Ghostwriting
Professional Ghostwriting & Book Collaboration
What is Ghostwriting?
Ghostwriting is the ultimate collaboration, in which your ideas, expertise, and personal narrative are translated into a professional, cohesive, and compelling book by an experienced writer.
You provide the vision, the stories, and the knowledge; I provide the structure, the voice, and the literary polish. The final manuscript is published under your name, giving you full credit and ownership.
What I Do: Crafting High-Impact Books
I specialize in transforming complex personal histories, specialized knowledge, and deep historical research into engaging non-fiction, such as memoirs and biographies.
My primary focus areas are:
Memoirs: Capturing your unique life story and voice in a deeply resonant, first-person narrative.
Biographies: Producing meticulously researched and authoritative accounts of an individual’s life, leveraging primary and secondary sources.
Historical Non-Fiction: Creating detailed, immersive books that bring history to life with verifiable accuracy and compelling storytelling.
Why I Am Your Unique Fit: Bestselling Author and Historian
You don’t need a ghostwriter. AI can do that. What you need is an expert who can understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, enhance, and create with your subject matter.
As a bestselling and award-winning author, I understand the market, what publishers look for, and how to craft a narrative that resonates with a broad audience. This experience is directly applied to making your book successful.
And, unlike most ghostwriters, I approach every project with the rigor of a trained historian. My background in historical synthesis ensures that every detail, timeline, and piece of evidence is carefully studied, validated, and woven into an authoritative narrative.
My Ghostwriting Background
I have successfully brought several complex narratives to market (where I’m not under an NDA), including:
Patta’s Empire | Call of the Open Sea
My Unique Approach: Studying Your Story Like Evidence and Narrative
My process is built on research and immersion, combining the rigor of a historian with the insight of a master storyteller.
The Historian’s Method
For every project, I conduct detailed interviews and research sessions, treating your memories, documents, and existing materials as primary source evidence. I use my historian’s training to establish an authoritative structure, ensuring the narrative flow is both accurate and logically sound. If you opt for a memoir (first-person), I meticulously study your conversational style, vocabulary, and rhythm to adopt a voice that is undeniably yours. If you opt for a biography (third-person), I leverage research to deliver a neutral, commanding narrative that readers will trust as the definitive account.
The Storyteller’s Focus
A great book is built on conflict and motivation. I dig deep into your motivations, isolating the External Desire (what you sought to achieve in the world) and the Internal Need (the hidden truth or lack that ran contrary to that desire). This tension creates an internal conflict that engages readers in your journey.
I utilize compelling, enduring structural frameworks, often drawing on Jungian archetypal story types, to shape your life events into the most universal and persuasive narrative possible. This ensures your unique story resonates with readers on a primal, unforgettable level.
Client Reflection: “I didn’t know I’d learn so much about myself through this process. You didn’t just write my story; you helped me better understand it.” - Patta L.
The Gold Standard: Professional Polish and Editing
Completing the writing is but the first step. All manuscripts I deliver are sent directly to my editing partner, a highly experienced editor with a background in traditional publishing. This partnership ensures that your final work is professionally polished, structurally sound, and editorially ready for publication. When you receive the final manuscript, it meets the highest professional standards.
What I Do Not Offer
To maintain clarity and focus on what I do best, please note these professional boundaries:
Fee Structure Only: My service is strictly fee-for-service. I do not work on a revenue-share model based on future book sales, as this is speculative and prevents me from offering my best work at a guaranteed rate.
Exception: If a traditional publishing house has already paid you a substantial advance, we can discuss structuring my fee around a share of that advance.
Not a Publisher: I am not a publishing house, nor do I provide self-publishing services. I deliver a final, edited manuscript file to you, the author.
Not an Agent: I do not function as a literary agent and will not pitch, represent, or query your book to publishers on your behalf.
No “In” with Publishers: My role as a ghostwriter does not guarantee access or special consideration from publishing houses. Success depends entirely on the quality of the final manuscript and your subsequent efforts to secure representation or a publishing deal.
Investment & Fee Structure: Understanding Ghostwriting Costs
The cost of hiring a professional ghostwriter is highly variable, depending on their experience, publishing track record, and the complexity of your project. To understand where I fit, it is helpful to look at the general industry fee spectrum:
$1,000,000 and Up: This tier represents the most elite professionals, typically bestselling authors who are highly sought after by top-tier celebrities and global influencers.
$250,000 – $500,000: These ghostwriters are near the very top of the game, usually having multiple traditionally published books and significant name recognition within the publishing world.
$100,000 – $250,000: This range applies to experienced ghostwriters with several published books, a professional, responsive service, and strong craft.
$50,000 – $100,000: This fee is typically paid to a ghostwriter who has completed two or more books, refined their processes, and demonstrated solid communication skills.
$25,000 – $50,000: This is what you would expect to pay an inexperienced or newer ghostwriter to take on a full-length project.
$0 – $25,000: This category generally covers student-level or content writers, short projects, or AI-generated content under 1,000 words.
Where I Fit in the Spectrum
My fees reflect my unique combination of skills: proven bestseller and award-winning status, published historian, and deep expertise in narrative structure (internal conflict/archetypes). My fee range for a full-length book collaboration is $100,000–$250,000.
A Note on Technology and AI Use
In today’s writing landscape, technology plays a role, and I believe in transparency regarding its use. I utilize advanced AI tools in certain circumstances to enhance efficiency, such as summarizing large volumes of complex research material, organizing data, or generating initial topic outlines. This helps accelerate the preliminary stages of research.
However, the Narrative Voice remains human. When it comes to crafting your unique narrative voice, exploring character motivation, developing the internal conflict, and designing the final, compelling story structure, AI is fundamentally useless. It takes decades of experience, a deep understanding of historical perspectives and biases, and the ability to weave subtle emotional tension to do what I do. AI doesn’t have it. This is a skillset I developed over decades of experience. Your final manuscript is the product of my seasoned, all-by-hand writing expertise.
Ready to Discuss Your Project? Here is the First Step.
As a bestselling and award-winning author, historian, and teacher, my time is a severely constrained resource, allowing me to fully dedicate my focus to only one high-value project at a time. This necessary exclusivity means I must be highly selective; therefore, I am only interested in serious inquiries that fall within my minimum professional fee range. If your vision aligns with these essential criteria and you recognize the value of securing unparalleled, undivided expertise for your project, then selecting me to bring it to life is an investment you will not regret.
Submitting Your Letter of Interest
To initiate a discussion regarding your project, please prepare a formal Letter of Interest mirroring a traditional publisher’s query. Please send your submission to my dedicated email address: author@cjadrien.com.
For consideration, your letter must comprehensively address the following points:
A concise professional introduction outlining who you are.
A detailed summary of your project, including its current stage and scope.
An explanation of how you found my work and why my specific expertise is attractive to you.
Crucially, the budget allocated to this collaboration that confirms it aligns with the minimum fee structure outlined above.
Thank you for reading this far!