Aaron Hoos

Businesses need content to sell their products or services: They need marketing material, web content, sales scripts, instruction manuals… and sometimes they need content written which will actually be the product sold (as in the case of ebooks).

Not everyone can write or wants to write, and that’s where a ghostwriter comes in. Ghostwriters are hired by the business to create content that is attributed to the business rather than the writer. It’s a very common practice in writing.

HERE’S THE PROBLEM
When businesses look for ghostwriters, they don’t always know what to look for. Sure, they look for someone with experience as a writer — preferably with experience in a specific industry or with a specific content type — but beyond that, there are just question marks.

Over the years I’ve worked as a ghostwriter for hundreds of clients and I can tell you that each client comes to the table with a different set of ideas and expectations.

If you need to hire a ghostwriter, here’s what you need to know:

THE FIVE ROLES OF CONTENT CREATION
All written work (regardless of what kind of content you want) is put together by five different roles. These roles can be performed by one person or by more than one person. The roles (in order) are:

1. The thinker — The thinker comes up with the clever ideas and catchy elements; they perform content strategy; they consider the audience and the value the audience is seeking; and they solidify the concepts into a workable shape.
2. The researcher — The researcher looks at what the market is looking for and how it’s communicating its needs; they look at the competition and what is already on offer; and they look for opportunities (including SEO, marketing messages, etc.).
3. The scribe — The scribe takes the ideas from the thinker and the research from the researcher and they write it out; they massage the ideas, if necessary, to create a powerful and focused piece of content.
4. The editor — The editor reviews what the scribe has created and makes sure it is aligned with the thinker’s vision and the researcher’s findings; they ensure coherence within the document and between the working document and other content produced by the business.
5. The publisher — The publisher makes the content available to the target audience. It could be as simple as copying the text and pasting it into a blog publishing platform, or it could be more complex like printing and binding a book and setting up distribution.

Businesses who hire ghostwriters often bring need one or more of the roles mentioned above, but they don’t always effectively communicate that need.

If you’re a business looking to hire a ghostwriter, look at the five roles above and figure out what you already have and what you need. Then look for a ghostwriter who can perform the roles that you need. You might look for them in a single person or you might assemble a team, depending on the size of your budget and the scope of your project and the skills of your team.

EXAMPLES FROM MY EXPERIENCE
I’ve worked with several clients who have simply said, “I’m starting a business and I want to position myself as an expert. Can you create for me an ebook, sales letter, marketing material, and other sales funnel supporting content?”. These clients hired me to think, research, write, edit, and sometimes even publish their work.

I’ve worked with several clients who have said, “I’ve made a name for myself as an expert in my niche. Here is my content, research, and experience. I’ve got the system in place to take the content you write and sell it.” These clients hired me to be the scribe and editor, and they’ve taken care of the thinking, research, and publishing.

WHY THIS MATTERS
For business owners, knowing exactly what kind of roles you’re looking for in a ghostwriter will help you in the following ways:

• You’ll be able to better manage the project and your budget
• You’ll be able to find a ghostwriter faster and more easily
• You’ll be able to find a ghostwriter who fits your needs
• You’ll be able to communicate more effectively with your ghostwriter
• You’ll end up with a project that is closest to your vision and will help you to achieve your business goals

So the next time you’re looking for a ghostwriter, remember: You’re not JUST looking for a ghostwriter. Be specific about the roles you want your ghostwriter to take on.

I call myself a “business writer” because it encompasses both copywriting and technical writing. But I have bumped into a lot of people recently who don’t really know what I do: This month, while working with some clients for whom I’m doing copywriting, I was asked what a technical writer was; and, while working with a client for whom I’m doing technical writing, I was asked what a copywriter was. I confess that I’ve spent so long doing both that I was a little taken aback that people hadn’t heard of the other.

So here’s a definition — my definition, maybe not an “official, definitive, industry-approved” definition of what I do every day:

As a copywriter, I develop external content — content for clients that sells their products or services to their customers. I write web copy, press releases, articles, blogs, etc. Copy that sells.

As a technical writer, I develop internal content — content for clients that sells their strategic initiatives to an internal audience. I write instruction and training manuals, knowledge center content, policy and procedure best practices guidelines, etc.

In both cases, it’s content that sells… it just happens to sell to different audiences and possesses different characteristics: Copywriting often relies on sales language to create an emotional connection with the reader and get them to spend money. Technical writing relies on “how-to” (and a little bit of spin) to explain why the reader should do something and then get them to do it.

In spite of the differences, though, there are similarities: Both sell. Both emphasize benefits of “buying into” whatever the document is selling. Both have an audience who is (hopefully) going to act because of what they’ve read.

If you think of it in terms of the sales funnel, copywriting helps to move the customer along the sales funnel to the point of (and beyond) the sale. Meanwhile, technical writing helps staff, vendors, and other partners (“internal stakeholders”) to operate in a way that helps the organization achieve its aim (which is usually related to the sales funnel!).

What does this mean for prospective clients? If you need me to do some writing, you don’t have to differentiate. That’s why I call myself a “business writer”. I write for your business, regardless of whether you know what you need or not. But I do differentiate the copywriting and technical writing for those who know what they are looking for and want to know if I can deliver it.

I’ve been working on a huge technical writing project for a client. They expect to start rolling some of my work out to their staff and partners between November 2010 and March 2011. They have thousands of pages of supporting documents that go back at least 4 years. So,  for the next few months, I’m trying to make sense of it all while I turn it into something useful.

I’ve been swimming in a flood of paper: Reading, sorting, and mapping it out. And recently I was asked by three different people, “What’s your process of turning a great big pile of unsorted guidelines, case studies, and marketing documents into a comprehensive, user-friendly, step-by-step document that someone can follow?” I thought it might make an interesting blog post.

So here’s a generalized version of my technical writing process:

1. One of the first things you need to do is figure out who the end user is going to be and what they are supposed to accomplish as a result of this project. From branch operations to CRM systems to selling a specific product, each technical writing project I’ve worked on had an end user who was supposed to achieve an end state. So find out what it is. It also helps to try and figure out what their motivations are (will they accept the changes or resist them?) because you can shape your work according to their level of alignment with the purposes of the content.
2. Get a high level view of the project, review the business case, and review some of the material to get a feel for what you’re facing.
3. Now here’s the secret ingredient and this step will make all the difference for you: Start mapping out an ideal future pathway or methodology that you will be writing to. These are the steps in the process that people will be taking to achieve the end goal. Each step in your work will probably be a major point in the step-by-step instructions you’re writing.
4. Build out a similar “current” pathway so you can outline how the process is done today and can compare the two.
5. Now start reading all of that reading material in-depth. Assign a code to each document and then look at your process map (in step 3) and see if you can find a place for the document on that map. If you can, great. If you can’t decide if it a good reference material. Chances are, if it can’t be tied to one of the steps on your process map and if it won’t make a good reference then it should be discarded.
6. As you build your map, write in the names of people who can help or reference sites to obtain more information.
7. Below each point, start fleshing out subpoints, steps, or tasks, and arrange them in order within each point.

By now, you should have a big piece of paper (or, more likely, a Word document or several pieces of paper taped together) that captures the information of the entire solution.

File those documents into some kind of order. Put the discards in a discard file (and keep them until the project is published). Put the rest of the documents into coded files that align with the steps in your process map.

And now you can start writing, interviewing, and continuing with research. Of course, all good technical writing is iterative and collaborative so expect to get back to earlier steps and make adjustments as necessary.

[Photo credit: epSos.de]