How do you hire someone to write an eBook for you?

In my opinion, you present a hefty budget. Sure that will attract some people that are not qualified but will jump at the price being high, but also you'll get true professionals that are intelligent and eloquent in what you are looking for.

I would post an ad for it and ask for samples of their work (also ask for someone who is an expert in the field). Look over their other work and see if you like their voice and want it to represent you.

Well my question really is...How will they know enough about the subject at hand to create a book about it. For instance, say I know all there is to know about how to rebuild a carburetor, but I can't write to save my life...How will this writer know all I know about carburetors?

That's what I don't understand when people say they "outsource" their content. How does the content writer know the topic well enough to write about it?

hi first I think you're looking at this a little too deep

let simplify it down a bit say you were writing the book yourself all you would do is brainstorm the subject and come up with title and chapters or subheading then you build paragraphs on your heading etc and you get your research for books or reports or online areas you piece it all together and put it in your own words

Do not directly steal anyone's work or copy directly as that could lead you in trouble
now to outsource this the people who offer their services usually have a huge list of resources they go and pull out info from and it saves them allot of time and also have a template for them to speed things up

it's not that hard really once they have done the draft you make sure you are happy with style and quality test and adjust and then go firm once you have it to your satisfaction then your good to go

Don't forget you don't want a copy of war and peace as most reports are 10-15 pages long with good quality info better than 100+ pages of garbage to wade through it all depends how complex your subject is.

Also look into free products like Xmind to plot your idea out and give them better direction on what you want it to cover - remember to get better results ask better questions - lack of detail is often the reason people do not get what they asked for be it getting a book, report , website or project done hope this helps cheers Si

A lot of times... you can judge the quality of the person's work by looking at their past work.

Like a lot of therapists say... past behavior can often give you an idea of future behavior?

Well, past work can usually tell you what kind of work you'd get if you hire that person.

so, post some projects on Elance, Guru, Odesk, Freelancer, etc...

and you can set parameters like if you want Native English speaking, how many reviews, a certain level of expertise, etc...

But ask for samples of ebooks they've done. Any good ebook writer will provide samples.

Go through them and see which ones you mesh with and you feel are what you're looking to do.

Simple as that.

You'll often have to go through quite a few samples and bids until you find a really good one.

If you're serious about needing an ebook writer, PM me because I can give you the same of the woman who has written several for me. She's good, and I don't get anything at all for recommending her.

I just know how hard it is to find quality writers... so if someone asks my opinion of who is good, I'll only recommend those who I've used.

But to answer your question... take a look at past samples and see what fits your needs.

I understand now. I'm not quite ready to do this just yet, but I do have a few other eBook ideas....I'm just not completely educated on the subject matter, and I don't feel that I could provide quality "answers" if I were to write the book myself.

One last thing...if I hire someone to write the book for me, do I have to credit the write and pay royalties..or am I still the author and "owner" of the work?

It depends on your agreement with the writer. When I ghostwrite for a client they gain all rights to the book when final payment is made. They can publish under their name or a pen name and I receive no credit or royalties.

To answer your original question: A good writer can research and write on almost any subject. Personally, I choose not to write on some subjects because the research time would make the project not cost effective. Some writers specialize in certain topics for that reason. Others will tackle any topic.

The secret is finding a good writer.

Rose

BKelly301-

I have published a few books and used ghostwriters to write them. Here's what I did:

I put an ad on CL looking for a writer. The best writers will have google alerts set up and they will find you. It will take some time to find a good fit, I interviewed (via Skype) about 10 people before I found a guy in the UK that I felt comfortable with.

We then set up an agreement and I paid him when work was completed via PayPal. I set up specific milestones to ensure my deadline was reached.

As for the content I set up a second ad asking for a researcher. You will get a zillion replies for this. Ask the people to give you a short one page write up on any subject you are familiar with. If they do a good job, hire them. Have them scour the internet for research data to include in a 50-100 page, cut and paste research doc.

You then send that doc to your writer and tell him or her to write however many pages you are looking for. I think I paid less than 100 US for the research and the writing. I felt so comfortable with the writer I let him proof his own work. It turned out great.

FYI - spend the $10 and get some credits for copyscape. It will be well worth the money to ensure your writing is no plagiarized.

You can use this process to hire a graphics person as well. I have had lots of luck with this process. If you need additional pointers, I'm more than happy to help.

Good luck fellow Warrior!

I also wonder why these people that do all of the research and write these excellent books don't just steal your idea, write the book, then go sell it. I guess that was always my biggest fear.

Because some of us want to be writers instead of marketers. Also, I don't know any writers who have a shortage of their own ideas to write about if they choose to do so.

A good ghostwriter cares about their reputation. No matter how great you think your idea is -- it's not worth me ruining my reputation over.

Personally, if I'm going to be writing the book I would want to do my own research so I know it comes from reliable sources and it matches what I want to provide the reader in the book. I wouldn't want the client to give me a document with articles cut and pasted from all over the internet. But that's just me.

Rose

I have hired 2 warriors to write ebooks for me. I know the subject very well "Trucking" but i am not a writer. I work hand in hand with them on the research. When the book is finished I make sure everything is accurate, and if not send it back with instructions.

I give the writer many talking points, and relevant websites to find the information.

