When I ask people why they haven’t written a book, their main excuse is usually, “Because I don’t have the time to write a book.”
Actually, this isn’t even an excuse. It’s reality. Writing a book does take time… usually much longer than you think it will.
That’s why I’ve developed a streamlined 9-month (39-week) process for ghostwriting memoirs. Some ghostwriters claim they can deliver your completed manuscript in only 6 months, but this seems overly ambitious to me. I prefer to take a few extra months to make your manuscript just right.
After all, it’s your story, and you’re paying a healthy amount of money for me to write it, so it deserves to be just right.
My 39-week writing process breaks down like this:
Week 1—Face to Face Meeting
In many ways, this is the most important week of all. This is where I travel out to conduct 3 or 4 exhausting but amazing days of face-to-face interviews with you. I will record all of these interviews so I don’t miss a word. All told, we’ll talk for 15 – 20 hours. This will result in over 100,000 words—which is quite a bit considering the final manuscript will be edited down to 60,000 words.
At the end of the week I’ll pay to have your interviews professionally transcribed. By the beginning of Week 2, I will have over 200 single-spaced pages that make up your complete interview.
Note: Some people are unable to take this much time at once; for some clients I have modified this step and spread the interviews out over a few months, which is easy to do via Skype/Zoom.
Weeks 2 – 4—Very Rough Outline
In these frantic 3 weeks, I’ll read over your interview several times, with several highlighters in my hand. During these read-throughs, I will begin to form what I think is the theme of your story—which, oddly enough, might be completely different than what you thought it would be at the beginning. I will color-code the interview so that by the end of Week 4, I’ll have a loose idea of what the story’s structure will be.
During these 3 weeks I will send you several emails, asking for clarification about certain points, timelines, specific details, etc. You can either send this information to me via email, or we can set up a time to have a follow-up mini interview on the phone. If we use the phone, I’ll pay to have this interview transcribed, and add it to my pile.
Weeks 5 – 8—Preliminary Rough Draft
During these 4 weeks, I will take the rough outline above and flesh it out into a 60,000-word rough draft. While this will not resemble the final manuscript much at all, it’s a necessary starting point.
Within this rough draft, I will leave several blank spaces where I’ll write the word “Placeholder” in big letters. By the end of Week 8, I will have identified several of these “Placeholders,” which are essentially missing pieces of information we’ll need to fill in.
Weeks 9 – 12—Rough Draft #1
Armed with my new “Placeholder” material, I will write a complete rough draft—one that will determine the final structure of the book. This draft will be written primarily for story—I won’t worry about grammar, punctuation, and all that. By the end of Week 12, I will have constructed the complete skeleton of your book.
Weeks 13 – 16—Rough Draft #2
For this second rough draft, I will actually re-type your entire manuscript. This is not something most writers do, but it helps me pinpoint areas that need to be either fleshed out or toned down. During this time, I’ll probably contact you a few times to fill in any “light” areas.
Weeks 17 + 18—Manuscript Review
At the beginning of Week 17, I will send you the rough manuscript. You will have 2 weeks to read it over and make comments, suggestions, additions, deletions, etc. Your comments will largely guide what I do during the editing process.
While you’re reading the manuscript, I’ll begin thinking about cover design and that sort of thing. Trust me, I won’t be sitting around doing nothing.
Weeks 19 + 20—Rough Edit
This will be a rough edit, in which I a) make changes based on your comments and b) identify any structural changes that need to be made. By the end of Week 20, the basic structure of your manuscript will be nearly complete.
Weeks 21 – 23—Full Edit #1
Some ghostwriters submit their manuscripts chapter by chapter. I don’t do this, however, because in my experience, too often something I edit in chapter 6 (for example) will affect what happens in chapter 11. I edit books as a whole, not chapter by chapter.
Therefore, this will be a slow, deliberate edit of the entire manuscript. By the time I finish, your manuscript will be about 80 percent complete.
Weeks 24 – 26—Full Edit #2
This edit will focus on the actual writing—making sure it reads correctly. This is the edit in which I identify all the “English teacher”-type corrections that need to be made.
Weeks 27 – 29—Full Edit #3
When people ask about my editing style, I give them the example of eating a piece of bread at the table. If I wipe the crumbs onto the floor with my hand, there are still going to be some left on the table. When I wipe these crumbs off, there will still be some left. I’ll keep wiping until there are no more crumbs on the table.
These 3 weeks are the editing equivalent of my second or third wipe of the crumbs. Because I’m a perfectionist, I actually do change quite a bit of material during this edit.
Weeks 30 – 34—Final Edit
This is the home stretch, where I go through your manuscript one final time, sentence by sentence. Once a sentence is perfect, I’ll go on to the next one… and so on until I get to the very end.
At the same time, I will also pay to have your manuscript professionally proofread—which is basically a safeguard to make sure I’ve spelled and punctuated everything correctly.
By the end of Week 34, I’m usually ready to collapse.
Weeks 35 – 39—All the Other Stuff
The last 5 weeks are where we wrap everything up. Specifically, in these last weeks I will:
- Have your cover finalized (by a professional cover designer; I am not a graphics guy).
- Set up your book to sell through Amazon (if that’s where you’d like to publish)—both print and Kindle editions.
- Have your manuscript printed.
- Write a query letter and book proposal you can send to literary agents or publishers.
So there you have it—way more than you ever wanted to know about the perfectionist process of a ghostwriter.
If you have any additional questions, please shoot me an email—I’ll try and answer them the best I can. Usually within 24 hours.
If having your book ghostwritten sounds intriguing, please get in touch with me today—as I’ve mentioned, I put all my energy into each project, so I’m only able to work with one or two authors at a time.
Here’s hoping you’ll be one of them.
Jim Gratiot
916-805-4875
jimgratiotghostwriting@yahoo.com
Jim Gratiot Ghostwriting 