Adding Book Doctoring and Ghostwriting to Your Services

If you’ve been a developmental editor for any length of time, you’ve likely encountered an author who just wants you to write the book for them. Or, you’ve encountered a manuscript that was in such disrepair it required a herculean effort to fix it.

And you’ve probably worked out ways to avoid these situations. You make it clear that once you deliver your edit, it’s up to the author to do the revision. You’ve learned to look at projects before you take them on. You’ve figured out how to set boundaries so that scope creep doesn’t wreck your business.

But another thing you can do is serve those clients—for a fatter paycheck. I’m talking about ghostwriting, coauthoring, and book doctoring.

A developmental edit is meant to help an author see big-picture problems in an already completed manuscript, a manuscript that, ideally, they have tried hard to make as perfect as they know how. A dev edit is not meant to address an incomplete draft, a set of notes, or an idea.

Coaching can help if the author is motivated to do the work and just needs some guidance.

But coaching doesn’t solve every situation, such as when a client doesn’t have time to do the work themselves or simply doesn’t have the skills and doesn’t intend to acquire them.

It’s tempting to boot clients like that to the curb (“Come back when you can invest five minutes in your own book!”) but, as you know, I hate to say goodbye to prospective clients if there is any possibility of money landing in my bank account, and so over the years, I’ve done a lot of book doctoring, ghostwriting, and coauthoring.

Book doctoring is the process of taking a messy draft and revising it into shape. In this case, you’re not making recommendations to the author (“I would reorganize chapters 3, 4, and 5”), you’re actually doing the work of revision and rewriting yourself.

Ghostwriting is writing a book, or helping to write a book (or other type of project), that is published under the client’s name. Coauthoring is the same except you get cover credit.

I strongly encourage you to think carefully about how to charge for this. Editing an 80,000 book might take a week or two (depending on what shape it’s in) but writing a book, or revising a poorly written/poorly planned one, takes a much longer time.

If you would charge $2500 for an edit that would take a week, then you would need to charge $10,000 for a book doctoring job that would take four weeks. This is just simple math but it trips up a lot of editors, who wind up vastly undercharging.

If you’re not sure how long it would take to revise/rewrite a poorly written ms, ask your writer friends or your editor colleagues, give it a try yourself (and time your efforts), or do some research (Google turns up some surprisingly accurate results).

Buy 2, Get 1 Free!

If you edit genre fiction, you’ll be interested in this special. You can get all three self-paced genre classes for the price of two:

• Editing the Romance

• Editing Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense

• Editing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Buying each separately would cost $270, but you can buy all three together for just $180. However, you have to use this link!

Spring Break Savings – Ends Monday!

We’ll be running two new classes this summer, Freelancing Through Tough Times and Summer Camp: Exploring and Editing the Odder Byways of the English Language.

Through the end of March, you can take 25% off each class by using the coupon code SPRINGBREAK

To find out more about Freelancing and to register, click here . To find out more about Summer Camp and to register, click here.

Do note that members can purchase Freelancing Through Tough Times for just $75, but you do need to use the other coupon code (the one you can find in the membership program classroom).

For Members

New discount for PerfectIt and Draftsmith software!

Save 30% off your purchase of PerfectIt and 20% off your purchase of Draftsmith. PerfectIt is a well-regarded program that many copy editors use to help ensure their edits are applied correctly across an entire manuscript. Use the coupon code you’ll find in the Membership Program classroom.

The new instructor-led class, Freelancing Through Tough Times, is available to members for just $75, but you have to use the coupon code that you’ll find on the membership program classroom page.

The next marketing challenge will be held April 7 – May 2, 2025.

And don’t forget the discount on the marketing webinar replays! You’ll find that in the membership program classroom.

Upcoming Classes

Instructor-led classes starting soon:

• Editing for World-Building and Setting, starts Apr 21, 2025

• Intermediate Copyediting for Fiction, starts Apr 28, 2025

• Editorial Toolkit: Creating Classes and Information Products, starts Apr 30, 2025

• Editing Sagging Middles, starts May 12, 2025 (two-week class)

• Intermediate Line Editing for Fiction, Jun 2, 2025

About Jennifer Lawler

I help editors figure out what the hell they’re doing.

If you’re an aspiring, new, or established book editor or story coach, I can probably help you learn how to do the work better and more profitably.

Through Club Ed, I offer developmental editing classes, a freelance editor membership program/support group, and a slightly bony shoulder to cry on.

I’ve worked as an editor for more than twenty years. I learned how to edit in the trenches of traditional publishing with its insane deadlines, pitiless competition, and crushing bureaucracy. To that I added a Ph.D in English literature with a specialization in medieval literature because of a long story.

Editorial clients have included Simon & Schuster, Girl Friday Productions, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, Barnes and Noble Custom Publishing, and others, along with many independent authors. 

For fiction self-paced classes, click here.

For fiction instructor-led classes, click here

For nonfiction self-paced classes, click here

For nonfiction instructor-led classes, click here

For on-demand instructor-led classes, fiction and nonfiction, click here