How to become a ghostwriter and more ghostwriting secrets revealed | Featuring Cyn Balog [CC]

I get so many questions about ghostwriting after posting my Secrets of a Ghostwriter video (link below) so I wanted to chat with another freelance ghostwriter to get another point of view for you!

TRANSCRIPT of Interview:

Katlyn Duncan:
I'm so excited to have a special guest here today to talk about ghostwriting. I have noticed that I have a consistent amount of comments and responses to my secrets of a ghostwriter video here on my channel. And since I've sort of veered away from that side of writing currently, I wanted to bring someone who is somewhat of an expert in freelance ghostwriting to talk to me today about how she does it, and becoming a ghostwriter and working with clients. So Cyn was so helpful to me several years ago when I wanted to get started ghostwriting. So I'm so excited to have you here to talk about ghostwriting with everyone. So welcome, Cyn.
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Cyn Balog:
Thank you.

Katlyn Duncan:
So for those who don't know you, please introduce yourself. What books you've written, what your publishing has been like so far.

Cyn Balog:
I'm Cyn Balog, and I have been writing, I started, my first book came out in 2009 from Delacorte, and it was 'Fairy Tale'. It was a paranormal romance, and I started out doing the paranormal romance thing when Twilight came out. So I kind of like hung on to that and started doing more paranormal romance. And then after 'Fairy Tale' I had four more books, all paranormal romances coming out. And then I switched, and I did a dystopian, and then I switched from there, and now I'm doing like thrillers and things like that. And I've had nine books come out. I started thinking about doing ghostwriting about, and they're all, they're all young adult books. But I started doing, thinking about doing ghostwriting when I was, I would say maybe a few years ago, I had decided that I wanted to put out more than one book a year. I was a very fast writer, and I asked my editor at the time if they would allow me to write more than one book and they told me that they were afraid that it would, this is so strange considering with self-publishing, how now it's like, you know, you have to put out as many books as possible, and that's actually a good thing. But back then, with traditional publishing, they only really wanted you to put out one book a year because they were afraid it would dilute your brand if you put out more than one book. So they told me that, you know, basically they didn't want more than one book and considering how slow traditional publishing is where you can sell a book, you know, in one year and then like two years pass and your book still hasn't been published yet, that was basically all they wanted to get from me. So, I decided that I could probably if I wanted to make this a full-time thing with writing, I needed to do something else. I looked into all these different avenues like maybe selling to, you know, a different genre, maybe writing adult and stuff like that. But none of that really stuck. Then I heard from a friend that was said was doing ghostwriting and I was like, Oh, well, that sounds very interesting. What is that? And she told me, and actually, the first ghostwriting job that I did was through my agent who had there was somebody who was doing self-publishing, and she was making a killing in it cause it was very, it was probably I'd say 2013 maybe, and she was making a killing with it, and she really needed other writers to write for her. And this was romance I'd never written romance before. So I went into it. I got the job from her. She I knew her because she had also published young adult books. So I got the job and started working with her. I wrote maybe one book with her and that one went well. And then after that it was like, okay, nobody else is doing this. Like there's nothing else to do. I was like, okay, what do I do now? So I went to Upwork and I started looking on Upwork and I found a job there. And so I started writing more and more books and I just started getting more and more clients in from different locations. And then all of a sudden it was like, it just kind of exploded. And then it was like word of mouth, and everyone kept coming to me asking for books. Now I don't have time to write my traditional books. I'm writing all this ghostwriting, and I just don't have any time for anything else.

Katlyn Duncan:
You've delved into a lot of the questions I had. I just wanted to backpedal a little bit and get a little more detail because a lot of people who do have questions they want to know the how-to, and that was sort of how I approached you all those years ago. Like how exactly do I do this? Cause it seems like a very, you know, ghostwriting. Like you don't really hear about it. It's very mystical in a sense. You know, when you meet someone, it's like what, like sort of how you were when you met someone. So we did talk about how you first heard about ghostwriting, but I just want to talk a little bit more about the process of getting started. So, you started on Upwork, sort of getting yourself, you got your feet wet with the romance author. But how did you specifically start on Upwork? What was the process like?

