Four years ago, I sat in Marti Pieper’s ghostwriting class at the Florida Christian Writers Conference, soaking in everything I could. How fun to write books for other people…and get paid for it! The pump was primed. Last year, when my agent presented me with an opportunity to collaborate with a young woman with an incredible story to tell, I jumped at the chance. Yesterday, Lacey Buchanan and I celebrated the release of Through the Eyes of Hope: Love More, Worry Less, and See God in the Midst of Adversity (SO excited!). Since a lot of people ask questions about ghostwriting and collaborative writing, today seems like the perfect moment to jump in to that topic and share some of the lessons I’ve learned.

What’s the difference between ghostwriting and collaborative writing?

Collaborative writing has two definitions, as far I’m concerned. If you co-write a book with another author, you’re collaborating, but you’re both authors of the book. It’s both of your stories. In terms of ghostwriting, though, if you get cover credit (or perhaps any credit), you’re the collaborative writer. If you don’t get credit, you’re the ghostwriter. The work you do is the same.

What does the “with Bethany Jett” mean? Who is the author?

Anytime you see an author’s name, and then a “with so-and-so,” the So-and-So is the writer. There may be exceptions to this, as there seems to be exceptions to everything in this industry. In my case, Through the Eyes of Hope shows Lacey’s name as the author, and she has a bio in the back sleeve flap. It’s her story. My name is under hers as “with Bethany Jett,” indicating that I was the collaborative writer on the project. It’s an honor to be given cover credit.

In some situations, it may be pertinent to simply have the author’s name on the cover, and let the ghostwriter perhaps receive an acknowledgement (or perhaps no mention at all). These are details that are typically handled within the contract process.

How is the process of collaborative writing different than writing your own book?

As part of a writing class I taught this week to middle- and high-school students, I shared what the writing process looked like when I wrote The Cinderella Rule (my book), and Through the Eyes of Hope, which I usually call “The Lacey Book.”

When I was three days away from turning in The Cinderella Rule, I escaped to my parents’ house to finalize the draft I sent to the publisher. I took a large roll of white butcher paper and carefully outlined the main points, stories, and subheadings in each chapter. Then I commandeered my mom’s office and taped it across two walls.

I needed to see the whole book at once.

The result: I 86’ed an entire chapter, re-routing the stories and headings into other chapters and revised almost every single section. I don’t think I slept.

With Through the Eyes of Hope, the process was completely different. Lacey and I had several phone and video calls so she could tell me her story and I could piece the sections together. I created a couple spiral-bound notebooks that contained a drafted table of contents and copies of all the notes I took during our calls. Scrivener was totally my BFF.

With both books, I printed multiple drafts to read aloud and hand-mark. Reading a document on paper and on a computer screen are totally different monsters. Trust me, you need to do both.

How do you stay true to the author’s voice?

This was an interesting lesson and skill to learn. Lacey and I had the chapter breakdowns that were approved by the publisher when they bought the book. Those were extremely helpful for narrowing the focus of each chapter and for us as guidelines.

Lacey would share the stories and lessons for each chapter, and I was pretty much typing word-for-word. Some ghostwriters or collaborative writers probably think that was a waste of time, but I’m a fast typer and I wanted to be “in her voice” as much as possible.

After a few calls, I’d write the first draft. It was always rough, as first drafts are, and when I was creating the images for the story, I’d fill in the things I didn’t know and highlight them in bold, or with a comment box. Sometimes, my instincts for how the situation happened were right (like with the birthday scene in Chapter 15–except the version I sent her said chocolate cake!), sometimes they weren’t. Either way, when I sent that draft to Lacey, it was pretty much half-written in her voice, and half-written in mine.

Lacey would then go through the chapters, editing and correcting, leaving comments where we needed to more fully develop the thought or put it in her words if mine were “off.” When I got her edits back, it was my turn to “erase” myself completely. We had a few “passes” back-and-forth before the final book went to the publisher. After that, we had several more rounds of edits before the book was turned in for the final-final time.

How do I get started ghostwriting?

I don’t remember where I heard this, but someone suggested that preachers and pastors typically have a lot of information already written from their sermons, but either are too busy to write a book, or may feel that their skill-set is better suited for speaking than writing. Many pastors have material that would be excellent in book-form. If you’re getting started and you know a preacher who you think would be awesome to write for, you can always approach them and offer your services to help write a proposal and sample chapter if they think they have a big enough audience to draw interest from a traditional publisher. Another alternative would be to write a sample chapter for them and see if they’d be interested in hiring you to write a book that they could self-publish.

Getting your feet wet is always the hardest thing, I think, but once you have a book under your belt, you may see opportunities arise. Alternatively, you can offer your services as a ghostwriter or collaborative writer online.

[reminder]This was my first collaborative book, so I’d love to hear from others with more experience under their belts![/reminder]

Bethany Jett is an award-winning author of The Cinderella Rule, speaker, ghostwriter, and founder of JETTsetter Ink, a consulting and editing company. She has written for numerous publications, created the My Moments Planner, Serious Writer Companion, and is the founder of Serious Writer Academy and the Build Your Brand Program. Her newest work, Through the Eyes of Hope is now available online and in retailers nationwide.

Bethany is a military wife and all-boys-mama who is addicted to suspense novels and all things girly. She writes on living a brilliant life at BethanyJett.com. Connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest,  Instagram (new profile), LinkedIn, and Twitter.