Thread by Joshua Lisec | The Ghostwriter

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In 2021, I earned $1,004,544 ghostwriting.

11 years ago today, I started my ghostwriting business with a gig that paid $1.67/hour.

Here's how I rose from paltry pay to Million-Dollar Ghostwriter:
This past month alone, I've closed a book coaching package for $20,000 and two ghostwriting projects worth $50,000 a piece.

Not bad given where I started.

Yet this was neither accident nor luck.
Becoming a 7-Figure Ghostwriter wasn't even a natural sequence of events, where I improved my writing skills in increments ... raised my rates every couple months ... or booked better clients who respected me an eensy-weensy bit more than the last author.

Here's how I know:
A few weeks back, I checked out an experienced ghostwriter’s profile on Upwork. Back in the early 2010s, we started at the same place: charging on the cheap for ghostwriting books.

Look at this:
Years later, look where this freelance ghostwriter STILL is ... charging a few hundred bucks for a book. Ouch...
I took a different ghostwriting path to earning $1 million+ in a year.

I chose TALENT STACKING.

As @scottadamssays describes it, “Most people can – with practice – develop a variety of skills that work well together. I call this idea the Talent Stack.”
@ScottAdamsSays Here are 5 essential skills I added to my Talent Stack to earn $1,004,544 ghostwriting in a single year:
@ScottAdamsSays Million-Dollar Ghostwriter Talent 1/5: FACE-TO-FACE SALES

In 2013, my first sales coach told me, "You don't have to be the best ghostwriter in the world. You have to be the best ghostwriting salesman in the world."

For me, that meant ROI.
@ScottAdamsSays That is, if I could show aspiring authors a reasonable path to recoup their investment and then some over the phone or in person . . . I got the deal.

But this talent cannot go solo. I also needed . . .
@ScottAdamsSays Million-Dollar Ghostwriter Talent 2/5: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Most ghostwriters will just write you a Word document. What are you supposed to do with that?

I skipped the publishing uncertainty and created GHOSTPUBLISHING.

This is where . . .
@ScottAdamsSays Ghostpublishing is where I add on to the ghostwriting service an A-Z, soup-to-nuts publishing service to convert clients' Word Docs into in-store and on-line products.

Exhibit A:

@ScottAdamsSays Million-Dollar Ghostwriter Talent 3/5: DIRECT RESPONSE COPYWRITING

In between ghostwriting gigs years ago, I'd take on ANY writing client. Resumes? Articles? Erotica? You name it, I'd write it.

But then a guy asked for this little thing called ... a "sales letter."
@ScottAdamsSays A sales letter is long form sales copy with 1 goal and 1 goal only: MAKE THE MONEY

"OK, fine, sure," I said. "Is $500 OK?"

Client agreed. And I scoured the internet for successful sales pages. I then . . .
@ScottAdamsSays I wrote sales copy for my client by repurposing SECTIONS of copy, not plagiarizing word-for-word, so the sales letter I wrote said the same sorta thing in the same sorta order as those proven sales pages did.

Result: $200,000 in 2 hours.
@ScottAdamsSays I put 2 and 2 (and $200K) together for my ghostwriting clients:

The book's opening chapter is a direct response sales letter! It's where you "sell" readers on (a) buying the book and (b) finishing it.

No other ghostwriter thought this way.
@ScottAdamsSays Million-Dollar Ghostwriter Talent 4/5: CONTENT MARKETING

"Josh, you're like ... everywhere lol."

A childhood friend DM'ed me this.

He sees my popular #BADverbs tweets ... my podcast interviews linked on FB/IG/LI ... my search engine optimized videos on YouTube ...
@ScottAdamsSays As Jay Abraham (I'm a fanboy) said, "If you believe what you have is useful and valuable to your clients, you have a moral obligation to serve them in every way possible."

For my Ghostwriting & Ghostpublishing service, I believe this.

BUT ...
@ScottAdamsSays You cannot serve clients if they cannot find you.

Whereas most ghostwriters are introverted, I've played the part of the internet influencer these past few years. I even got a TEDx Talk out of it. Now everyone who finds me knows my story.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7fX7sgp-NE&t=
@ScottAdamsSays Million-Dollar Ghostwriter Talent 5/5: HYPNOSIS

This is a wild-card talent Scott Adams introduced many of us too.

It also helps that I've done FOUR books on hypnosis, including this Wall Street Journal bestseller that beat 12 Rules for Life.


@ScottAdamsSays Hypnosis, plain and simple, is the art of creating a sensory simulation in someone's head.

With hypnosis, you make someone see something, hear something, feel something in their mind's eye / eye / body that was not there before.

As you can imagine, hypnotic abilities ...
@ScottAdamsSays Hypnotic abilities are multi-purpose.

Hypnosis serves me as a ghostwriter, so I can hypnotize my clients' readers into taking action, such as reaching out and buying a $5,000 service package from them.

Here are 4.5 hypnosis tips for you, my treat: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNMssGan8u4&t=
@ScottAdamsSays The Million-Dollar Ghostwriter Talent Stack is more than ghostwriting. It's:

- Face-to-Face Sales
- Project Management
- Direct Response Copywriting
- Content Marketing
- Hypnosis
@ScottAdamsSays Altogether, these talents give me a unique stack that leads big guns like Ed Latimore to call me "the #1 ghostwriter in the world."

Today, I ghostwrite for celebrities and billionaires, CEOs and founders, scientists and statesmen.

Yet ...
@ScottAdamsSays I do not forget where I came from ... that $1.67/hour project ... or how bad it felt to be so broke for so long.

And I believe that #TalentStacking is the best way to build the finances, flexibility, and freedom into your life you desire.

I also believe ...
@ScottAdamsSays I also believe that Ghostwriting & Ghostpublishing is the best way to get a beautiful, professional book done that converts readers into clients.

Let satisfied client, attorney Raiford Palmer, share his experience in 39 seconds:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ7nysPOH-w
@ScottAdamsSays I'll show you the roadmap to write a profitable book, if that's what you want.

Find a time on my calendar here:

entrepreneurswordsmith.com/book/
@ScottAdamsSays 11 years on now, the only regret I have is that I did not Talent-Stack sooner.

Don't make the same mistake I did.

So get crackin', and get stackin'.
@ScottAdamsSays That's a wrap!

If you enjoyed this thread:

1. Follow me @JoshuaLisec for more of these
2. RT the tweet below to share this thread with your audience

P.S. Nobody hires a ghostwriter to lose money.

How much do you think I made my clients?

$5 million? $20 million? $100M?

$1 billion?
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