I've outsourced fiction books before.

Fiverr is good for this, but only if you find a GOOD seller.
So far, the best one I've found is "MHShippley" (I may have spelled it wrong)

The Warriors for Hire section in here offers you plenty of good writers. But do your due diligence. If you can supply a lot of the research, you'll make the writer's job easier and the cost will reduce because of it.
I know if I have to do ALL the research, I charge more, unless it's a topic I know very well.

You can find good writers anywhere, often you need to just do your research and have an element of luck.

I think you can tell how talented and professional someone is through the correspondence you have with them. So be more open with your communication, get the writer to express their thoughts on the direction of a project. You can very quickly tell if a person is the real deal. Anyone can send well written samples, but it is the open, honest communication that you will most likely find clues revealing a writers true skill level.

I think it helps to have a clue on what you are writing about or outsourcing...I have read some outsourced books where the writer was not accurate and the "author" didn't know enough to realize this and published the book. This does not help sales.

Though there is marketing involved with publishing and promoting your own books, try to look at it from a standpoint of offering quality books and getting paid instead of trying to make a buck slapping books out.

There are a lot of good writers out there, specialized in various fields. State what your niche is and ask the people interested why they think they could write good material on that. You might even find practitioners among them and then... jackpot!

There are different ways to find a good ebook writer, elance and odest are the places I use for quality work. If you are not satisfied, you can advertise and ask for samples from the applicants.

If you are going to post the project on oDesk or Elance, Write a detailed description of what you want and how would you like it to be. Detailed requirements of the skills/expertise ideally you want the writer to posses and your budget.

Short list the best cover letter responses have submitted impressing work samples and do have some extra ordinary reviews/recommendations on their profile.

Interview the short-listed candidates to gauge them up and make sure if you are talking to the right person and request to write a free sample. (Contractors are usually open to that and it is allowed in oDesk and Elance policy).

The more detailed and clear you are with your requirements the better results you will have.

Fiverr works better for much smaller gigs, I will not recommend it for writing ebooks actually.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Wrong approach in the beginning. How can you sell something that you're not an expert in at the first place? I mean, people would ask you questions about the book, your niche, etc.. And if you won't be able to give hi-end answers, they'll quickly spread the word about you - and it won't be the nice one.
So, write a book yourself. Period.

for those that have hired someone to write a book for them, what is the usual total expense for that? either you doing the research yourself, or hiring them for that too?

also, i know it would depend on the topic and number of pages, but what kind of timeline is it with writing an ebook? (weeks, months?)

[QUOTE=Bkelly301;8676253]I know that places like elance and Fiverr have freelance writers, but I'm confused as to how you could get someone to actually write a GOOD book for you that relays the info in the same manner you would.

The best way would be to write it yourself. You can't really expect someone else to write it like you would. But of course, when you hire someone on Elance or other sites like this, you could give as many directions as possible and hope that the person you hire respects them.

I prefer writing my own ebooks. BUT, if I were to outsource it for my niche, I'd hire a person pursuing a Master's degree (in some cases an undergraduate degree) in the subject. They're students so their rates would be good and the content would be excellent. They would research primary sources and have access to the best libraries in the world.

In fact, I promote some local professionals and this is exactly how I outsource content. I don't want fluff articles on my clients' sites. I hire students studying the profession. In my niche I offered $17.50 per hour and the work was incredible.

Students are up-to-date with the latest info, love the part time flexible work and won't charge as much as a certified pro.

For example, if you're in the fitness niche, hire a student studying kinesiology or something similar who also actively trains in the area your book is about.

You could also hire active professionals - I'm sure a local personal trainer would do it for under $20 per hour - which is probably more than they earn (in aggregate).

Go to the people who are pros. Article writing services have their place, but most of the writers there are not expert in any particular field. That said, there may be certified experts on elance and equivalents, but they'll generally charge more than students.

What I did to get students is contact the career services department of 2 universities. They were delighted to email my job description to all the students in the department. I received more than 40 applicants. I hired 2 who turned out to be excellent.

Again, this is only if you want your ebook to be top-rate, fully researched.

First of all, before hiring a writer ask for samples. If you like how he/she writes and how familiar is with the topic you want to write about. After you hire one, you can tell him/ her to send you templates to see if you may add or remove some details.

Find blogs and forums in the niche and scope out knowledgeable people who already like to write about the subject and see if you can come to an arrangement with them. You could either offer them a flat fee or do a percentage of the profit perhaps.

I had a fellow warrior write a book for me. Then, I put it up on amazon. Like they wrote on a subject on which they have a lot of experience. Needless to say... I got few sales on amazon. For example, some months the sales were zero. Hard to get sales if your heart is not in it. People forget that we must spend a lot of time promoting the books we sell on amazon. Otherwise, our books sit on the shelves of that electronic library gathering digital dust and are never seen.

There are lots of forums online for writers. Spend some time looking at those, and ask other users for recommendations.

For every niche you should first order a small amount of Pages to see how the quality is.
after being satisfied with the deliverd Quality You can order a large amount of Pages for a ebook. Take look of the testemonials and try to contact the writer first.
give the writer exsamples of your serach and give right instructions, like I would have this and this written in this way and so on

I think you should post an ad for the job, have a look at the CVs, then ask for references and sample articles.