Welcome to this interesting blog where we have something very important for you and it is especially important for someone who is planning on hiring their first ghostwriter.
If you are planning on getting high-quality content written for you which might be for a book or even content for your business then you might be thinking of getting it done by a professional ghostwriter.
You might have already made plans regarding how you want the content to look and you might already have a vision in your mind regarding it.
But you might be also worried that the ghostwriter will not be able to successfully bring out your vision into the content.
Having said that, you might have no choice because you might simply be too busy or too inexperienced and that is why you can only rely on a professional ghostwriter.
So, how do you protect your vision when hiring a ghostwriter and make sure that the content comes out exactly as you had hoped for?
We are going to tell you just that in this blog as we will help you understand how you can maintain your vision of the content no matter the ghostwriter or the agency.
Before we start this blog, we would also like to tell you that you might find all these steps equally important and helpful or you might find some of them helpful and it is completely up to you on which of the steps you should utilise.
So, here is how you can protect your vision when hiring a ghostwriter.
Ways to Protect Your Vision When Hiring a Ghostwriter
Clarify Your Vision Before Hiring
The very first thing you should do if you want to protect your vision before hiring a ghostwriter is to have open and clear communication with them.
You might find them online or you might find them through a mutual contact and after you find them you should simply tell them everything about the project.
You can tell the ghostwriter what inspired you to come up with the project and why this project is important.
Apart from that, you can also show them all your points of difference and inspiration which might be something like a simple picture to something as complex as a novel or something totally unrelated that made you think of this project.
You can utilise the filmmaker trick by showing them similar works so that they can get an idea about the kind of vision you have for the project.
Additionally, you must also outline all the important central themes of the project as well as the kind of audience the project has to target.
Your job here is to note down all the important details and make sure you pass them on to the ghostwriter before you hire them.
Choose the Right Ghostwriter
The second thing you can do if you want to protect your vision of the project is to get the right person for the right kind of job.
This means that if you are planning on getting your autobiography written then you should not hire someone who is a technical ghostwriter specialising in writing product information.
You must only hire ghostwriters with specialisations and you must also ask them for project samples or even examples of past projects.
You should do the most detailed assessment of their work as possible and review everything they have done and understand their style and how versatile and adaptable they are.
This means that they might be an excellent writer but if they are not able to change their style for you then that does not make a good ghostwriter.
After you do that, you also need to look at their reputation and this can be done through the testimonials of all the past clients.
Then finally comes the initial detailed conversation in order to understand if the ghostwriter is actually understanding what you want from them. They might not and you should not be surprised if they do or don’t.
Establish Clear Communication
Now it is time for you to establish an even better communication and a much deeper relationship with the ghostwriter.
In order to do that you need to establish clear communication with them and this kind of communication is only done with regular contact.
The ideal scenario would be to meet with the ghostwriter in person regularly through scheduled meetings in order to talk about the project.
But we understand that this is not possible for at least 90% of all ghostwriting contracts that are done remotely in this day and age.
That is why we have emails and video calls as well as regular phone calls and regular texts for that. We prefer video calls as the best medium next to having meetings in person.
This will help you establish a sort of working relationship with the ghostwriter and you can understand their strengths and the areas that need to be worked more.
However, the most important thing that this kind of interaction will do for the ghostwriter is that it will help them get comfortable working for you. If they are able to see you regularly and talk to you about the project then it will be much less challenging for that professional to talk about how they are going through the project.
This kind of communication will also help them communicate if they are having any challenges regarding the project.
Create a Detailed Contract
Now it is time for you to create the most detailed contract you can because your primary goal is to protect your vision and in order to do that you need a detailed contract that specifies your vision.
This means that your detailed contract should define everything about the project from what you want to be delivered to you as well as the deadlines of the project and even the word count of the project.
Additionally, you must also mention ownership rights in the contract and also specify the number of revisions included in the agreement.
