The Future Of Ghostwriting

While the Internet has opened up many new opportunities for ghostwriters, not all of them are welcome. Online agencies like Get A Freelancer and Elance list hundreds of projects under the heading ‘Ghostwriting’, but many of these projects are actually ‘bundles’ of mini-articles for submission to article directories and blogs.

Even sophisticated surfers may not be aware of the amount of marketing that goes into virtually every aspect of the Internet today. Few blogs are written by their named authors. Many forum posts are farmed out to freelancers. And almost all of this content has an ulterior motive – to nudge, coerce or tempt the reader into a loop of viral marketing.

What does this have to do with writers in general and ghostwriters in particular? Surely the increase in the scope and variety of freelance writing work is a good thing? Not necessarily. Not when projects are advertised with budgets as low as $30 for 30 articles, and the writers who win these projects often cut and paste content from elsewhere on the web – content that already falls far short of a professional standard.

While ghostwriting is being expanded to include articles, blogs, ebooks and web content, as well as traditional printed media, the quality of the writing is diminishing – and professional writers will find it increasingly hard to complete with teams of writers working in countries where $30 is a week’s salary.