Like most developments in this black-swan marketplace, the shift in ghostwriting demand happened quickly.
One day I'm providing complimentary consultations to American professional-services chief executive officers considering publishing a print book for marketing purposes. The next day I'm talking to God's Plenty around the world about planning the strategy for and ghostwriting their digital communications. Those range from re-doing a website that isn't pulling in traffic or converting clicks to sales to e-books to private-label media [that is their company, such as Lego did, becomes its own media]. The questions are coming from Canada, the Middle East, and the UK.
Could it be that executives and other influentials outside the U.S. have less invested in old-media approaches, therefore are migrating away in greater numbers, faster? In addition, they usually do not have the capital resources of U.S. enterprises. So, they get it that digital is low-cost, high-reach, and self-replicating. They have a lot less to lose than their American counterparts who have been hanging on to print.
In order to pitch effectively to these emerging market segments, I find that I have to be more formal in my selling. The new clientele tends to be quite conservative. I anticipated that and it hasn't been a problem. The tone and language I use tend to be corporate.
The next must-do and one I didn't expect is that I have to recommend digital options in small bites, at least for most prospects. I have learned to break down digital promotional options into a fundamental such as improving a website. From there we can then move on to embedding a blog. Then doing podcasts. And so on. In addition, I slow down and do an unusual degree of listening.
The third must-do has been to embrace that digital frequently will not compensate me with the large chunks of money that print assignments did. A print ghostwriting job for a full-length book can range from $10,000 to $100,000. I haven't run across that kind of "funny money" in digital. At least not yet.
How to make yourselves known to international prospects? O'DWYER'S DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRMS lists agencies which handle global accounts [www.odwyerpr.com, 212-679-2471]. You can tell those middlemen about your services. Craigslist has worldwide listings for writers. A growing number of corporate websites provide contact information for their international function heads. And there are blogs, podcasts, tweets, YouTubes, and joining groups on LinkedIn.
As for traditional-book ghostwriting, my hunch is that sooner than later we will be contracting assignments with Amazon.com rather than literary agents, publishers and the clients themselves. In the July edition of FAST COMPANY, Adam Penenberg argues that Amazon.com, particularly its Kindle niche, will transform book publishing the way Apple did music. Amazon.com can totally eliminate the middleman and handle everything from scouting talent to making content digitally available to promoting books.
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