Website: http://savvy-writer.com/

Specialty: Blogs and articles

Rates: .50 to 1.00 per word

Rebecca Sebek counts among her passions the arts, communication, and travel. She makes her living as a writer. She enjoys coaching and teaching others, and sharing her knowledge of writing skills.

Rebecca’s also a prolific freelance writer and blogger who posts regularly on several websites, writing on topics such as travel destination articles, general writing tips, and personal advice.

Website: http://writingitrightforyou.com

Specialty: Academic and Business Copywriting/Writing/Editing

Rates: 75 per hour: project-based only

I work with individuals, university graduate/post-graduate students, and businesses in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and six other countries. I provide academic writing assistance, copywriting, writing, and editing services. Ghostwriting, blogging, web copy, and ESL (English as a Second Language) are some of my specialties. I can be reached by phone, fax, email, Skype, Gtalk and Yahoo IM. I am a full-time, mature and experienced researcher, copywriter, writer and editor. My office is fully equipped with the latest hardware, software, high-speed internet, FTP and MS Office Suite. I am also proficient in Web 2.0 apps and social media marketing. The minimum project amount is $150.00; free initial consultations and professional estimates/quotations are provided.

Website: http://jennifer-roland.com

Specialty: Business and publication writing and editing

Rates: 50+ per hour

Jennifer Roland is a writer and editor with nearly 20 years education and experience. She offers business writing to help you better connect with potential clients and ghostwriting to help you publicize your company/service in trade periodicals.

She also publishes bylined articles in trade and consumer periodicals and on the web on educational technology, personal finance, pets, and lifestyle topics.

Website: http://simplystatedbusiness.com

Specialty: Business writer with added health care specialty

Rates: Per project basis – average 70 per hour

I have been been writing professionally for over 30 years. My goal is delivering business writing that is simple, clear, and unique to the customer.

I specialize in ghostwriting articles, white papers, and sales and marketing collateral. With over 30 years in the health care industry, I have an added expertise in health care, wellness and employee benefits communication.

I have several other interviews confirmed, so I’d like to announce those interviewees so you have an idea of what’s coming up:

• Freelance Blogging – The corporate blogging authority, Debbie Weil
• Copywriting – The always-awesome Angela Booth
• Magazine Writing – Coming back for her second AFW interview, Linda Formichelli
• Playwriting – The not-so-one-and-only Jennifer Mattern (What can I say? If you want to be a writer, apparently it’s a good name to have!)
• Fiction / Novel Writing – The Marshall Plan creator Evan Marshall (soon to release his 10th novel!)
• Screenwriting / Writing for Television - Xandy Sussan, who has written for television shows for Disney, the WB, and Cartoon Network, stops by to talk about writing for the big (or small) screen
• Trade Publication Writing - Christa Miller will be sharing some thoughts on getting started writing for trade publications

I also have feelers out to folks for interviews covering Web content writing and technical writing. I’ll update this list (rather than posting another) as confirmations come in. I’m still looking for a freelance medical writer to chat with. If you know someone, please ask them to shoot me an email at jenn@allfreelancewriting.com.

If there are other types of writing you’d like to see covered in this series (they don’t have to be specifically freelance-related), leave a comment and let me know. I’ll do my best to track down a writer in the field to come and share some of their thoughts for you. :)

Here’s what Anne had to say:

On How She Became a Ghostwriter…

“It was by accident. I was working for a well known new age minister doing her magazine. She came to me one day and asked if I could complete her book because the ghost the publisher had found just wasn’t working out. I gulped and said ‘yes.’”

On Needing Specialized Education or Experience Before Starting…

“No, although being widely read and learning how to listen and enjoying people is necessary.”

On How New Writers Can Get Started as a Ghostwriter…

“Right place right time is always good — I wouldn’t change anything [about how I started], but that won’t work for everyone. I think I’d suggest trying some smaller projects first, like ghosting ebooks and growing from there. Or being willing to do a chapter or two on spec the first time.”

