Ghostwriter

Morgen primarily writes crime and women’s fiction stories but will write in other genres as well. Please bear in mind though that these are also the only genres she currently reads, writes and edits so you before commissioning her, you should have some knowledge of the genre you want her to write in so you can make any amendments you wish to when you go through the story/novel (see process stages below). 

Morgen does not ghostwrite non-fiction.

You can read After Jessica, a full free novella, to get a feel for her writing.

As you can see from the second picture above, Morgen is a professional editor working for publishers and independent authors. While she can’t guarantee that there will not be any mistakes in your story, her standards are high. As a native British English speaker, Morgen would use British English spelling and grammar unless the use of US English is specifically required. She predominantly uses Word but can offer Scrivener as an alternative. Please email Morgen for any queries.

Turnaround (based upon existing workload)

• Up to 1,000 words: one week for the story upon confirmation of the commission and receipt of full payment – see ‘Charges’ below.
• Up to 5,000 words: a story of this size would usually have a two-week turnaround.
• Each 10,000 words would take an average of one month, i.e.: 10,000 = one month; 20,000 = two months; 50,000 words = 5 months etc.
• Timelines dependent upon existing projects, but these are the maximums Morgen would hope to take on your story.

Charges

• £50 (€58 / US$63 / CA$85 / AS$93) per 1,000 words regardless of length.
  Minimum fee: £20 (€23 / US$25 / CA$34 / AS$37).
• Payment via PayPal (to morgen@morgenbailey.com).
• Short stories up to 5,000 words – the entire amount paid in advance. Morgen will write as close as she can to the agreed word count.
• Projects in excess of 5,000 words – 50% paid in advance, the balance due within 14 days of story finalisation/return to the author. The balance will depend upon final word count and will be calculated pro-rata so if the final story is 79,443 words, that’s all you’ll pay for.

The process

1. Email Morgen your idea for a story and the word count (approximately) via the Word document below. Please advise anything you do not want to include, e.g. swearing etc. or specifics such as speech marks or inverted commas for speech etc. should you have a preference.
2. These terms will be discussed via an email exchange including the fee due, payment and delivery timescales.
3. Terms agreed and deposit/full* payment received (*dependent upon word count – see above ‘Charges’).
4. Morgen writes your story and may be in touch for clarification of any areas and/or to run suggestions past you.
5. She puts the story away for at least a day so it’s not so fresh in her mind when she returns to it. This is revision #1.
6. She then makes edits while listening to the document on her Kindle Fire (text-to-speech function).
7. The book then comes back to you. You can obviously take as long as you need to go through the story.
8. If there are changes to be made you can either return the story/novel with your comments as Track Changes, as notes in an email, or however you would like to advise. This is revision #2.
9. Morgen goes through the book once more (listening and reviewing on the screen) and, upon finalising, will send you a final copy as a Word .docx or .doc (whichever you prefer) and optional .pdf.
10. The story is now yours to do with as you wish!

This information can be downloaded via this link:Ghostwriting info.

The components templates again as a Word document orpdf.

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The (not so) small print:

• The fee above includes the above two mentioned revisions. Any further amendments will be charged at 25% of the original rate.
• Unless requested otherwise, the document will be formatted as standard: Times New Roman font size 12, single spaced (Morgen can amend to 1.5 or double spaced if you prefer), with the first paragraph of each section/chapter flush to the left with subsequent paragraphs indented 2-3 spaces. It will start with the title page. There will be no copyright page, footnotes, headers, footers (other than page numbers if required).
• The story written will be in Morgen’s ‘voice’ and style* so you will likely want to make changes so it is more how you would have written it.
• Morgen cannot be held responsible for any errors unchecked by the author before submitting to any printers, publishers, agents or editors, or submitting to a competition.
• If the balance is not paid within the fourteen-day deadline after return of finished manuscript, Morgen reserves the right to charge interest on the balance – unless a delay has been previously, via written email, agreed upon.
• If the balance is still unpaid one month after the final version is returned – unless a delay has been agreed, and certainly if there has been no communication received, Morgen reserves the right to retain the copyright to the work(s) and publish the story under her own or a pen name.
• Morgen cannot guarantee that your story will be unique. Although there are only a certain amount of plots, she will advise you if anything feels familiar or runs any risk of bearing too close a similarity to other works written by her or other authors. Ideas and titles are not copyright.
• If you do not have a title for the story in advance, Morgen will provide suggestions during the writing process. You are welcome to choose one of those or change the title (and story wording) at any point.
• You are welcome to request an advance viewing of the story at any stage so you can gain confidence that Morgen and you are sharing the same idea. Obviously, the more specific you are, the more helpful it is for Morgen to get as close to your vision of the finished product as possible.
• The latest version of these notes will be included in email correspondence as they will be correct at the time of the initial agreement but are subject to ongoing change on this page.
• You are welcome to include Morgen Bailey as a contributor when publishing on Amazon (or elsewhere). This means that your book will also appear on her worldwide Amazon Author Page so you will get extra exposure and hopefully more readers!
• Morgen also provides a service where she will write a ‘unique story‘ up to 2,000 words. In that case, the copyright remains with her. It is not yours exclusively and it may be published by Morgen at some point under her own or a pen name.