Apart from that you must always include a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and this is one of the very fundamental areas of any ghostwriting project.
Without an NDA, your ghostwriting project will not stay a ghostwriting project.
You can take the help of any law agency or lawyer in order to draw up this kind of contract so that your vision is protected as an objective in the contract and it is directly written down in the contract.
And of course, you should also mention all the payment terms and payment methods and every detail related to the payments in the contract.
Be Open to Collaboration
If you want to protect your vision of the project then it is not just enough to give them all the details and draw up a detailed contract.
You need to be actually present during the working process in order to make sure the project is going in the direction you want.
This might seem intrusive and it might be if you have not discussed it with the ghostwriter but it is not if you discuss it with them.
This means asking for updates to the project regularly. However, there is an even better way to make sure you are always updated about the project and that you get to see the working process.
We are talking about collaboration while the project is being done and this collaboration can be in the form of helping the ghostwriter with different aspects of the project or just being involved in any capacity with the project.
When you are just asking for updates, that can get you results but when you are directly involved in the project in the form of a collaborative role then you get to have much faster decision-making in case something about the project does not go according to your vision.
If you want to do that then you need to communicate that beforehand with the ghostwriter and it is even better if they ask you to collaborate with them during the project.
We must also understand that this kind of arrangement is not possible for every project in the world. However, with projects involving traditional ghostwriting such as memoirs, novels etc, this can be a possibility quite easily.
Provide Comprehensive Guidance
The ghostwriter will not be able to do that job if you do not help them with the job because you are the person with the vision and only you can understand your vision in the best way possible.
Ghostwriters are not mind readers and they simply cannot see your vision as you do simply because it is just something impossible to do.
The only solution to this is to provide as much guidance as possible to the ghostwriter and we are talking about providing guidance in any shape or form you can.
This guidance can be in the form of collecting as many different materials as possible and providing them with it.
It can also simply be just creating voice notes whenever you have some kind of idea regarding your vision and then sending out all those voice notes to your ghostwriter.
If you want to be as detailed as possible then you can even create files and presentations regarding your vision and sit down with the ghostwriter and explain each and every slide on how you want the project to look.
To break down your vision into understandable portions you can break it down into different themes and different moods as well as different settings if it is a project of fiction content.
However, this guidance must always be present. You can guide the ghostwriter any way you want and it does not really have to be that detailed.
You can even sit down and record interviews of yourself by turning on the front camera and it will be one of the most amazing ways to guide someone in this kind of project if you want to protect your vision.
Review the Work Regularly
If you are truly concerned about protecting your vision when hiring a ghostwriter then you should be ready to always keep on asking the ghostwriter for updates.
These updates can be in the form of simply asking them about the progress of the project and these updates can also be about looking at the work they have already done.
We would suggest you to always look at the work they have done when you are asking for updates.
This will give you an opportunity to check out a lot of things regarding the project such as the tone of the project as well as the overall vision and narration of the project and so much more.
Doing this can be tricky because if you keep on asking for updates then it might be somewhat distracting to the ghostwriter.
That is why a better way to do this is to create a schedule so that they can automatically send you updates or even give access to the writing software they use so that you can check the progress yourself.
This is the better way to do it but your ghostwriter might not be using a kind of software where adding other people is supported. If they can add you to the software so that you can view the progress then there is no need for manual updates.
We hope this blog will help you understand how you can protect your vision when hiring a ghostwriter to complete a ghostwriting project for you.
However, all the steps mentioned above might be a little too much to do and that is where you might need the absolute best professionals in the industry who themselves will take the initiative to maintain your vision.
If you are looking for such kind of professionals then we are here for you.
We are Ghostwriting India and we are among the fastest-growing and most popular ghostwriter-for-hire agencies in India where we do nearly every kind of ghostwriting professionally.
We do online web content writing as well as traditional ghostwriting and even script writing and much more and we welcome you to visit our website and check out everything we do.
