So you want to find a romance ghostwriter, and you want to do it on Upwork. As a romance ghostwriter who got her start on Upwork 7 years ago, I've seen some of the best and worst job ads out there. And I've spoken to many, many ghostwriting colleagues about what they look for when they're reading Upwork job ads.

Based on personal experience and all that research, below are some tips on writing your ad for a romance ghostwriter on Upwork.

Know what you want to publish

In order to find a romance ghostwriter on Upwork, you need to have a clear picture of your project, including:

• whether you're publishing a series or one single book

• if you're publishing a series, how your series will be connected—by trope, group of characters, or overarching sub-plot

• the word count of your book/each book in your series

• the sub-genre of your book/series

• any tropes you must have included in your book/series to match with your author brand

You don't have to have every detail of your book or series planned out and incorporated into your Upwork ad, but you do need to say if you're looking for a ghostwriter for one book or a series, and the word count, sub-genre, and tropes for that book/series. All of that is vital information a ghostwriter considers when deciding if your job sounds like something they'd be interested in. Some ghostwriters also only work in certain sub-genres, or don't write certain tropes, so giving them the key details of the project upfront saves you the hassle of interviewing a ghostwriter only to learn they don't write mafia romance or dubious consent.

Know your schedule

Ghostwriters work based on calendars like any other freelancer, and need to know a project's start and end date so they can fit it in with other projects. Putting both the start and end date in your ad will weed out skilled ghostwriters who can't fit you into their schedule. You can also put how many words per week you need the writer to write to make that deadline, though make sure this schedule takes into account any changes/rewrites your ghostwriter might need to do to each milestone based on your editor's recommendations.

If you're looking for a clear-cut number, I generally recommend asking a writer to submit no more than 10,000 words per week (and make sure you ask your ghostwriter how they define week; I personally count a week as Monday-Friday, but ghostwriters differ in their definitions based on personal work patterns), and, if you have an editor review that milestone, give your editor at least 3 working days to review and recommend any changes, and then give your writer at least 2-4 working days to make those changes, depending on their extent. That means you'd be looking for a writer to complete a 50,000-word book in 10 weeks or so.

Know your budget

Ghostwriters search for clients based on project, schedule, and budget, so make sure the rate you've posted is one you can pay. I generally recommend clients budget to pay at least $0.03/word, though skilled, experienced romance ghostwriters charge as much as $0.08/word. And I recommend this rate regardless of where in the world the client or freelancer is from. Your rate shouldn't change because of someone's nationality (other than you having to perhaps convert your rate from your home currency to USD). You're on a US platform, publishing for a most likely US audience, since the US has the biggest audience of romance readers in the world. So you have to pay US rates.

And don't be tempted to promise steady work in return for a lower rate. That’s what’s known as a “red flag” phrase in the freelancing world, and most ghostwriters will run in the opposite direction, because they know this is code for “never going to pay you enough.” 

Write in your voice

Don't use a template you find online or copy verbatim from ChatGPT to write your romance ghostwriter Upwork job ad; instead, make it unique to you and your voice. This not only ensures you’re getting writers who are attracted to you and your project; it also means ghostwriters are less likely to scroll past your ad.

Ads copied from somewhere else with only a few differences are also a red flag. If a client can't take the time to write their own job ad, ghostwriters are apt to think the client might not care about the work they publish, or might not know enough about the romance publishing industry to collaborate effectively. And at the end of the day, romance ghostwriters do what we do both because it pays us, and because we love it. We want clients who are as enthusiastic about the genre as we are.

This blog post is the first in a 3-part series on finding romance ghostwriters on Upwork, something I've been helping my clients do since 2022. Until next blog post, happy reading and writing!