I was chatting with someone yesterday about the term ghostwriting.
It’s always had a bad connotation on social media.
But in 2021-22, everyone was trying to hire a ghostwriter.
The going rate was about $3k a month back then.
That’s not the case anymore.
Actually, people rarely even hire me for ghostwriting now.
I’d define ghostwriting as taking someone’s ideas and thoughts, and turning them into written content.
While people used to pay $3,000 or more a month for that, AI has pretty much automated that process.
People who are even slightly technical can easily automate what a ghostwriter used to do.
Just record yourself speaking for 20 minutes, plug the transcript into an AI writing tool, and you pretty much have 90% of what a decent ghostwriter would produce.
Lately, people have been hiring me for something different: Distribution.
They either already know what to write, but want help getting more reach - or they want me to create some media property (like a parody account) to bring attention to their brand.
So instead of ghostwriting for people, I’m typically doing the following:
Take content the client has already written and tweak the hook to make it more compelling.
Show the client formats they can use on X.
Teach clients how to think of more content ideas.
Run a parody account and bring attention to the client’s actual business.
All of these tasks boil down to one thing:
Clients no longer need to hire me to write on their behalf. The writing aspect is easy - you no longer need to hire someone to do research and write a long post.
But many clients need help figuring out how to get more distribution.
I don’t think many of my clients think of me as a ghostwriter now, and I don’t describe myself that way anymore.