The year was 2001. I spotted a domain name that had expired and bought it, thinking I would take on some ghostwriting jobs on the side. My primary business was unrelated to writing at that time but I had extensive writing experience behind me. As a kid, I wrote a lot of stories. In elementary school, instead of hitting the playground at recess, I listened to a teacher read stories.
Journalism was my college major. In the U.S. Navy, I served as a journalist. In that capacity, I wrote for the base or shipboard publications. I sent news stories to the civilian press. Later, I founded and ran the bimonthly magazine for the nation’s largest working dog organization. Then I started and ran my own magazine for 22 years.
Eventually, I spotted that domain name, ghostwords.com. Normally, the domain name and the business name are the same, but that’s not the case here. I whipped up a basic website and submitted it to all the search engines of the day. The phone began ringing. It turned out I had more writing jobs coming in the door than I had time to complete. I was declining business.
One day in 2002, I heard from a young book editor, a college grad, who wanted additional work. He said, “If you’ve got any excess work you could send my way, I’d be happy to do the writing for you.” I replied that I needed someone to do all the writing. He said, “I’m in.” Woo! A new business! I worked up a one-page partnership contract and we signed it. Ghostwriters Central was registered with Los Angeles County as a two-person partnership. Since he was doing all the writing, most of the money went to him.
The calls came in to me. I spoke with the clients and handed the projects off to my partner. And suddenly we were making a lot more money. We weren’t the cheapest writing service, but we were far from the most expensive. It’s been that way ever since. My co-founder no longer needed his book-editing job.
For fifteen years, I handled marketing and handled clients, and my partner did all the writing. It was just us two. Finally, he’d had enough. He wanted to pursue a career as a novelist and become a filmmaker. In 2017, he quit the partnership and told me I was on my own. I incorporated the business and began searching for top-notch writers to join with me on a contract basis. The next step was to greatly expand the website and to promote the many writers who replaced my old partner. At the time of this writing, I have 30 on the roster. My ex-partner found it amusing that it took 30 to replace him.
Clients find us by doing an internet search for Ghostwriters Central for ghostwriting services, or screenwriting services, autobiography writing services, maybe they’ve found our ghostwriting YouTube channel, or other social media. And some come to us by referral.
These days, when a client contacts us, I recommend the writer I think is best qualified to handle the project. Presently on the roster are novelists, non-fiction writers, biographers, screenwriters and script doctors, stage play writers, speech writers, technical writers, religion writers and even a retired pastor who handles wedding officiant speeches.
The company enjoys a sterling reputation and we’ve had thousands of happy clients. And as for me personally, Michael McKown, I’m still all about the story. Bring me yours.
