What to Do When your Ghostwriter Disappears

Here’s the scenario: You’ve made your foray into utilizing the services of a ghostwriter. Things seem to be going along smoothly, until you hit that proverbial “bump” in the road. The bump here is that your ghostwriter stops returning your emails and answering your posts. You’ve assigned them three projects and deadlines are pending. What do you do?

No, this is not a setup for one of those “Fear Factor” scenes. It is real life and your business. Despite your best efforts, people will prove to be unreliable at times, i.e. your ghostwriter.

In the business realm, you have probably experienced this once or twice. When I first began seeking publication for some of my fiction stories I got “had” at least once or twice. But, I digress, so back to the subject of the disappearing ghostwriter. The one thing that you don’t want to do is panic.

Damage Control

Hopefully, you didn’t wait too terribly long before you realized that your ghostwriter was in the wind. One of the best things to do is give your ghostwriter a shorter deadline than needed to give yourself a few days to mull over their work. When this deadline is missed, you still have a few days to come up with Plan B. Just like in the movies, there always needs to be a Plan B.

First, contact your client with an update. Simply tell them that you may need a couple of extra days and ask if that’s okay. When they have hard and fast deadlines, you may not be able to extend it out. But, it never hurts to ask.

If you are new to ghostwriting services, it is wise to have at least two of them even if you need only one. This gives you a chance to critique their work and see who’ll better suit your needs. Call on that other ghostwriter to handle the project that is most critical and then the others.

From This Point On…

You have just learned another valuable business lesson. Like the others, it was probably no fun. Now it’s time to prevent this trouble from happening again. I’m not talking about giving up ghostwriters, but changing your tack.

1. Hire a ghostwriting service-The advantage of a service is the stable of writers (sorry for the horse comparison). When one drops out, there are others to take up the slack so your work is still delivered on time. A good example is allcustomcontent.com.
2. Assign projects to two writers-This goes along with having a spare (tire analogy this time). That person is familiar with the project and can sweep in and finish the work remaining work.
3. Ask for project confirmation-I’ve mentioned this one before. If a writer doesn’t confirm within 24-48 hours that they received the project post or email, assign it to another ghostwriter.

Ideally, you want to build a solid relationship with your ghostwriter. Sometimes, things happen, but you can turn it around as a point in your favor.

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About the Author

Garnet Miller is a part time freelance writer with a focus on ghostwriting and project management. She has been published in three FaithWriters anthologies, Associated Content, a coffee table book entitled “Letters to My Mother” and a soon to be released anthology entitled, “Delivered” as well as a Christian newspaper. She is managing editor and writes two columns for Extreme Women magazine.