What’s the most interesting thing that’s ever happened to you? Or the funniest, or the strangest, or the scariest? What’s the biggest or hardest lesson you’ve ever learned?

What if you had the opportunity to get that story published?

Is There a Market for My Story?

If you were to publish your story, you’d be joining the ranks of some of the most popular non-fiction writers on Amazon. According to wordsrated.com, the memoir/biography category is the #1 best-selling non-fiction category on the site.

Memoirs perform better than religion and spirituality, politics and social science—better even than self-help or health, fitness or dieting!

The genre has proved popular with young adults: Sales for YA memoirs grew 26% between 2016 and 2021.

Interestingly, memoirs also present a unique opportunity for female writers. Although male authors outperform female authors in all non-fiction categories, that gap is the smallest in the memoir genre.

What Is Behind the Memoir Boom?

Memoir is a unique genre—one that—according to Thomas Larson in his book The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading & Writing and Personal Narrative, “burst forth sui generis from the castle of autobiography and the wilds of personal essay.”

The castle of autobiography and the wilds of personal essay…I just love that, don’t you?

From McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes in 1999 to Pelzer’s A Child Called It in 1995 to the rise of personal bloggers in the aughts, memoirs have enjoyed a boom for more than two decades.

Maybe simple demographics are a bigger driving force for this trend than we realize. Shirley Hershey Showalter, author of the award-winning memoir Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets A Glittering World, points out here that there are more than 78 million people over 50 years old in the United States.

That means there are tens of millions of people who have reached a point in their lives where they have learned some lessons, gained some wisdom, and are in position to see the next generation coming up behind them.

Barbara Adams, a Texas-based writer with experience in journalism, B2B content, corporate memoirs, and business histories, has seen this firsthand. Many of her clients have been “mid- or late-career, so they’ve established a body of work and seen patterns developing and repeating and want to share their experiences and accumulated wisdom. At the same time, because they’re older, they’ve seen changes in the world and the way that people do business and communicate, and they have something to say about it.”

Both of those vantage points—youth and age—have combined with the internet’s “democratizing force,” the relative ease of self-publishing, and the ubiquity of social media to make sharing personal stories easier and more tempting than ever.

And we can’t forget the part that COVID-19 played in this boom, as Adams points out:

“[Businesspeople] were not able to be as busy as they wanted or were accustomed to being during the lockdowns. I think people had had it in the back of their minds for years: I want to write a book. I want to share the lessons I’ve learned in my business life either with the general public or with students, and now I have some free time.”

For all these reasons, the memoir game is now “where it’s at” for anyone who wants to get a personal story published.

But what about those who, whether because of lack of confidence, lack of skill, or lack of time, can’t do their own stories justice?

How to Publish a Memoir Without Time or Writing Skills

This is where ghostwriters come in.

Occasionally, a celebrity or an athlete—one not particularly known for depth as a writer—will release a memoir that moves people everywhere with its linguistic power.

For the most part, these people, who already seem to work more hours than there are in a day, can only accomplish this by hiring a ghostwriter.

Ghostwriters are professional writers who are paid to write books or articles on behalf of someone else, using that person’s voice and giving that person all the credit.

Ghostwriters differ from co-authors in that ghostwriters produce work on behalf of the client, while co-authors produce work alongside the client and do get credit.

A 2021 article on Memoirs and More clarifies the difference.

Ghostwriting is a time-honored, fully legitimate, respectable method—both of working as a writer and of getting your story out to the masses.

What Do Ghostwriters Actually Do?

Different ghostwriters work differently, of course, but what they all have in common is that they tell your story, using your voice.

This might mean an intensive co-outlining process and lengthy interviews, or a long period of solo writing followed by a few meetings to clarify things. Or, the process could be something in between those scenarios.

The bottom line remains the same: It will be your story hitting the shelves.

Why Hire A Ghostwriter?

There are several key benefits to hiring a ghostwriter, as opposed to hiring a co-author or writing alone.

For those with something to say but without the time or the skill to say it, a ghostwriter provides the necessary expertise and focus. Adams puts it this way:

“Some people just have a really hard time putting their thoughts on paper. They’re much more comfortable talking and telling a story, but if they were tasked with writing it, they would never get around to it. They’re intimidated by that process, especially in long form. Maybe they can write a five-minute speech, but the idea of writing a 200-page book is incredibly intimidating to them.”

Preoccupied business owners are not the only ones who benefit from the decision to hire a ghostwriter. In the case of a celebrity’s memoir, a ghostwriter lends credence and legitimacy to the star, who—most likely—has not had the necessary training to produce an effective memoir on their own.

Finally, a team or a succession of ghostwriters can either extend a deceased author’s legacy, as in the case of novels written by the late V.C. Andrews.

They can also enable volumes of an exceptionally popular series such as the Nancy Drew mysteries to be published quickly and meet demand.

Professional Ghost highlights some other benefits: As a professional writer, a ghostwriter lives day in and day out in the book business, knows what will sell, what readers want. A professional ghostwriter also knows what kinds of preliminary marketing research is needed to ensure your book really stands out.

What to Look Out For

As with any other business decision, it’s crucial to do your research and find a ghostwriter that meets your requirements, whether you’re writing a family history or the origin story of your Fortune 500 company.

Ensure that the ghostwriter you pick is vetted, has the necessary experience, and agrees to your scheduling and collaborating needs. When it comes to finding a ghostwriter you can build a trusting relationship with, Entrepreneur puts it succinctly: “It’s in the name; they are phantoms…entrepreneurs need to take time to find and vet options.”

Another potential sticking point is the cost of hiring a ghostwriter, which falls around $5,000 for those with less experience, all the way up to $25,000 or more for those with significant experience.

Finally, it is important to make sure that you and your ghostwriter understand each other. Will you want to develop an outline together and then receive each chapter on a pre-set schedule? Or, will you be content with an initial brainstorming session and periodic updates?

Understanding where you fall on that spectrum—and then communicating that clearly—will help you find and hire a ghostwriter who will meet your needs.

The Choice is Yours

Here we are. It’s decision time.

We’ve delved into the boom in memoirs over the last 20 years or so. We’ve explored what a ghostwriter is and what a ghostwriter does. We’ve looked at the kinds of people or stories that are most likely to benefit from a ghostwriter’s help.

We’ve also formed a clear picture of the pros and cons of hiring a ghostwriter. We’ve even heard from an industry insider. All you have to do now is make that final decision…

Will a ghostwriter help you tell your story?