Executive ghostwriting

What executive ghostwriting is

Executive ghostwriting is writing articles, columns and posts that appear under a senior person's name, drawn from that person's own knowledge, in their voice, with their approval of every word before anything is published. The knowledge is theirs. The hours are mine. The byline is honest because the ideas, the examples and the final say are all the named author's.

It is not writing an opinion for someone who does not have one, and it is not the same as a single thought leadership article, though it often begins with one. Ghostwriting is a programme: a steady run of pieces, usually one or two a month, that builds a body of work under one name.

Who this is for

An owner, partner, managing director or senior specialist who is asked to write, or who knows they should, and never does. The knowledge is real. It comes out fluently on a call. It does not come out on a blank page at nine at night, and so the pieces never get written and a quieter competitor gets the column, the speaking slot and the inquiry.

It suits professional firms, consultancies, manufacturers with a technical founder, and any business whose buyers want to know who they are dealing with before they call. It also suits a person who writes well but writes slowly; forty minutes of talking is faster than four hours of drafting.

It is not for someone who wants pieces they have not read. Every article carries your name, and you are the one who will be asked about it at a conference. If you cannot give forty minutes a month, the programme does not work, and you should look at blog management under the company name instead. And if the goal is to learn to write the pieces yourself, that is executive writing coaching, which I also do.

What goes in it

A voice note. Before the first piece, a one-page description of how you sound: sentence length, the words you use and the words you never would, how direct you are, what you joke about and what you do not. Built from the first call and from anything you have already written or said on record. It keeps piece six sounding like piece one.

A theme list. Four to six subjects you can speak on with authority, agreed at the start, with the position you hold on each. Every piece comes from this list, so the body of work adds up to something rather than scattering.

The recorded call. Twenty to forty minutes per piece. I ask, you answer as you would for a client, and I push back where a reader would. Nothing is written that you did not say or agree to.

The draft, marked for checking. Every factual claim, figure and example is flagged for you to confirm before publication. Figures appear in CAD with the date they were true.

Your approval. In writing, per piece. No piece is published, submitted or posted without it.

What you get

Each month, one or two finished pieces of 800 to 1,500 words in a shared document you own, each with a headline, a title and meta description for the website version, and a short author line using only what is already published. Two rounds of revisions per piece are included. Each piece also comes with three social posts in your voice drawn from it, and a two-paragraph version for the newsletter.

You keep every recording, every draft and the voice note. If you stop, the material stays yours, and another writer could pick up the voice note and continue.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. The managing partner of a twelve-person accounting firm has been asked twice to write for the provincial association's magazine and has declined both times for lack of hours. The firm's buyers are owner-managers choosing between accountants who all list the same services.

The programme is one piece a month for six months. The theme list is five subjects: when a business should incorporate, what an owner should have ready before a sale, the mistakes seen in first-year bookkeeping, how to read a cash-flow forecast, and why the firm turns down some clients. Each month the partner spends thirty-five minutes on a recorded call, reads one draft, and approves it. Month one's piece goes on the firm's site. Month three's piece is offered to the association magazine and accepted. By month six, the firm has six articles under the partner's name, eighteen social posts, and a running newsletter, and the partner has spent about four hours in total.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What you know that your buyers do not, and how you sound when you explain it. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Pieces per month, length, revision rounds, and the minimum term, which is three months.
3. The voice note and theme list. Drafted in the first two weeks from the call and anything you have on record. You correct both.
4. The monthly call. Booked on a fixed day each month, twenty to forty minutes, recorded.
5. Draft and approval. Ten working days after the call, marked for checking. You revise or approve in writing.
6. Publication. Handed over ready to post, or published and submitted for you if that is agreed.

What it costs

Executive ghostwriting is quoted as a fixed monthly price after the half-hour call. The price depends on the number of pieces a month, their length, whether pieces are also being placed with outside publications, and whether more than one person is being written for. Everything is in CAD, agreed in writing before the first call is recorded, and stated per month with a three-month minimum. The pricing page explains how fixed pricing works here.

What happens next

After three or four pieces the pattern is usually clear, and one of three things happens. The best piece is placed with a trade publication through the bylined and trade articles service. The social posts prove to carry the argument on their own and become a run of LinkedIn posts. Or the firm's other partners want the same, and the programme becomes blog management with several bylines on one calendar.