How to Give Feedback to Your Ghostwriter

Putting yourself into the idea nets the best results

While the ghostwriter does the heavy lifting of bringing the author’s story to life, ghostwriting is inherently a collaborative effort from beginning to finish.

Get your voice on the page quickly by sharing all of your relevant book idea information upfront. As soon as you have a writer working for you, don't hesitate to share information from your emerging idea before your first intensive interview.

1. First the big picture, then the details

Before you tell your writer your entire idea, introduce it by giving an overview. Let your writer know what happens and why, framed within the scope of your story. Then share with them the notes you have for it, if any. Some authors don’t take notes on their idea and give everything to their writer in conversation. 

If the ghostwriter doesn’t ask any questions or give you homework, plan to unpack your idea thoroughly in great detail once the intensive interviews begin. These interviews often feature you, the writer, speaking at length, pausing only to ask timely questions the author has as you go through the glorious specifics of your book idea.

2. The Sources

An author should share all of their recorded materials with their ghostwriter. 

They can prize the backdrop of the information you tell them verbally. Much of what you don't say to them is told here and it may be crucial for your ghostwriter to review this material

Notes - written outlines, sketches, fragments, or extensive written material

Memory - recollections, stories, and ideas held principally in the author’s mind

Conversations - talking through an author’s ideas

Prose - pre-existing unpublished written samples from the author, peer-reviewed articles, think tank reports, published ephemera, correspondence, speeches, etc.

Research - Full-length books published or not, documents, interviews, records, or other source material

Experience - any way you’ve earned it, share it

2. The blueprint

Research starts when the author and ghostwriter begin conversations.

Twenty-five pages is a good marker for a ghostwriter to get the author’s voice on the page. In those 6,000 or so words, the writer has talked with their author a few times, simmered in their notes, and worked through the opening text. Anywhere they didn’t capture the author’s voice can be discussed in the next meeting, and those spots can generally be ironed out quickly; those 25 pages become a blueprint for how the rest of the book will be written.

The author-ghostwriter collaboration is a developing process that crystallizes into a fast-moving, tight-knit operation once the working structure has clicked into place.

I have found this to happen within the first twenty-five pages. By then, several interviews have taken place, the outlining is done, and I’ve heard the author speak about their idea down to its nuances and read their written communications or sample work.

That front work is where the exchange of the author’s ideas and decisions, guided by the ghostwriter, has muscled through the intellectual foreground to make the book possible.

3. Start with what’s working

Anchor your conversation in the positive. 

If you've outlined your idea the way you want to tell it, let the ghostwriter know. If a paragraph sounds like you, let the writer know they’re on the right track — then point out any words or phrasing, tone, or pacing they should tweak to make the line sound like you.

Positive feedback is useful information, and it’s most effectively given consistently in small doses.

Let your ghostwriter know, This sounds like me, when identifying sections of your chapter in progress that they’ve gotten right. Writing to which you can say, This sounds like me identifies your voice print. Now your ghostwriter has a working sample of your voice on the page.

Here, the author identifies the body of writing that should remain in the draft; it's not a compliment to the writer, but a way to show they've captured your voice.

4. Say what’s not working and why

Once you know your idea in its full detailed glory, the next important thing an author should do is to identify the specific problem in a block of text or word usage.

Is the language too formal or unlike the way you would express the idea? 

Is the sentence accurate but missing the emphasis you would naturally give it? 

Has the ghostwriter misexpressed why a conversation mattered?

Faithful expression of the author’s voice will sound different in text than in speech. A skillful sentence can be beautiful and true, yet wrong for the author. The question is whether the lines accurately express your voice, not whether the prose is good or weak.

5. Separate fact-verifying from voice corrections

There is a substantial difference between telling your ghostwriter, That isn’t what happened, and telling them, That isn’t how I would say it.

One corrects information; the other corrects expression. Keeping those distinctions separate makes revising your text smoother.

If a date is wrong, correct the date. If a sequence of events is wrong, explain the correct sequence. If an argument does not accurately represent your position, explain what you actually mean.

Then deal separately with how those facts, stories, and ideas should sound on the page.

Your ghostwriter needs to know whether they have misunderstood your information, intention, or voice. Sometimes all three need adjustment, but identifying them separately gives the ghostwriter a clear direction for each revision.

6. Give clarifying comments when rewriting a passage yourself

Feedback is spoken and written.

Overall, a draft can be strongly in an author’s voice, but for one reason or another, an author may want to comb through a chapter and make corrections. This may happen for any reason, such as when biographical information needs correction, or an author rethinks their ideas. In many cases, these line edits give the ghostwriter the information they need to clarify the draft and help move it forward.

It's here that authors have a good opportunity to critically think through a passage and express any nuances to the ghostwriter they haven't already shared. For instance, the time the character should linger in a scene may need to change, or the author may be grappling with a plot hole. Noting and discussing these points early will help ensure the story is told accurately.

However, if the change is about style, a margin note explaining why is helpful and doesn’t take much time. A marked-up sentence or section gives the ghostwriter an excellent example of the author’s natural expression.

Good feedback helps the ghostwriter write future pages with greater accuracy.

7. Look for patterns

One awkward sentence may simply need rewriting. Ten sentences of concern tell you something more important. The fix may be simple and, in most cases, will take practically no time to correct.

Perhaps the ghostwriter consistently makes you sound academic, and your sense of humor is struggling to find its way through the manuscript.

Patterns help you spot a change that could lead to a dozen revisions and shape the writer’s approach so future output stays true to your voice.

The earlier changes are identified, the easier it will be for the writer to deliver forthcoming pages in virtually perfect execution.

It is much better for an author to say that their voice needs adjustment after twenty pages than after two hundred.

8. Communication keeps the flow of production swift

Every revision teaches the ghostwriter something about the author. Just as importantly, every revision teaches the author how to communicate what they want from the writing.

At the beginning of the project, feedback may be extensive. You may discuss individual words, the way stories are organized, how much humor belongs on the page, where greater explanation is necessary, or why a particular passage simply does not sound right.

As the collaboration develops, those conversations should become easier.

The ghostwriter begins anticipating the author’s preferences before the author states them. The author becomes better at identifying what needs to change and why. The amount of correction necessary to capture the author’s voice will gradually diminish.

Eventually, the author reads a section and says, “That’s it! You got it!”

Eureka moments mean the author and ghostwriter have developed a shared understanding of how the book should read. From that point forward, the drafting is about finishing the manuscript rather than discovering the author’s voice.

This usually happens within the first two submissions. It is also common for the author to enthusiastically embrace an early submission, only to discover a hiccup midway through construction.

A great ghostwriter is thinking ahead. Ask your writer if they have an alternate idea for that passage. If you’ve hired well, they'll show it to you.