity as a client, and the existence of the engagement itself. Where a client wants it formalised, a non-disclosure agreement can be signed before any material changes hands, and many authors ask for one at the first conversation rather than later.
Ghostwriting is also entirely legal and, in publishing, entirely ordinary. A large share of memoirs, business books and celebrity titles are ghostwritten, and the arrangement is understood across the industry. What matters is that both parties agree the terms in advance rather than assuming them.
What your agreement should define
- Copyright and ownership. Who holds rights in the finished manuscript, and from what point.
- Attribution. Whether the writer is named anywhere, acknowledged, or not mentioned at all.
- Confidentiality. What is covered, for how long, and whether the engagement itself is confidential.
- Source material. How your recordings, notes and documents are stored, used and returned or destroyed.
- Scope and revisions. What is included, how many rounds, and what sits outside the agreement.
- Delivery. What you receive at the end and in what format.
We set these out in writing before work begins rather than leaving them to be inferred. Ask any ghostwriter or ghostwriting company the same questions before you commit, and be cautious of anyone who treats them as a formality.
Book Types
Books We Can Ghostwrite
Approach changes with the book. A memoir is built from scene and honesty, a business book from argument and evidence, a novel from character and tension. Availability depends on the project, so tell us what yours is.
Memoir
Interview-led by nature. The hard part is selection, since a life holds far more material than a book can carry.
Biography & autobiography
Often drawing on family, colleagues and archives alongside the subject, with verification mattering as much as narrative.
Business books
Built on a framework the author already uses. Succeeds on structure and argument more than prose style.
Nonfiction
Expertise translated out of professional register into something a general reader can follow without losing accuracy.
Self-help & personal development
A method, made teachable. The discipline is keeping the reader's problem, not the author's expertise, at the centre.
Fiction & novels
Runs on character, scene and tension rather than argument, so development focuses on story structure over content hierarchy.
Thought leadership
A defensible point of view developed at book length, for executives and specialists whose ideas outrun their writing time.
Children's books
A constraint exercise. Tight limits on length, vocabulary and reading level, with an adult buyer and a child reader to satisfy at once.
Which Service
Ghostwriting or Book Writing: Which Do You Need?
The practical difference is attribution and how visible the writer is. In ghostwriting the writer is not named, the engagement stays confidential, and the book appears as yours alone. Book writing may involve acknowledged collaboration, co-writing or credited assistance. The interviews, the process and the amount of your involvement are broadly the same in both cases, so the question is really about how you want the finished book to be presented.
Ghostwriting
- The writer is not named on the book
- The engagement itself is confidential
- A single authorial voice, yours
- Common for memoir, business and personal-brand books
Book writing
- The writer's involvement may be acknowledged
- Often co-writing or credited collaboration
- Suits authors happy for the partnership to be visible
- Common for expert and institutional books
If that describes your project better, our book writing service covers it.
Neither is better. They are different arrangements for the same underlying work, and if you are unsure which suits your book, that is a reasonable thing to settle on the first call rather than before it.
Investment
How Much Does a Ghostwriter Cost?
Professional book ghostwriting is quoted per project rather than per word or per hour, because two manuscripts of identical length can involve very different amounts of work. A ghostwriter's cost is driven by how much interviewing and research the book needs, how much usable material already exists, the complexity of the subject, and the revision scope agreed at the start. We quote after understanding the project, and the quote sets out what is included before anything begins.
What raises the cost
- Higher word count and longer manuscripts
- Extensive interview hours
- Third-party interviews and archival research
- Technical or specialist subject matter
- Starting with no existing material
- Compressed deadlines around a fixed date
- Wide revision scope
What lowers it
- Existing notes, drafts or transcripts
- A clear concept and defined audience
- Shorter formats and tighter scope
- Subject matter you speak to fluently
- Prompt feedback at each stage
- A schedule with room in it
What a quote should tell you
- Word count and manuscript scope
- Number of interview hours included
- How many revision rounds are covered
- What you receive at completion
- Payment schedule against milestones
- Rights, attribution and confidentiality terms
A note on per-word pricing. Ghostwriting is often advertised at a rate per word, which sounds transparent and usually is not, because it prices the typing rather than the interviewing, structuring, research and revision that make up most of the work. A quote you can compare properly should itemise the whole project, not just the manuscript length.
