Being a premium ghostwriter in the UK can be a strange job. For a start, no one quite knows whether the correct term is ghostwriter, ghost-writer or ghost writer. But that is a minor detail.

I write in the name of other people – usually experts in their field – and others often find it a bit strange.

There are two questions that people often ask when I tell them that ghostwriting for CEOs, C-suites and well-known figures is a big part of my work. The first is ‘how do you know what to say?’ and the second is ‘how do you get inside their personality?’. The answer to both of these is talking and process.

Ghostwriting, whoever you are doing it for, is a relationship and a learning process. It starts with an informal chat, as both parties get the feel for the other and examine the question of whether they could work well together. It can then move on to more in-depth conversations and/or interviews.

What I write is usually thought leadership in some form, although it can include more personal first-person articles or think pieces. It can also be speeches, white papers, or ‘about us/me’ sections for websites

Initial conversations will be followed by regular or irregular meetings, either conversing about potential articles, reports and presentations, or meeting to work on a specific opinion article (or op-ed, if you are American). It is as collaborative (or not) as the client wants it to be. Some like to work in shared document and throw edits back and forth, while others like me to become them. Often it sits somewhere in the middle. I write, they suggest some changes, I re-write and they then approve.

I find that the work leans towards me doing more on my own as the relationship develops. Some clients have trusted me to write or respond without even running copy by them.

The best thing about ghostwriting is the learning. I learn twice on a new job. First I learn about the topic (be it AI, large language models, construction techniques, business style, finance, education or health products) and then I learn about the person I am ghosting for. This means picking up on cadence, regularly-used terms, definite no-nos and the lingual tics that even they don’t know that they possess.

Before long, I know that their grand-daughter has a kitten called Mr Miaowface and that their aunt invented the metal piece that holds rubbers on pencils. Often, we never even meet in person, although it is great when we do. I try to not finish their sentences for them.

I find that the skills to parse complex information, recreate that as original thought, maintain a relationship with CEOs/C-suite and another with editors is neither for the faint-hearted, large language models or junior agency staff. If you or a C-suite member at your business or non-profit would like to see how this could work for you, please contact me on iain@thisidea.co.uk.