How to get a ghostwriter for my book in Malaysia

I looked at the CEO, wondering what I had gotten myself into.

He was close to tears, after sharing something that touched the core of his being during the interview I had with him.

But I was closer to giving up on writing his book.

6 months before, he had booked me to write his memoir.

But now, after interviewing 11 of his key stakeholders, partners, and colleagues, I felt way out-of-my-depth.

I didn’t know what I was doing, and I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing. I knew I needed help.

I reached out to an editor I knew, asking her to help. She was reluctant after seeing the script.

This is a right mess. You should have come to me at the start.

We worked on developmental editing for a month, refining the story and its heart, before finally feeling that we had an outline we could further write on.

That was my first experience ghostwriting.

I wrote this because I want you to know that for the majority of ghostwriters you may find, they are not going to have the expertise you’re looking for.

But first you do need to ask yourself,

Do I really need a ghostwriter?

Often when we speak to clients who want ghostwriters, the most common reason is because they want to put something out, but lack the time to do it. They are subject content experts, but they just don’t have the time to do it.

Take for example the CEO of a listed healthcare company, who recently asked us to write a book for him. In addition to being a medical doctor, he had to see patients, make the company look good in front of investors, and continue to position himself as the reputable expert in his field.

When we sent proposals, he rarely had time to look through them.

But he wanted to demystify the common misconceptions towards his industry, and position himself as the authority.

This is the perfect scenario when you need a ghostwriter. You have a particular piece you want to put out, but you just don’t have time.

That said, can the ghostwriter you’re looking for actually deliver the goods?

The type of ghostwriter you’re looking for

Ghostwriting is a craft, that needs constant honing. Anyone who tells you they can do it, needs credibility.

There is no right option for you, but I would always suggest that you try a professional ghostwriter first. This is because they are able to work behind the scenes to get to the heart of the story.

Here’s where to find someone.

But the deeper question to ask is,

Do you need a book?

Many authors have come to us asking for books, but as time has gone by, we’ve come to see that the deeper question is,

Why do you need a book?

Because you might not necessarily need to publish a book.

You might expect that the book will make you famous, and grow your credibility in the field.

Yes, but you can only really do that if you have something special that works. You have a process that works. You have a framework that transforms people’s lives.

If you don’t, paying a ghostwriter money to write a published book is not going to accelerate your personal brand to further heights.

But you still want to write a book.

Here’s how.

Where to find

If you look at the above list, you will quickly notice that the bulk of marketplaces where you’re going to find ghostwriters are based in the US or the U.K. Scribe Media and Reedsy, are US-based.

When I did a quick search for a ghostwriter on Reedsy, I quickly found all the authors being based in the West.

Nothing wrong with the West, eh?

But you might argue, what’s wrong with having a Western author ghostwrite my book for an Asian audience?

Beyond the fact that there’s the cultural difference, there is also the more logistical concern of getting to meet with your ghostwriter. Sure, you might argue that with the advent of technology, you can easily have plenty of Zoom interviews with your ghostwriter.

But there’s something magical about meeting regularly with your ghost, that will deepen your bond and truly help both of you to write an emotionally resonant book.

In our book with the CEO, we even had the privilege of going to his annual conference in Bangkok. There, we finally saw what he was famed for.

And no, it wasn’t just for his leadership.

It was for his singing.

Hearing him belt out singles in English, and Thai, we finally got to the heart of the man. He wasn’t just a CEO. He was a people’s man.

We see many examples of institutions, like sovereign wealth fund Temasek, that engaged Singaporean journalist Ong Soh Chin to write their book.

She was able to articulate, and have more than 90 interviews with key stakeholders.

Why wouldn’t you want that for your own book?

The next option is to Google “ghostwriter + Malaysia”

Here, what you need to be careful of is whether the ghostwriter you choose has the requisite experience to deliver on what you need.

How to know if they have the credibility

For example, you would quickly see below that we openly write about the books that we have written about in the past.

We do this to show authors that want to work with us that we have experiences bringing books into the market, and that we are not just people who talk, and can’t deliver.

But what’s also more important is to look at their process.

For us, the key process is in the initial phase of data collection, where we shadow the client, sitting in on their meetings, interviewing key stakeholders, and making sure that we have as many stories as possible for the book.

Please, don’t price shop

Having worked with a number of clients, we have come to see two important points.

1. The variance between a good book, and a bad book, is huge.
2. Price shopping between the $4000 to $14000 range is going to get you a bad book.
3. Writing a bad book, is worse than not writing at all.

Those may seem pretty harsh.

But you’ve probably read a bad book before. You’ve not gotten through another page, before thinking,

gosh, I’m not going to continue reading this anymore.

And we know that feeling. That’s why we are telling you that rather than wasting your time with an author that can’t understand your work, it’s better that you work with an author that can understand you, your work, and write a good book.

You’re going to be spending at least 30 hours with your author, spread across 3 months, 2 times a week, being interviewed.

If you’re going to spend this amount of time, why not do something that works well for you?

Of course, you can get us

Well, at Gutenhag, we’ve been doing ghostwriting for the past 2 years. Whilst we don’t have many clients, we’ve seriously thought into the state of the industry and started to slowly see how things stand.

We see the problems with the industry, and how someone needs to fork out $15,000 to write a good book.

We see how many ghostwriters are barely credible, with the first-ranked ones being those from Fiverr or Freelancer.com.

Those aren’t the ones you might want to trust.

Why not give us a try?

We are in your backyard, and we would love to help.