On Things Prospective Ghostwriters Should Know Up Front…

“You’ve got to have some confidence in your own writing ability and your ability to listen so you can write what your client wants. You’ve got to be willing to let any ego go because your name won’t show up anywhere. You’ve also got to be able to help your clients set and meet goals, like how many chapters in how much time — or be willing to learn how to do that.”

On Anne Wayman…

Anne Wayman is a ghostwriter and writing coach. She blogs about freelance writing at AboutFreelanceWriting.com and her credits and more on her professional background can be found at AnneWayman.com.

The “Getting Started” series will revolve around short interviews with writers about how they got started in their specialty areas and how you can too!

We’ll be kicking off the new series today with “Getting Started in Ghostwriting” with our guest Anne Wayman.

I honestly didn’t have an answer. There isn’t exactly a long history to fall back on, and it could depend heavily on a number of factors (like how many updates, whether they’re quick thoughts or would involve a lot of time link-hunting, etc.). So for the sake of “getting with the times,” let me pose that question to all of you instead. How much would you charge someone to write updates for their Twitter account?

If you think about it, length alone doesn’t mean much. Sure, it’s only 140 characters per tweet. But is that more marketing copy (think of the hundreds or thousands of dollars you might be paid for writing a short ad slogan), or is it more in line with forum posting (notorious for pay of $.05 – .20 per post)? If you normally charged a penny per word, is that what you’d go with? What if you normally charged closer to $1.00 per word? Would you charge per word, per tweet, or maybe even per character?

So if we have any paid tweeters out there in freelance writing land this morning, share your thoughts. How do you charge, and how much do you charge?

Problems with Ghostwriting

The obvious drawback to ghostwriting is that you get no public credit. If you run a writing business that revolves around your personal reputation, you want as much credited work out there as possible.

In some cases you won’t even be allowed to use the ghostwritten material in a portfolio (even a private portfolio sent directly to prospective clients). While some ghostwriting clients will allow you to do this, others require that you sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), meaning you can never claim involvement with the project, claim authorship, or imply the listed author isn’t in fact the author at all. Even without an NDA, you would need the client’s permission to claim authorship to prospective clients. This can be a problem if all of your work is ghostwritten, and you’re struggling to find clients willing to let you use portfolio samples.

There are, of course, exceptions  – for example, when I write press releases, it’s generally understood that the client’s name and contact info will be present (as a media contact rather than an author). Yet, you would be hard-pressed to find a client that would complain if you used something like a press release in a portfolio. The same would likely be true of other types of business writing such as marketing materials (like brochures).

Reasons to Love Ghostwriting

Not being publicly credited is a big reason to avoid ghostwriting if that’s important to you (as it may be for writers more solely focused on content writing). However, ghostwriting has its perks.

For starters, I couldn’t write press releases (which I love) if I insisted on only writing bylined pieces.

Additionally, I ghostwrite articles on several subjects from green business to finance topics. While they fit within my overall specialty of writing business-oriented content, and while I also cover them on some of my own blogs and websites, they’re really not the primary focus for me. They’re not the segments of my niche that I’m overly concerned with when it comes to building public exposure. On the other hand, it would be very unlikely for me to write about PR issues as a ghostwriter, because that is a primary focus, an a topic where I want my name attached as an “expert” source.

Another possible benefit would be for those who prefer being generalists (you know by now that I don’t). You can write about new topics without having to worry about public perceptions tied to your author name attached to them.

Along those lines, ghostwriting can be an option for people with more than one specialty. Let’s say you’re a teacher, and your primary specialty is writing about secondary education issues. Most of the work you publish in that niche is bylined, and you’ve build a reputation around your writing in that area. However, you also have a “secret” passion for politics. You know enough to write about political issues, but maybe you’re afraid that your political views would alienate readers familiar with your more formal writing on education. You can still follow that passion with your writing without having the two areas associated with each other by working as a ghostwriter for your political pieces.

What do you think of ghostwriting? Do you refuse to take on ghostwritten projects? Do you exclusively work as a ghostwriter? What challenges have you faced in ghostwriting, and how can similar writers work around them? Are there other reasons you love (or hate) it? Share your thoughts.