You’ve been giving
this book away for free. For years.
Keynotes. Podcasts. The same story told brilliantly at dinner, 40 times, to 8 people at a time.
I write it down properly. Your name goes on the cover. Mine goes nowhere. You bring the material. I bring the word magic.
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The straight answer
I'm Crystal Adair-Benning, 4x NYT bestselling ghostwriter & book coach. Ghostwriting with me is $75,000 USD for a manuscript of 50,000+ words, written in 90 days from recorded interviews. Your name goes on the cover. Mine goes nowhere, and 95% of my clients keep it under NDA. I take 2 ghostwriting clients a year, mostly memoir and business books, from anywhere in the world.
The document has been opened 11 times this year.
It’s called Book Notes or Book FINAL or, if things have gone really badly, Book FINAL v3 ACTUAL. You have a title you love and 3 chapters you don’t. Every January you tell someone this is the year.
Chapter 1 (attempt 3)
I’ve always known I had a book in me.
It all started on a Tuesday.
Okay. So basically
You write all day
Proposals, keynotes, the email that closed the deal. You’re a great writer. A book is a different sport, and being brilliant at one tells you nothing about the other.
Your calendar is a contact sport
You run a company, or a practice, or a calendar the size of a small country. A book takes about 450 focused hours. Be honest... where exactly were those coming from?
The material got better while you waited
The book you’d have written 10 years ago would be thinner than the one in your head now. That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s still in your head.
You’ve already read my books. You’ll never know which.
About 95% of my clients keep the work under NDA. That’s the deal, and it’s the right deal. 4 of those books went to the NYT list with somebody else’s name on the spine, which is exactly how it was supposed to go.
I’ve been doing this for 30 years.
Hover all you like. I’m not telling.
You talk. I write. That’s genuinely it.
90 days, give or take. 5 stages. You’re never handed a blank page and told to fill it, and you never wonder where the book is.
Validation
Before a word gets written, whether this book is the one that does the job, and who it’s actually for. The most expensive thing in publishing is a beautifully written book nobody needed.
The framework
The Quantum Copy Method™ applied to your material. Your through line stops being a vibe and becomes a structure. This is where you first see the shape of it.
We goldmine
I ask you the questions you’ve been avoiding. This is the part clients describe as therapy they didn’t sign up for, and it’s where the stories you forgot you had come out.
I write it
You go back to running your life. I send chapters. You read them and tell me where I got your voice wrong, and I fix it. Repeat until it sounds like you on your best day.
The reveal
What it takes to launch this thing and sell it. Publishing paths, positioning, the 90 days after launch week that decide whether anyone reads it. You leave with a finished manuscript and a plan, which is the part most ghostwriters skip because it isn’t their job. I disagree with them.
Books that got written, and the people who talk about them.
What’s a ghostwriter? The honest version, from me
Morgan Feather Lee, from book idea to published author
Peter Merrett, on Wonderlicious
$75,000 USD,and I only take 2 a year.
USD, from. Payment plans exist and I’m not precious about them. 2 clients a year is just maths.
The manuscript
50,000+ words, finished, in your voice, ready for a publisher or a printer. Nothing left for you to fix on a plane.
The interviews
Deep-dive sessions, recorded and transcribed, that do the actual work of getting years of it out of your head and onto a page.
The roadmap
Publishing path, positioning and a launch plan. You leave knowing exactly what happens next.
Not ready to apply? Book a free validation call first
Don’t hire me if any of this is true.
I would rather tell you now than 3 months in. If one of these is you, say so on the call and I’ll point you at the thing that actually fits.
You want your own fingerprints on it
Some people find ghostwriting genuinely uncomfortable, and I respect that. Co-writing is where you write and I shape, and it’s $35,000.
You want to learn to do this yourself
Then you want coaching. Cheaper, harder, and the skill is yours forever.
You need it out in 8 weeks
I can’t do that well and I won’t do it badly. A book that took 8 weeks reads like a book that took 8 weeks, and your name is the one on it.
The questions I get every single week.
How much does a ghostwriter cost?
$75,000 USD for a finished 50,000+ word manuscript, including your Createcation™, the interviews, revisions and a publishing roadmap. Payment plans available. Co-writing is $35,000 and coaching is $10,000.
Who owns the book?
You do. Completely. Copyright, royalties, film rights, all of it. I sign it over and I sign an NDA. I have no claim on your book and never will.
Whose name goes on the cover?
Yours, alone. That’s the entire point.
How long does a ghostwritten book take?
90 days from first conversation to finished manuscript. Faster is possible and usually a mistake.
Do I need to have written anything already?
No. Most of my clients arrive with nothing but voice memos, keynote decks and a head full of knowing things. That’s plenty. The material comes out in the interviews.
What if I hate what you write?
You tell me and I fix it. Chapters go to you as they’re written, not in one terrifying lump at the end, so you catch a wrong note in week 3 instead of week 12.
Will anyone be able to tell it was ghostwritten?
No. It’s your voice. My job is to sound like you on your best day. If a reader can hear me in it, I’ve done it badly. If what you’re really asking is whether it is ethical to use a ghostwriter, I wrote the long answer down.
Do you help me get it published?
Yes. Stage 5 covers traditional, hybrid or independent, what each costs and gets you, plus positioning and a launch plan.
What kinds of books do you ghostwrite?
Memoir and business books, mostly. Founders, executives, speakers, coaches and people with a life that genuinely warrants a book.
Do you work with clients outside Canada?
Yes. I’m on Vancouver Island and my clients are in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and across Europe. The work happens over video, which is how it has worked for years.
Your story deserves better than another year in drafts.
1 short application, and I read every one myself. You tell me about the book, I tell you honestly whether it’s a book, and which of the 3 ways in suits it. Messy answers welcome. I’ve seen worse (I’ve written worse).
Not ready to apply? Book a free validation call first