Cyn Balog:
I have to say that Upwork nowadays is a lot more difficult to break into because there are so many people using it and right now it's kind of like a what they call a race to the bottom because there's so many people there and they want the cheapest book that they could possibly get. And those are not the type of people that if you're, you want to make a career out of ghostwriting that you need to work for. If somebody is willing is only going to pay you $250 to write a novel, then you need to run away because your time is worth more than that. So luckily, when I was looking for jobs on Upwork, they were a little bit different where they didn't charge you to--for connects. Now they charge you in order to connect with people. I just went on there, and I ended up scanning through a million jobs. And then finally I found one job, somebody who was a New York Times Bestseller who was looking for a ghostwriter to write a romance novel for them. And I applied to it, and I got it. And then from there, I wrote some more books for that person and then they recommended me to somebody else. But it really requires when you go on Upwork, you have to be choosy because there are so many bad jobs out there. I would say like 99.9% of the jobs are just not worth it. So you have to be choosy. And so I don't know if Upwork is the best place for somebody to get started, but you have to get started somewhere. I mean, you have to have samples and things like that. Now you can't get samples from writing for other people because those are--you usually sign an NDA. But I feel like, in order to get one of the jobs, you need to have good samples. So if you're a writer and if you like to write, then I think that you will probably have samples lying around somewhere. So I have been writing since I was five years old, so I have a lot of samples, and some of them are not that good, but I have been writing for a very long time and if I was given like a half an hour to do whatever I wanted to do. It would be writing. So I have plenty of samples to share with people. So that's why sometimes people are like, well, how do I get started? I don't have any samples. Go create the samples, you know, that it's not that hard. You know, pick a topic and write about it. You know, show people that you can write. And if you see a job and it's somebody that wants a romance, then try writing a, you know, a romance scene and see what you can do. And if you don't know how to write a romance scene, there's plenty of ways for you to learn how to do it, you know, go online and you read books I love to read. That's, you know, if you're a writer, you're also a reader. Read books, try to emulate the style of somebody that you, you want to be like and learn how to write and write those samples because nobody is going to hire you unless you have samples. So, I had a lot of samples, and the samples that I put up on Upwork were books that I had previously published. So I mean, my Random House books were up there, so people saw that I could write now they were young adult, so if you can write young adult, do, can you write adults? I think probably you can, you know. So people looked at those and saw that I was a professional writer and so they, you know, they responded to that.

Katlyn Duncan:
Did you ever ask anyone for a prompt? Cause I know sometimes they did offer that or did you just always use your own examples?

Cyn Balog:
I do not like to write, you know, some people say that they'll, you know, do a paid sample. Like I will, I will do a paid sample for somebody, but I would never do a sample for someone just based on, you know, just for free. I know that some people ask for, you know, like samples, and I would, I would not do that just because I have so many other samples. Like if, if there's a certain genre that they want and I don't have that, then I might do that. But I pretty much have every sample.

Katlyn Duncan:
Yeah, that's a good, another good tip about knowing your worth as well.

Cyn Balog:
I'm not a fan of doing unpaid work. So unfortunately ...

Katlyn Duncan:
For them. Your first few projects on Upwork, what did those look like, and what was the experience like as a newbie when it came to working with a client?

Cyn Balog:
Well, you really have to feel out your clients, I think, feel like clients are different, you know, each client that I work with is completely different. The first client that I worked with, she wanted to see it was a husband and wife team, and they wanted to see my, whatever I wrote, they wanted to see like every 10,000 words. So, I would send it to them, and then they would edit it, and then they would send it back to me, and then I would, you know, write the next part. I try to be as flexible as possible with people and write the way that they want to. Like if they want to see my book on, like if they want to see it as I'm writing it Google docs, then I will do that for them. Or I have some certain clients that are just like, write the whole book and then send it to me when you're done and I'll take a look at it, and they don't really care. So anywhere in between that I have clients with any requirement, and I just try to be as flexible as possible. And I think it's important to be flexible. However, there are some things that that I don't do. And I did have one client that wanted me to basically be on the phone with them the entire time writing the book, and I said, I that would take forever and I will, I, I do not do that. So I cannot think on the fly like that when I'm on the phone with somebody. So I told them that I couldn't do that and we ended up not working together because they really wanted somebody that would do that. But yeah, I mean, I think it's important to be flexible and to learn to write in any situation. Like I said, I've been writing for a very long time, so writing is like a second nature to me. The more you do it, the better you get at it. So that's why I'm able to do it pretty easily anyway somebody wants me to do it.

