Some people have misconceptions about thought leadership ghostwriting. Let’s debunk the four most prevalent ones.

When you’re marketing a product or service that’s in a new or different category, misconceptions often abound.

Thought leadership ghostwriting is still a relatively new concept in the legal industry. For that reason, I’m not surprised that some law firm partners, executives at companies that serve the legal industry, and their marketing and business development colleagues have misconceptions about the thought leadership ghostwriting process.

There are four particular misconceptions people tend to have. Let’s debunk them now.

Misconception #1: The material produced will reflect the ghostwriter’s thoughts, not the client’s

True ghostwriting is a collaborative process in which a writer collaborates with a client to convey the client’s ideas. If there’s no collaboration, and the written article doesn’t convey the client’s ideas, then the article wasn’t ghostwritten in the traditional sense. 

In my experience, at least 95% percent of any thought leadership article I’ve written for a client is made up of their ideas, their concepts, and even their preferred phrasing of those ideas and concepts.

It’s my job as a ghostwriter to take a client’s ideas, concepts, and language that we discuss during an in-person or phone/video interview and use that as the basis for the article I write for them.

During the interview, I serve as a “ghost thinker.” I talk with the client about how to frame the topic they want to discuss (i.e., is this article a primer about a topic, is it about best practices, is it about red flags, etc.). I then guide them during the conversation to elicit the raw material that will serve as the substance of the article.

After the interview, as I write the article, I will connect the dots my client and I discussed and make the article flow. That sounds simple. It’s not. 

I need to remain faithful to my client’s ideas while creating a written document that will be relevant, valuable, and compelling to their target audiences. I estimate that I add no more than 5 percent of an article’s words when I add phrases or sentences to connect the various ideas and concepts discussed, and transition from one to another.

Ghostwriting thought leadership materials is a collaborative process in which a client’s ideas, concepts, and phrases—not their ghostwriter’s—are given the spotlight. The ghostwriter’s job is to clearly and persuasively communicate those ideas, concepts, and phrases—not to insert their own.

Misconception #2: When working with a ghostwriter, the client is never in control of the process

A thought leadership ghostwriter might do the heavy lifting of drafting an article, but their client is in the driver’s seat throughout the entire process.

First, as I mentioned above, the ghostwriter typically interviews the client about the topic of their article. The client determines the topic and what aspects of the topic the article will cover. As I also mentioned above, a ghostwriter might ask questions of the client and otherwise guide them toward the particular angle they’ll take, but the client is the ultimate decision maker about what they’re going to talk about and how they’ll do so, as well as the substance of that discussion.

Second, the client will review the ghostwriter’s first draft and provide feedback.

Third, the client will review every subsequent draft and will give their final approval when they’re satisfied with the article.

Finally, the client will have the ultimate say on how the article is used. If it is going to be published in a third-party publication, the client will have approved that publication as the destination for their article. If the article will be distributed via their organization’s social media accounts or published via their organization’s newsletter, they’ll have ultimate say as to whether their organization can do so.

With ghostwriting, clients save a lot of time on the process by investing a little bit of time on the front end (the initial interview) and a little bit of time on the back end (reviewing drafts and approving the final draft).

The combined 45 to 60 minutes clients spend on the front and back ends is a bargain compared to the four, five, or six (or more) hours of time they would have spent writing the article themselves.

But just because they’re spending less time on a thought leadership article because it will be ghostwritten doesn’t mean they aren’t in control of the process that creates that article.

Misconception #3: It’s unusual for professionals to use ghostwriters

Ghostwritten materials are everywhere. However, because people assume the listed author of a written work is the one who sat down to write it, ghostwritten materials don’t scream “this was ghostwritten.”

But you need not look far to find ghostwritten works all around you.

A politician’s op-ed in a major daily newspaper? Almost certainly ghostwritten.

A celebrity’s memoir? Almost certainly ghostwritten.

A top-selling business or self-help book? Almost certainly ghostwritten.

An athlete’s long, thoughtful social media post or blog post? Almost certainly ghostwritten.

The first draft of a law firm partner’s motion, brief, or letter to opposing counsel? Almost certainly ghostwritten.

Of course, with that last example, law firm partners don’t call their ghostwriters “ghostwriters.” They call them “associates.” 

They often ask associates to write the first draft of a document that will eventually carry the partner’s name after the partner has briefed the associate on what points they think the document should make (just like a ghostwriter’s client briefs the ghostwriter about the substance of a soon-to-be-ghostwritten piece before the latter begins writing).

By the way, it’s nothing new for high-profile individuals to receive help communicating. Politicians have been using speechwriters as far back as perhaps the founding of the United States. Certainly in the 20th and 21st centuries, politicians have used speechwriters and ghostwriters to help make their cases to the people regarding various issues of public interest.

Misconception #4: “We don’t need a ghostwriter because our [partners/executives] write their own thought leadership articles”

Law firm partners and executives at companies that serve the legal industry are more likely than other professionals to write thought leadership articles themselves.

But what percentage of the partners and executives that have written thought leadership articles before do you think are writing those articles as regularly as necessary to develop their personal brands and help them and their organization stand out from their competitors?

10 percent? 5 percent? 1 percent?

For attorneys, their billable commitments consume most of their time. When they actually do have free time to engage in marketing and business development efforts, it makes sense for them to engage in the kinds of efforts only they can engage in themselves.

That includes activities like giving webinars, attending conferences, and meeting with past, current, or prospective clients over coffee or a meal.

Attorneys can’t outsource these types of marketing and business development activities. But they can outsource writing, especially when they regularly fail to publish thought leadership articles despite consistently having ideas for new articles.

So often, I come across attorneys and executives who have great ideas for thought leadership articles, but they just don’t have the time to write them. Or, they only have time to write one article a month despite having enough ideas to support two or three a month. They’re comfortable writing thought leadership, and perhaps enjoy doing so, but they need help because they’re just too busy to do it themselves.

Don’t let misconceptions distract from a valuable service

We’re in an era where building a personal brand and engaging in thought leadership has moved from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” for attorneys and executives of companies that serve the legal industry.

Ghostwriting is still a relatively new concept within the legal industry. However, neither attorneys, nor legal industry executives, nor their marketing and business development colleagues should poopoo it.

It might just be the answer to what ails them in terms of regularly coming up short building their personal brands and engaging in thought leadership that can position them as leaders in their practices and/or in the legal industry.