No first draft of a book is ever perfect. It doesn’t matter if you write it yourself or if a professional ghostwriter writes it with you. It’s just too much material to get perfect on the first go of it. And I’m not talking about that there might just be some grammar oversights. There will definitely be those.
But there should also be more. Content may need to move around. Some may need to be trimmed back. Some may need to be added in. The picture changes a lot when the whole thing comes together. A rough draft becomes less rough through the process of reviewing and refining it.
When you work with a ghostwriter, you get the benefit of a couple of different layers of review. As a ghostwriter, I’m the first layer of review. I will never write something and just hand it off to you without doing a review of it myself to make it as refined as I can for where we’re at in the process.
Once I finish the first draft of the book, the author gets time to review it. This is their time to provide input on everything from the nature of the content down to grammar and word choices. After they review, I work to develop a second draft based on their feedback before the manuscript is officially handed off to them to take to editors, proofreaders, publishers, etc.
Here’s what you can expect as an author working with a ghostwriter.
Time to Review
Once the author receives the first draft, the author and the ghostwriter will agree on a reasonable time frame for the author to review that version of the manuscript. A good starting point is generally to allow a month for the author to review. It’s important to choose a timeframe that serves as a happy medium for a couple of reasons.
The first is that we don’t want the author to feel rushed through the review process. In my process, the first draft is the time that the author should be providing any and all feedback to me. Once I hand back the second draft, it’s theirs to do with what they want. In theory, if there are any changes needed after the second draft, they are minor in nature. While this may seem abrupt, the process is this way so that we don’t get stuck in an infinite edit loop. There will always seem like there are ways to change the book, but at a certain point, there’ll likely not making a major improvement.
While we want to allow the author sufficient time, we also want to keep the process moving. A stalled ghostwriting process can be detrimental for several reasons. When the process is consistently moving along, the interviews, feedback, and discussions are all top of mind for both the author and the ghostwriter. This avoids unnecessary churn. Furthermore, life happens. Life can get busy for both parties in between, which can hinder momentum. Finally, a book is a big deal. There’s a lot of time to question yourself in the interim. We want to avoid that because the world needs to hear your message. There’s always time for more books later.
Collaborative Process
The review process is collaborative in nature to ensure that the true intent and meaning of the feedback is incorporated into the second draft. The author will be able to leave detailed comments and suggestions directly within the manuscript. I do this in Google Docs so we can all work off of the same version, see the changes being made, and ask questions or add clarifications via the comments.
This helps the process to be super collaborative without creating confusing versioning issues. It also allows for the ability to act in somewhat real-time. The author is able to ask questions in the comments as well, which the ghostwriter can see and respond to as needed as the author reviews.
This system of collaborating in the same document is also a great way to organize feedback. All comments, questions, feedback, and suggestions are in one place. It’s easy to see the history and reasoning behind a change or the decision not to make a change. I value this feedback repository so much that I actually won’t accept changes or resolve comments until I copy the document for a new working version. That way, I can always go back and easily reference the holistic feedback but keep the new draft clean.
Filling in the Gaps
After the author provides their feedback, the ghostwriter and the author will discuss the feedback. As part of my process, I’ll set up another series of meetings to chip away at the feedback. I’ll then leverage those conversations to create a second draft that is further aligned with the author’s vision.
Some of the feedback I’ll be able to go back and incorporate on my own. Things like wording changes, moving things around, cutting certain parts out, and similar comments and suggestions, I can do in the background.
Some of the feedback will need to be addressed in the meeting series. The type of commentary that will require these conversations are when we need to fill in additional content. To be able to add this content, we’ll need to approach it similarly to the interviews we performed earlier in the process.
It’s important that the book feels aligned with the author’s expectations. This ensures that the author loves the final product and that the readers feel like they’re truly interacting with the author. The key to achieving this is a sound and organized review process.
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Disclaimer: This blog should not be construed as providing, or intending to provide professional financial, legal, psychological, or other professional advice. It is simply meant to share my experiences with those who may find them relatable and helpful