Skip to main content

Ghostwriter Wanted: Pay is $1 per 100 Words

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

The following Craigslist ad showed up yesterday on a mailing list I follow, and I thought you would get a kick out of it:

I am looking for a few quality freelance writers to produce eBooks on a wide variety of topics. Books typically range between 5,000 and 10,000 words and vary in content from how-to and self-help to romantic fiction. Qualified candidates must be able to research topics quickly and turn in non-plagiarized content within 7-days' time. Writers are free to pick up as many or as few topics as they like with no minimums required. No experience necessary. Pay is $1 per 100 words.

Please send along a 200-word writing sample outlining the basics of the paleo diet, to see if you are a good fit for the gig.

You normally find this type of thing posted by the likes of Author Solutions (it’s how they recruit their book editors) or posted on darker parts of the web (Warrior Forums, for example).

Hiring ghost writers to slap together ebooks is a common business practice of the Big Five publishers, and the small time ebook catfishers. In both cases the quality of the book matters less than the timeliness and the production cost.

But this is the first I’ve seen it on Craigslist, where it is currently listed twice.

Have you seen it before?

image by Tess Aquarium

Similar Articles


Comments


Mike September 2, 2016 um 2:41 pm

I don’t see requirements for the writer to be human. There are ML algorithms out there that can do quite well in this task. I only wonder ¢1/word is an efficient use of CPU time.


poiboy September 2, 2016 um 3:29 pm

this immediately reminded my of the stories about a private collector paying Anaïs Nin the equivalent of $1 per page for her erotica.


Write a Comment