Thanks to the work of corporate culture authors like Satya Nadella, Kim Scott, Daniel Coyle, and William Vanderbloemen, business leaders have turned their attention toward company culture as a key factor in attracting and retaining great employees and as well as increasing profits.
Company culture books can be big sellers, appearing on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best-Sellers lists as well as the required reading lists for the nation’s business schools. They can cross over from business to general audiences and rank high on Amazon and other book-seller websites.
Whether you are an executive with Google, a Navy Seal, or a business consultant, a successful company culture book could be your ticket to more clients, greater visibility, a career move, public speaking engagements and media appearances.
For consultants, a company culture book can be the perfect tool to demonstrate how you have worked with clients in the past, and the kinds of results those clients have achieved. It can give new clients confidence in your process and increase excitement about working with you.
What is Your Time Worth? Hire a Ghostwriter to Write Your Company Culture Book
Successful company culture books are authored by successful people – by busy people who have a lot of demands on their time. Your wealth of experience, your hard-won business insights may be of tremendous benefit to your industry and colleagues – as well as to your own bottom-line – but if you don’t have the time (or book-writing experience) to do the demanding job of writing an exceptional book, those insights won’t get the audience they deserve.
If getting your book out into the world is your top priority, maybe it’s time to hire a ghostwriter. Start your search by contacting me, Lisa Tener. As a long-time book publishing coach, I have helped many would-be authors find the “right” ghostwriter for all types of books.
My ghostwriting colleagues and I work with many successful authors, including authors of best sellers and award-winning books. If you are seeking a traditional publishing deal, we can refer you to a ghostwriter with success in ghostwriting successful book proposals. We have relationships with literary agents and acquisitions editors at publishing houses, and can also advise you from the onset about what it takes to interest publishers and agents.
Once I understand the nature of your project and what you are looking for in a ghostwriter, I can connect you with one or more experienced culture book ghostwriters. You can then interview them to determine the best fit for you.
The Benefits of Working with a Professional Business Book Ghostwriter to Write Your Company Culture Book
The company culture book is a unique genre that requires the writer to walk a fine line between “soft” values and “hard” business results. The writer must have several outstanding skills in order to craft a great company culture book, including:
- The ability to put a culture change into context. The work world has drastically changed in the last two generations. As the first big wave of digital-natives to enter the workforce, millennials demanded that businesses and managers rethink a lot of the tenets of authoritarian workplace cultures. Businesses that want to tap into top young talent find that different company values are needed to enable risk-taking for big result
- Familiarity with business cultures and strategies in order to compare and contrast.
- Strong interviewing skills to create case studies that tell the stories of positive change of those you have worked with in the past. This is the meat of the corporate culture genre.
- A good ear for capturing the nuances of your voice and style so that your book sounds like you. This is particularly important if you will leverage your book to build a public speaking or media career.
Choosing a Business Book Ghostwriter for Hire
When you meet with a prospective ghostwriter for your company culture book, ask them about:
1. Books they’ve worked on in the past
2. References
Can they provide several past clients’ names and numbers so you can ask what it was like to work with them?
3. Their work process
If your work schedule is very busy, it will be important to understand how much time your ghostwriter will need from you so that you can work together to create a realistic schedule. How many touchpoints will there be in the process so you can provide input and direction? How many rounds of editing are included in the price? Will they employ an independent copyeditor or proofreader at the end or do you need to supply that?
4. A timeline and work schedule
Do you have a particular deadline when you would like to see this book released? Depending on the size and complexity of the book, you may want to plan for 8 to 12 months. While shorter time periods are possible, the best results occur when you can give the book the time it needs for optimal results. It takes time to integrate material, polish and revise. Your book will be the better for it.
5. The amount of access that they will need
Most corporate culture books include case studies or vignettes of challenges faced and changes made. Will the writer be able to access sources at your company and/or companies where you have worked in the past (or client companies you’ve worked with) in order to get an interview? How in-depth will these interviews be? Are there other experts they will need to interview as well? How will you assist them in securing these interviews?
6. Pricing
Generally, you get what you pay for. The most experienced writers will command the highest prices. If you are looking to save money, yet hire the best quality writer you can, consider a shorter book. If your book will primarily be used as a tool for attracting new clients or for working with clients, and you plan to self publish, you may find a high-quality ghostwriter at a somewhat lower cost.
7. Sample chapter
You may ask them to write a short sample chapter after conducting an interview with you. You should expect to pay for this chapter, but it may be worth it to you to see the kind of results you may achieve with this writer.
You can download my free e-book for guidance for interviewing and choosing a ghostwriter, 20 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Ghostwriter.
You Can Hire a Ghostwriter for Specific Services
You can hire a ghostwriter to provide a few or a full range of services:
- Organizing notes and creating a book outline
- Interviewing past clients (you may find that a third-party can secure more and different information from past clients than you can)
- Research
- Writing an entire manuscript in a style and voice that hits home for your intended audience
- Editing and/or proofreading to ensure your manuscript is easy to read and grammatically correct
- Providing feedback on and reworking a first draft you’ve created in order to create the strongest version to show to a publisher
- Preparing a book proposal for submission to an agent or publisher
You can also work with me if you need help finding a literary agent or advice on publishing options. Call my office at 401-477-0886 or email me.
The Cost of Working with a Ghostwriter for Your Corporate Culture Book
Ghostwriting fees are negotiable; expect to pay more for a best-selling or award-winning author. Costs can range from $1 to $3 a word. (A page will run about 300 – 350 words, or fewer if it is more visual and includes images.) The cost will typically include some time for research; an especially research-intensive a book may incur additional research costs. If your book needs to be written on a short timeline, that will increase costs. You can expect to pay anywhere from $45,000 to $100,000 and up.
Whose Name is On the Book?
Your name, of course. If your ghostwriter is a known entity with best-sellers to his or her name, it can certainly benefit your book to have their name on the cover (as co-author and in a smaller font) as well. But the decision is up to you.
Traditional Publisher or Self-Published?
Self-publishing, in print or as a digital e-book, ensures your book is ready for an audience at exactly the time you choose. You retain complete control of the product, not the publishing house. And you make significantly more money for each book sold. E-books can be “published” at very low cost, and distributed by you, your company, by Amazon, or other online locations.
Are You Ready For Your Ideas to Change the World?
Call my office at 401-477-0886 or contact me online today. I can help you find a quality business book ghostwriter just right for your project.
