What ever happened to transparency? In an age where cyber threats, identity theft and fraud have spawned multimillion dollar security companies, one would think transparency would be high on the list of most businesses, especially those selling services on the web. And yet…

While browsing the various competitive ghostwriting sites I was quite surprised by what I found: Sites with no transparency, unsubstantiated claims and some highly questionable content. As a result, I learned three valuable lessons that (I think) can benefit other business owners as well..

For example, one site that claims to have a roster of numerous writers has a number of testimonials all of which are (oddly) about the person who runs the ghostwriting services and what a wonderful job HE does. So what exactly does this “highly touted” roster of writers actually do?

Lesson # 1: Don’t create, and boast of, a padded roster of writers (or associated), most of whom will never get any work from the business. Instead, be forthright that it is your own business and that you will be utilizing the skills of other professionals as necessary.

Another website scrolled down endlessly with more copy than the Dead Sea Scrolls. The site owners, and ghostwriters, had posted tons of tedious material that was self-indulgent and led me to believe that they had never heard of the editing process.

Lesson # 2: Don’t post 2 million words of extraneous rambling on your website. It looks cheesy and nobody wants to read it – mush less take you seriously as a ghostwriter.

The third, and most alarming site, makes a host of claims that are not supported. The site claims that people will be best selling authors, but the owner fails to back it up with any “best selling” books. When Amazon rankings show self-published titles in the 10 million range, that does not indicate the kind of “best sellers” that one would envision.

Lesson # 3, Excessive amounts of marketing, hype and promises are questionable at best. Promotion need to be supported by legitimate credits (transparency).

BTW: It also struck me as odd that the site owner’s LinkedIn connections totaled well over 500, but I did not see any publishing professionals, literary agents or individuals in the industry among the listings.

Sure, there are some excellent ghostwriting businesses and I hope we can benefit from each other if our specific services do not meet the needs of a client. But I do think that transparency is important and along those lines, I’m open to questions and more than willing to share my book list with my clients. For more on me, visit http://richmintzer.com. For more on the writers, editors, proofreaders and others that will work with Your Book Your Way, feel free to ask.