How to be a ghostwriter, with Dan Gerstein
Grammar Girl: For Writers and Language Lovers.
Mignon Fogarty, Inc.
4.5 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
1056. Ghostwriting is more than just anonymous book writing — it’s a thriving industry. Dan Gerstein, founder of Gotham Ghostwriters, shares how writers can break into ghostwriting, what types of projects are available, and how much top ghostwriters earn. Plus, we explore the ethical considerations of ghostwriting and how the industry is evolving.
Dan Gerstein is founder and CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, the country’s premier ghostwriting agency. Featuring a network of more than 4,000 accomplished freelance editorial pros, Gotham specializes in sophisticated, long-form writing (such as books, speeches, and reports) for authors, speakers, and thinkers who need expert help telling and selling their stories. Gerstein, a graduate of Harvard College, has been writing and communicating professionally for more than 30 years. He started his career as a local sports and news reporter at the Hartford Courant. He then went on to spend more than a decade as a speechwriter and communications strategist on Capitol Hill and for two presidential campaigns, serving as a senior advisor to Senator Joe Lieberman from his home state of Connecticut.
In 2004, Gerstein moved to New York to become a political consultant (primarily working with issue advocacy groups) and commentator. Known for his independent, thoughtful analysis, he has served as a contributing columnist for Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and Politico. He has also appeared regularly on television as a political analyst for Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, WNBC-TV, and NY1.
Among other pursuits, Gerstein, 57, has served as an adjunct faculty instructor in New York University's master’s program in Public Relations and Corporate Communications; he currently serves on the board of the recently-launched 5Boro Institute in New York City. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Simona, their daughter Ella, and their dog Ugo.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Grammar Girl here. I'm Minion Fogarty, and today I am here with Dan Gerstein, founder of Gotham Ghost Riders, |
| 0:12.1 | which is an agency that matches ghost writers with projects, people who need ghost writers. |
| 0:17.0 | Dan has been a high-level, high-level speech writer and a writing and communications professional |
| 0:21.8 | for more than 30 years. He has a degree from Harvard and has taught courses in the NYU |
| 0:27.2 | master's program in PR and corporate communications. Dan, welcome to the Grammar Girl podcast. |
| 0:33.9 | Thank you for having me, Minion. I'm a big fan of yours. Oh, thanks. Yeah, well, you know, when I heard about your work, I was so excited because it seems like a type of job that writers could get that they maybe haven't thought of. |
| 0:47.3 | So, you know, can you first explain sort of what kind of projects are available for gross writers? |
| 0:52.9 | Sure. You know, just to provide some context, you know, |
| 0:56.0 | when we think of ghost writer, right, we think of someone who is anonymous who writes for someone |
| 1:00.8 | else, and it's really become an umbrella term for all kinds of a collaborative writing, right? So |
| 1:07.4 | there's a traditional book ghost writer, but speech writers kind of fall under that umbrella of a ghost writer because they're working with the principle to help them |
| 1:13.9 | refine their story and express it in a way that's really compelling. With the rise of brand publishing |
| 1:19.5 | and LinkedIn thought leadership, there's so many people who are now putting content out in the |
| 1:24.5 | world that either don't have the time or the talent to do it themselves. And they are hiring experienced writers to help them do this. |
| 1:31.4 | So the field is really exploding and the demand is exploding. |
| 1:35.7 | And it's coinciding with the decline in many ways, the disintegration of traditional media and journalism. |
| 1:42.4 | And so you have all of this talent that's |
| 1:45.3 | kind of migrating from traditional journalism roles in freelance journalism now to where they're |
| 1:50.8 | doing writing for higher work. And we've had a front row seat on this transformation over the last |
| 1:56.9 | 10, 15 years. And I think it's overall a really great thing for writers because there's |
| 2:02.9 | so much more work available for you. There's the diversity of demand. And it pays very, very well. |
| 2:09.8 | You know, we'll talk about this a little bit later, but we just released the results of the first |
... |
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