Tell us about the book and we will tell you what it would take.
Request a Detailed Quote
Timeline
How Long Does Ghostwriting Take?
A full-length ghostwritten book generally takes several months from first conversation to final manuscript. The variables are manuscript length, how much interviewing and research the book requires, how much material already exists, and how quickly feedback comes back at each stage. Shorter books move faster. Anyone promising a full manuscript in a few weeks is describing something other than a considered book.
What you control
- How quickly interviews get scheduled
- How fast chapter feedback comes back
- How many revision rounds you want
- Whether the scope changes mid-project
What the book decides
- Length and structural complexity
- Research and verification depth
- Number of people to interview
- How much usable material exists already
The most common cause of a project running long is not the writing. It is chapters sitting unread for three weeks. Feedback speed is the single biggest lever an author holds over their own timeline.
Buyer's Guide
How to Choose a Professional Ghostwriter
Useful whether or not you work with us. These are the questions worth asking anyone, including us, before money changes hands.
Ask how they capture voice
A vague answer here is the clearest warning sign available. The reply should describe a method, not a talent.
Ask what the interview load is
If nobody asks for significant interview time, the book will be built on guesswork and will read that way.
Ask to see the outline stage
Structure approved before drafting is the mark of a professional process. Writing that starts at chapter one is a warning.
Ask about genre experience
Memoir, business and fiction are genuinely different disciplines. Relevant experience matters more than volume of books written.
Ask when you see chapters
Staged delivery lets voice problems be caught early. A single handover at the end is a risk you carry alone.
Ask what revision includes
Defined rounds with a defined scope, in writing. Open-ended revision suits nobody and ends badly for both sides.
Ask about rights and attribution
Get the answer in the contract rather than in an email. Then read it.
Ask what happens if it is not working
A professional will have thought about this. Milestone payments and an exit point protect both parties.
Why Splintify
How We Work, and What We Will Not Claim
What we commit to
- Interviews as the foundation. The book is built from what you say, recorded and transcribed, not from a brief.
- Structure approved first. No drafting until you have signed off the chapter outline.
- A documented voice reference. Established early and checked against on every pass.
- Staged delivery. Chapters as they are written, so nothing arrives as a surprise at the end.
- Defined revision scope. Agreed rounds, in writing, rather than an open loop.
- Terms set out before we start. Confidentiality, rights and attribution written down, not assumed.
- Human writing. Interviews conducted, transcripts read, chapters written by a person.
What we will not tell you
- That we can guarantee a publishing deal. Nobody controls that.
- That the book will sell a particular number of copies.
- That a full manuscript can be written well in a few weeks.
- That you can stay uninvolved. The material has to come from you.
- That we are the right fit for every book. Sometimes we are not, and we will say so.
Every one of those is a claim you will find elsewhere in this industry. All of them are either unverifiable or untrue, and a ghostwriting engagement runs too long and sits too close to your own name to begin on one.
After the Manuscript
From Ghostwritten Manuscript to Published Book
Ghostwriting produces the manuscript. Publishing turns that manuscript into a book readers can buy. They are separate stages with separate requirements.
Once the manuscript is complete, a book still needs a final editorial pass, interior formatting and typesetting, a cover designed for its category, an ISBN, retailer metadata and a route to distribution. Some authors take a finished manuscript to agents and publishers instead, which is a different path with different economics.
We will explain both routes when your manuscript is finished, rather than assuming you want either. If you decide to publish it yourself, our book publishing services cover the production and distribution side.
- Editing and proofreading
- Interior formatting for print and ebook
- Cover design
- ISBN and metadata
- Retailer setup and pricing
- Distribution
FAQ
Ghostwriting Questions, Answered
What is a ghostwriter?