Katlyn Duncan:
Now, once you've been, once you were settled into this role, how did you focus on building your client base?

Cyn Balog:
There are a couple of different ways that I've really found helpful to me with building ghostwriting. Well, first of all, word of mouth was huge. So huge. I mean, I got so many clients from, there was one person that I was doing plots for, and basically, all I was doing was writing. She'd be like, do a plot and it's a romance plot that includes like these three tropes. And I would just write, you know, like sentence by sentence, plot for this person. And I wrote like 30 of them for this person at one time. And then she came back to me, and she said, Oh, I know somebody who needs somebody to write books for them. And so, I started writing for that person, and then that person referred me to another person, and then it just kept going to like all these different people that I was writing for. And then as I was going along, I kept raising my prices, the prices kept going up. And I still stayed as busy as I was. I was constantly busy, so I never had to, to lower my prices, which was good. So I just kept, you know, going along and doing it and so that worked really well. Other than that, I find that I have, I joined a couple associations, the association of ghostwriters, and I got a couple of clients from that. I am also on Reedsy, and I get clients from there as well. Facebook groups I find are very important because if you join fiction or self-publishing Facebook groups, there are always people there that are looking for either help with writing books or editing or things like that. And I also provide editing and things like that. There are always people on there that, you know, might need an extra help. So yeah, so I feel like the most important thing is that you spread yourself out as much as possible so that you get more people can see you and find you. I do have a website obviously, and people come to my website as well.

Katlyn Duncan:
In terms of at least Upwork or some of these freelance websites we've--reviews are important as well in terms of who sees you and things like that.

Cyn Balog:
Definitely. People that actually you know will search for a ghostwriter, and somehow they will find me on Upwork and then they will, they will look at my profile, and they'll see that I have, I'm a top rated freelancer, and then they will come to my website and then they'll contact me through there.

Katlyn Duncan:
In terms of getting to know you as a ghostwriter, do you write fiction and/or nonfiction? What genres and age ranges do you prefer or offer?

Cyn Balog:
I do all ages. And I do not do nonfiction. Now, nonfiction typically will pay more. Memoirs. There's a lot, there's a huge market out for memoir. So if you're into that, that's something where you could foreseeably make a lot of money. I only do fiction, and I made that decision when I started my business and I was, I worked in marketing for many years while I was trying to you know, make enough money so that I could write fiction full time. I couldn't write fiction full time with a traditional publishing schedule. So two years ago when I left my job because I was making enough money with the ghostwriting I said to myself, well, my whole, my job was writing nonfiction. It was copywriting and doing all that stuff that I hated. So I said, I'm not going. The one thing I was not going to do is write nonfiction. So I told myself I wouldn't do it no matter what. But you know, I kind of said, okay, if I start failing and I'm not doing well, then maybe I'll start, I'll take, I'll pick up a memoir or something, but I never did. So, and I just don't want to do it. You can make really good money doing it. So if that's something that somebody wants to do then definitely. But I write all different types of genres. I write everything fiction. So for all ages.

Katlyn Duncan:
How do you approach your own books versus a client book, is there any differences there and how you would start to write someone else's project versus your own?

Cyn Balog:
Not a whole lot. I mean, I really try to put in as much as I would put into my own books. I try to put into to my client books. There's not very much. I try to tell people like how I go about plotting things because I think it makes it easier for them to do it. But I do prefer that they have to give me like the plot and everything, you know so that I'm not just gonna start from nowhere and start from scratch. The more they give me, the closer I can get to their vision. Obviously, when I write a book in m--for myself, I write in my own voice. But if I write for a client, I will ask them do they have a book that they want me to try to emulate a style of their own, maybe a book that they've written before or a book maybe like they want me to write like Nora Roberts. I will do that. I ask them to send me the book, point me, and the direction of a book if it's on Kindle unlimited. And I can just download it. So that I can read what style they'd like me to emulate and then I'll go ahead and I'll try to emulate it for them. There's not a whole lot, but you know, obviously, when I write a book for myself, I write in my own voice.

