Ghostwriting is one of the most misunderstood services in publishing. Ask five agencies for a quote and you can get five wildly different numbers. So before you sign anything, it helps to understand exactly what you are paying for and why the range is so wide.
The short answer
In the UK, a full-length book written by a professional ghostwriter usually costs between £5,000 and £40,000+. Shorter works, memoirs and business books tend to sit at the lower end, while heavily researched or highly technical books climb higher. Here is a rough guide by project type:
| Project type | Word count | Typical UK cost |
|---|---|---|
| Short book / lead-magnet eBook | 10,000 – 20,000 | £2,000 – £6,000 |
| Business or self-help book | 30,000 – 50,000 | £6,000 – £18,000 |
| Memoir or full-length non-fiction | 60,000 – 80,000 | £12,000 – £30,000+ |
| Novel or research-heavy title | 80,000+ | £20,000 – £40,000+ |
What actually drives the price
Word count is only part of the story. The four factors that move a quote the most are the writer's experience, the amount of research and interviewing involved, the state of your source material, and the level of revision you expect. A polished set of notes and recordings costs far less to work from than a handful of loose ideas.
How to brief a ghostwriter well
The clearer your brief, the fairer your quote. Come prepared with your book's core message, who it is for, roughly how long you want it, and any material you already have. A good ghostwriter will happily write a sample chapter first so you can hear your voice on the page before committing to the full manuscript.
At Northern Star Press we quote a fixed, upfront price and keep the same writer on your project from the first chapter to the last, so there are no surprise invoices halfway through.
