A good way to get writing experience is by ghostwriting, that is writing for individuals and companies under their bylines rather than your own.
With ghostwriting, you can test out writing for different genres without endangering your reputation as you would if you wrote under your own name.
Here are some description of some hot ghostwriting markets and tips on how to get into them.
Technical writing
Technical writers develop technical materials, such as equipment manuals, appendices, or operating and maintenance instructions. Documentation format includes not only print, but also, increasingly, PDF, HTML, interactive multimedia and help files. Although most technical writers work on-site, there is some offsite work.
Most technical writers are employed by the IT industry. Although demanding, technical writing can be lucrative and interesting.
You should have the ability to write clearly and or some knowledge about, a specialised field—engineering, business, or one of the sciences. Familiarity with Word, HTML and the software of the day is essential as is familiarity with multimedia and online help tools.
A degree in engineering, computer science, or one of the hard sciences (for example, chemistry, physics) is highly recommended and, lately, is becoming a prerequisite for many jobs. Right now, there are many experienced writers looking for work; so there are limited opportunities for persons without previous tech writing experience
Business/Corporate writing
A degree in English, business, communications, marketing, or some other business or writing-related field is helpful.
Knowledge of Word is essential and familiarity with multimedia and online help tools is highly desirable.
Academic writing
Academic writing is not always done by academics.
Textbook packagers often get a known name to put together an outline and then hire writers to actually write the book - a sort of academic ghostwriting. It is work made for hire and pays reasonably well.
The actual writer usually only gets a little tiny credit somewhere in the front or back of the book, while the expert gets the cover credit. In certain medical and scientific disciplines, ghostwriters also either write or heavily edit some journal articles.
In addition, over 200 paper mills and term paper sites that employ writers with advanced degrees to write or edit term papers, dissertations, and theses for high school, college, and graduate schools.
Caution: Writing term papers for other people is illegal in many states and sanctions may get tougher. For example, in California, recently, AB 2800 would extend to high schools an existing provision of state law - largely ignored since its adoption in the 1970s - that bans sale of term papers for college credit.
In order to break into academic writing, you need a Masters or Doctorate, good research skills, strong writing skills, strong attention to detail, access to a online research database, such as Virtual Library or EBSCO, patience (oftentimes, academic work will be reviewed by three or four referees and many changes will have to be made) and familiarity with the APA and MLA citation styles. In addition, you be familiar with stylistic and formatting requirements for papers, journal articles, theses, dissertation, and other academic formats.
Web content
There are abundant opportunities for ghostwriting content for websites, ezines, E-books, and newsletters. Many websites are looking for content to enhance their sites.
To get started in this field, you need to be able to write crisply and concisely. To get an idea of how web sites are written, do a search on a subject that you would like to write about and look at the articles in the website or look at any of the writing sites mentioned below.
Finding online writing opportunities takes a little more searching than finding print markets but the outlook is very good. 230,000 websites are being added every week according to a recent survey.
Here are some ways to find potential jobs and markets for websites, ezines, and newsletters:
1. Check out job and market listings on general job search websites.
2. Look at the job boards and classified ads on ezines and websites for writers:
3. Sign up for newsletters, mailing lists, and discussion groups for writers. Most of these have job listings, as well as other valuable information for writers.
4. Surf the web for your favourite sites, and chances are, they accept submissions. They will likely have guidelines listed, too, to help you get started.
Subscribe, post, and soon, you will be ready to contribute an article or two.
Books
Ghostwriting books for individuals is probably the most visible form of ghostwriting. Yes, ghostwriters do write celebrity bios. However, besides celebrity bios, ghostwriters are employed to write books and E-books on any topic imaginable.
General rates for ghostwriting
Ghostwriting for business (usually trade magazine articles for business columns): $115/hour
Ghostwriting a book: $6,000 - $21,000
Ghostwriting novel: $25 per hour
Ghostwriting an article/column: $0.35 per word
Web site content: $50 per hour; 53 cents per word
Web site contract writing: 53 cents per word
Ghostwriting research papers: $8-10 per page
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