By now you would know that I am a ghostwriter and help other people become ghostwriters.
In 2019, I believed strongly that becoming a ghostwriter was the best decision I had ever made. Today, I am even more convinced of that than ever.
And, while biased, I believe ghostwriting could be the ticket to freedom for many struggling writers.
Why? Three reasons.
When you work a day job, you can make good money but that’s it. As a ghostwriter, not only do I make more money now then I did as a lawyer but I am also building assets.
In December 2019, I bought and renovated using ghostwriting profits from my ghostwriting business, Authority Ghostwriting.
Additionally, my ghostwriting business has a growing value. I still ghostwrite full-time but also have a team of ghostwriters. My business is worth something. I can sell it if and when I want to retire.
On March 13, coronavirus hadn’t yet spiked. In the U.S., we had a few hundred cases. Because my mother-in-law is immunocompromised, my family decided to drive to Florida and stay as long as we needed to. We’re still here. And I’m still working just fine.
I do miss my office (and home). But I’ve been just as productive in my mother-in-law’s den as I was in my office. I don’t have to go to court. I don’t have to meet clients anywhere but online. And I don’t have to write during specific times. I regularly write during the day and then do some more when the kids go to bed (I’m writing this at 10:30 p.m.).
When I had my day jobs, if one company (my employer) had a problem, I’d lose 100% of my income. Now, it would take a lot of companies struggling for me to worry.
In fact, my biggest client—by far—had to pause working with me due to coronavirus. It is a pretty big company and had me on retainer for a while. But they had to stop at the end of March. That sucked. I also had two clients who were struggling with cash flow, so we paused their payments in March. I’m still doing the work and they’ll get caught up when things work out.
That’s three clients—including my biggest—who had to stop paying me at the end of March. But, guess what? My April revenue was HIGHER than March when all three clients paid me.
How? Because my other clients were still going strong and I got new clients that made up for the loss, and then some. May looks to be even better than April. And June even better than May, with even more new projects kicking off.
If you love to write and the idea of building wealth, working from anywhere, and building more income security sounds attractive to you, ghostwriting might be a good fit.
Now, I don’t suggest anyone quit their day job to build a ghostwriting business. I didn’t. I built my ghostwriting business at night and on weekends until it was stable enough for me to retire from the practice of law.
In some ways, I wish I had done it sooner. But the right thing to do was not kill the golden goose until I knew I had something stable to support my family.