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who develops a manuscript for someone else to publish under their own name. The author supplies the ideas, expertise and experiences; the ghostwriter conducts interviews, structures the book and writes the prose. The ghostwriter is not credited on the finished work.
What does a book ghostwriter do?
They interview the author at length, gather source material such as notes, recordings and research, establish the author's voice and the structure of the book, then draft it chapter by chapter while the author reviews. They also manage consistency across the whole manuscript, which is difficult to hold in mind over eighty thousand words.
How does the ghostwriting process work?
In six broad stages: discovery, interviews and source material, voice and structure, drafting, review and revision, then the final manuscript. The outline is approved before any prose is written, and chapters are delivered in batches so direction is corrected early. The exact shape varies by project and is set out in the agreed scope.
Can a ghostwriter write in my voice?
Yes, and it is a core part of the work rather than a bonus. Voice is captured through recorded interviews, where a writer notes your vocabulary, rhythm, how you build an argument and what you avoid saying. That becomes a documented reference the manuscript is measured against, and you review chapters as they are written so drift is caught early.
How much does book ghostwriting cost?
It is quoted per project rather than at a standard rate, because manuscripts of the same length can require very different work. Cost is driven by word count, interview hours, research depth, subject complexity, how much material already exists and the revision scope. We quote after understanding the project, and the quote itemises what is included.
How long does ghostwriting take?
Generally several months from first conversation to final manuscript for a full-length book. Length, research, interview scheduling and how quickly you return feedback all move the timeline. Shorter books move faster. The most common cause of delay is chapters waiting to be read rather than chapters waiting to be written.
Is ghostwriting confidential?
Yes. Confidentiality covers the material you share, your identity as a client, and the existence of the engagement itself. For most ghostwritten books that discretion is the entire point, and it applies from the first conversation rather than from the moment a contract is signed.
Do ghostwriters sign NDAs?
Commonly, yes, and you can ask for one before sharing anything. Many authors do. A non-disclosure agreement formalises what a professional would treat as confidential regardless, which matters most when the book touches on a business, a family or anything commercially sensitive.
Who owns a ghostwritten book?
That is determined by your agreement, which is why the agreement matters. In a standard ghostwriting arrangement the client holds the rights to the finished manuscript and publishes under their own name. Get the specific terms in writing before work begins, and be wary of any arrangement that leaves ownership unstated.
Can I publish a ghostwritten book under my name?
Yes, that is the purpose of the arrangement, and it is both legal and long established in publishing. Many memoirs, business books and public-figure titles are ghostwritten. What governs it is the agreement between you and the writer, which should state attribution explicitly rather than leaving it implied.
What can I provide to a ghostwriter?
Anything that carries the material: recorded interviews, voice notes, handwritten notes, partial drafts, research files, presentations, frameworks, articles, a previous book, or interviews with other people connected to the story. You do not need any of it to begin. Interviews alone are enough source material for a full-length book.
Can you ghostwrite fiction as well as nonfiction?
Yes, though they work differently. Nonfiction is built on argument and structure, so the outline stage carries most of the weight. Fiction runs on character, scene and tension, so development focuses on story architecture instead. Tell us which yours is and we will say honestly whether we are the right fit.
What is the difference between a ghostwriter and a co-author?
Credit. A co-author is named on the cover and shares authorship publicly, often alongside a share of royalties. A ghostwriter is not named, and the book is presented as the client's alone. The writing work can be near identical; what differs is attribution and how the arrangement is structured.
How do I choose a professional ghostwriter?
Ask how they capture voice, how many interview hours they expect, whether you approve the outline before drafting, when you see chapters, what revision includes, and what the contract says about rights and confidentiality. Relevant genre experience matters more than the number of books written. Vague answers to any of those are the warning sign.
Get Started
Talk About Your Book
Tell us what the book is, where the material currently sits, and what you want it to do. We will come back with an honest read on what it would involve, roughly how long it would run, and whether we are the right people to write it.
- Confidential from the first conversation
- An NDA before you share anything, if you want one
- A written scope and a project quote before work begins
- A straight answer if the project is not right for us