Income Generation and Side Hustles
HotGhostwriter
Mar
Basics:
HotGhostwriter enlists freelancers to write down, edit, narrate and design each fiction and non-fiction books — sometimes from scratch.
Expected pay: 1 to 2 cents per word
Husl$core: $$
Commissions & fees: NA
Where: Nationwide, worldwide (distant)
Requirements: Experience, samples of your work.
What’s HotGhostwriter?
HotGhostwriter is a book writing service that enlists freelancers to write down, edit, narrate and design fiction and non-fiction books — sometimes from scratch.
How it really works
If you desire to apply to be a author, editor, graphic designer or narrator here, you’ll have to fill out a form and either provide samples of your work or take a test (for editors). In some cases, you’ll even be asked to finish a video interview. It normally takes 7 to 14 days for the location to finish its review process.
If accepted, you’ll be presented with book projects as they arrive up.
HotGhostwriter review
Individuals who have worked with HotGhostwriter say two things consistently: The work is interesting. And the pay is miserable.
That’s in almost every category — writing, editing, narrating. Design jobs pay unremarkable but semi-competitive rates. Not surprisingly, the location gets poor reviews from former freelancers and from SideHusl.com.
To be specific about what’s unsuitable with working here, we must address the 4 distant work categories individually.
Writing
Writers are paid at a starting rate of $7 per 1,000 words. That’s lower than a penny a word.
In the event you’re great, you’ll be able to potentially join the location’s so-called “elite” team. That gets you $20 per 1,000 words. That’s 2 cents per word “for the highest-tier fiction writers.” Even a number of the worst content mills on the net pay higher than this.
Notably, that pay is for every part involved, including attending client meetings and providing the client with revisions, if needed.
And, by the way in which, another person gets the credit for the book you’re writing. So, unlike some content mills that at the very least permit you to construct your fame as a author, here you might be anonymous.
Editing
Editors also earn $7 per 1,000 words. And so they’re presupposed to be certain that manuscripts are consistent, well-written, are grammatically correct and error-free. In the event you edit a 500-page — 150,000 word — manuscript, which is more likely to take weeks, you’ll earn about $1,000.
Narration
Narrators turn written books into audio books. They earn $70 per 10,000 words of non-fiction and $90 for 10,000 words of fiction. You should record and edit your entire book, keeping your tone vigorous and consistent throughout. Naturally, with that many words, you’ll probably should edit and splice your audio file quite a few times to create a finished work.
What must you earn for this job? Let’s compare to the voice-over artists on Fiverr, a lot of whom have hundreds of reviews (indicating they’ve loads of work). There, the least expensive voice-over artist was charging $10 per 300 words. In the event you applied that rate to this job, each 10,000-word narration would net you $333 — almost 5 times more.
Design
Design is the one area where HotGhostwriter rates seem like competitive with other sites. For a ebook cover, designers earn $70. If the client wants a design for an ebook, paperback, audio book and a hardcover, the designer gets between $120 and $200.
Pay
The location says it pays freelancers twice a month. Nonetheless, freelancers on Indeed and Glassdoor say they often have to badger the corporate to pay them in any respect.
Recommendations
There are significantly better places to write down, edit, and narrate. And, to be honest, we’ve a tough time believing that designers aren’t someway mistreated here too. If you desire to join with HotGhostwriter despite this, you’ll be able to find the site here.
Nonetheless, you’ll find significantly better ghostwriting opportunities with ServiceScape, which allows freelancers to set their very own rates. In the event you’re eager about helping write and edit self-published books, also take a look at Reedsy.
The perfect place to advertise your voice-over/audio-book narration is Fiverr.
What their users say (from Glassdoor)
Low paying work and never much of it.
They’ll hire nearly anyone. And the work is pretty easy so long as you understand what you might be doing. Nevertheless it is delivered first-come-first-served. So when you aren’t actively monitoring Slack every second of daily you is not going to get any assignments
There are plentiful opportunities within the realms of romance and serial fiction and personal clients could be a joy to work with. On-time bonuses are nice. However the pay rate is on the acute low end of the industry standard.
Abysmal pay
The pay is abysmal. And I often needed to remind them to pay me for accomplished projects. I took the job during COVID after I needed work, and I got out the primary likelihood I could.
You simply get a measly pay and the people who find themselves the managers are deeply unpleasant. And this comes from considered one of their top writers
Their website advertises full-time work and guarantees $2k/month for writers without the necessity to bid on jobs. Those are all lies. You truly make .01 cents/word and work might be hard to come back by. Get an task to write down 40k words? Great! Don’t write over 40k otherwise you’ll should edit out those words without extra pay. Edits generally will not be paid. And clients will occasionally demand essentially the most unbelievable amount of editing. Too bad. You simply should make the changes they need without expecting to see a single cent more! In the event you’re assigned an ongoing series, you’re expected to read whole books. And also you’re given no time to do it (often just a few days WHILE you’re expected to be working on the outline on your project). AND guess what? You don’t receives a commission for that either.
High expectations; low or no pay
They set high expectation for you as a author with ridiculous deadline turn-around times. Waited 2 months to receives a commission for my last book. Pay was 2 cents a word and I used to be an elite author. Most get .015. The owner made a complete post about how big things were changing and improving for the corporate, while he still hadn’t paid us. Will promise you’re employed. But when you don’t write seven days per week, they’ll replace you. Not price it.
This company is an absolute dumpster fire that exploits their writers and pays them TERRIBLY. Nor do they pay on time, and ceaselessly cite one excuse after the opposite.
Awful
Recent management is awful. You’ll work on a project and never receive compensation — and might be dumped from a project on a whim and never be told. In the event you try to handle the difficulty with management (previously you’d have a constructive conversation), now they only treat you want crap.
How on earth are you able to justify paying $390 to a author for a 30k book when the corporate is getting almost $1600?? This rate is including research, editing, formatting, and client reviews! Pay your ex-employees their due. It truly is the least you’ll be able to do. When employees leave/get fired before they receive due payments, the corporate should ensure these payments are made without them having to pander for it.
