The easy way to decide whether you need a ghostwriter or a coach for your business book

As a business book ghostwriter and book coach, I love having conversations with prospective authors. It’s always a pleasure to learn about their ideas and dreams for what a book will give them.

But sometimes there’s something that’s stops them from moving forward with their plans. It’s when they ask themselves:

‘Should I write the book myself, with the help of a coach, or should I hire a ghostwriter to do the writing for me?’

Both have advantages. A coach stands alongside you as you write your book, giving you professional advice and – crucially – motivation. Whereas a ghostwriter does the work for you so that you have time for other things. In both cases, you end up with a better book than if you’d you written it on your own.

In my experience, it’s often the people who can’t decide which route to go down who find it hardest to get going with their books. It’s as if they have a foot in each camp, which grows ever wider until . . . well, what always happens when someone’s legs are stretched too far apart.

They fall flat on the floor, and it’s hard to get up again.

If you’re in this kind of quandary I’d hate for that to happen to you, so this post is designed to help you make up your mind.

How do you feel about writing?

To feel comfortable with the idea of putting 50,000 words on the page, you have to enjoy the act of writing – at least to a certain extent.

Is that the case for you? Do you gravitate towards writing things in your business, such as maintaining a blog or creating other long-form content?

If it’s something you’ve always avoided, it might be a sign that you don’t enjoy it and would be better off working with a ghostwriter to complete your book.

On the other hand, it might be because you lack confidence in your writing abilities and aren’t sure if what you’re turning out passes muster.

How do you find out? Ask a ghostwriter or coach to give you some top-line feedback. You could show them something you’ve written, explain what you were trying to achieve with it, and they can give you a feel for whether it’s a sound basis for a book-level project. If they’re a professional, they’ll be constructive and kind.

How much time do you have?

The big one! Writing a book takes a LOT of time, so you need to be able to commit to several hours a week if your book isn’t to take years to complete.

That might be okay for you. You could be one of those people who’s happy to get up an hour earlier, or work evenings and weekends, to get it finished. Or you might be one of those super-productive types who always manages to squeeze a little extra out of their day.

And of course, a coach will help you to structure your book-writing time so that you make productive use of it. It’s a lot easier than going it alone.

But if you find yourself with a tight feeling in your stomach as you contemplate the work ahead, a ghostwriter might be the best option for you. I estimated that I save my ghostwriting clients around 140 hours over the course of a book – in fact, that’s one of the main reasons they hire me.

How much money do you have?

It goes without saying that hiring a book coach requires a much lower level of investment than hiring a ghostwriter. That’s because the coach won’t be spending the hours writing that a ghostwriter will.

So your finances are a relevant factor, for sure. But bear in mind that a ghostwriter can actually save you money. How so?

If you factor in the months of planning, drafting and editing that a book entails, what else could you be doing with that time and – just as importantly – mental energy? Helping more people, speaking at more events, coaching more clients, developing your online training programme (the one that your book will help you to sell, if only you had the time to create it)?

In other words, activities that earn you an income, and which your business book, once it’s out there, will boost to a new level.

Of course, you might prefer to spend your hard-earned business cash on something else, and that’s fine. I’m just helping you to see the cost of ghostwriting from a different perspective.

As you’re probably beginning to realise now, though, your writing skills, time, and money are not the crucial deciding factors when it comes to coaching versus ghostwriting. The big one is this . . .

Which do you really want to do?

Sometimes we forget that we already know what we want. That’s because we cloud our instinct with logical reasoning, and go around in mental circles, until one day we’re out walking the dog and the answer just comes to us.

To save you buying a dog and taking it for a walk, here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself.

1. Is it important for me to write this book myself?
2. Am I okay with the idea of someone else writing my content in my voice?

If you answered ‘yes’ to the first question and ‘no’ to the second, it’s a coach you need. And if it’s the reverse, it’s a ghostwriter.

Really, it’s as simple as that. Yes, there are skills, time, and money considerations to factor in, but you’ll find a way of dealing with them if you know in your heart what you really want to do.

So, which is it for you? Ghostwriter or book coach? Only you can decide.