The equivalent of reading fees

With demand rising among corporate executives, national speakers, consultants, coaches and small business owners for ghostwriting services, businesses have been formed to connect professional ghostwriters with would-be authors. There are a handful of legitimate publishing companies that do a fine job of shepherding books through writing to design to production.

And then there are some that are not.

The ones I have heard of often prey on clients - taking their money and failing to produce anything close to a decent manuscript. But there may be a new business model making the rounds that targets ghostwriters. It involves requiring training in order to be considered for future ghostwriting work. Here is an example from a firm in Los Angeles that charges a fee for a 10-session course of some kind: http://losangeles.cajobz.com/looking-for-professional-ghost-writers-venice.html

I know nothing about this firm, but the fact that they charge a fee to ghostwriters in order to qualify be added to the company's database of writers is suspect. It is akin to literary agents charging reading fees to review manuscripts - the legitimate ones don't.

Granted, firms may need a way to qualify the writers they represent; requesting writing samples or recommendations is typically the way firms handle that. And I wouldn't have a problem with the practice of requiring a test or training if the firm were providing it gratis. But it is not.

Stick with firms that do not require a payment to qualify for ghostwriting work.