Katlyn Duncan:
That's interesting, in terms of writing in someone else's voice in a sense, like your interpretation of it, how do you go about doing that? Do you look at a word choice, pacing, things like that? How do you do that process?

Cyn Balog:
It's, really, it's not easy. Like it took me a while to get that way, and I don't think I get it a hundred percent. You know, a lot of times I'll see my own voice, you know, creeping in there. I will, like I have this one client and she's a New York Times Bestseller and everything she writes is super dark. And it's a lot of like looking at her old books and seeing the word choices, seeing the fact that, you know, she is definitely glass half empty and just trying to be exactly like that, you know, and try to, you know, think over every word and what she would say and get--kind of jump into her shoes and think how she would think. And I guess as writers we're supposed to be good at that.

Katlyn Duncan:
Well, I mean if you're jumping into the character's head, it would make sense that you'd be able to jump in like a person's head by reading.

Cyn Balog:
Exactly. Yeah.

Katlyn Duncan:
So, what are your favorite parts of the ghostwriting process, and on the other hand as well, what are some challenges that you do face when you do ghostwriting?

Cyn Balog:
Well, my favorite part is working with all different people, and a lot of them will be like, you know, I have this idea, and I don't know how to breathe life into it. And it's, I have this one client, and he's been working on this book for 16 years, and he just couldn't get it right. And he's done like a hundred iterations of this book, and none of them seemed quite right. And he was just like, I can't do it. I don't know how to do it. And then he came to me, and he said, you know, this is the book that I have. This is what I want to tell, and can you do it for me? And we worked together, you know, we made sure that the plot was right. You know, it was moving smoothly and everything. And then I wrote it, and he got it. And he was like, Oh my God, this is perfect. This is what I've been waiting 16--I've been looking for you this long. And this is exactly what I wanted to tell and how I wanted to tell this story. So just being able to make that happen for somebody was just like a huge, it's like an honor. It's just makes me so happy. That's why I love this job, you know? So, but yeah, so, and then I have another author too, and she is a best seller, but she has one book that it's like the book of her heart, and she doesn't know how to tell it. And she's just like, she's so close to it, and she just loves the material so much, but she doesn't know how to tell it and to be able to look at the book. And that's the thing I specialize in is to look at like something from, you know, take a step away from it and look at it and say, okay, this is how you need to tell the story, and this is the way it's gonna work. And having them come back and be like, yes, that's exactly it. You know, that's just so much fun. I love doing it. So it's actually even people always say to me like, Oh, don't you feel bad that your name isn't on that book. And honestly, I don't feel bad at all about that because I feel like I'm helping people. And I mean I have my own books out there, and I know that having your own books means you to have to market and means you have to deal with bad reviews and you have to deal with all that stuff. And I love the fact that I don't have to, I can just finish a book and just hand it over to somebody, and they could do the marketing, they could do all that stuff, the editing and getting it, you know out there and worry about, you know, who's reviewing it and stuff like that. So I don't have to worry about any of that. So that's really the reason why I love this job. Now as for the reason why, you know, the some of the cons about it, you know, the people that come to me and want me to write on the phone with, that I don't like, I mean, I feel bad because there are some people that are like, well, you should be able to do this book for $250. And like they don't understand that writing and is, they don't understand that how difficult writing a book can be. You know you get those clients that are like, I've been working 16 years on this book, and I can't get it to work. And then you get the other clients that are like, Oh, you should be able to just whip that together in like three minutes. And it's like, no, that doesn't happen. So there are people, you have to find the people and like you said, you have to know, you know your worth and find the people that value you. And, and sometimes it's, you know, a balance.

Katlyn Duncan:
You did touch on it briefly, but there's such a divided view on ghostwriting. You know, some people do believe that if you write a book, your name should be on the cover. And as a ghostwriter, I know I have my opinions about it, but what are your thoughts on this? Like what would you tell someone who believes that your name should be on the cover?

Cyn Balog:
Well, I feel like just like I said, like writing a book is not easy. It's so you, so it's okay if you're asking for help, you know, it's not like somebody says here this, take this idea and run with it. And it's mostly mine. I do what I can to make sure that it's, it's theirs, it's their book. So, it's a partnership, and I'm just basically providing the writing for it, and it's okay if you have to ask for help. I mean, a lot of books out there, especially business books and things like that, the person has the talent, they have the ideas, but they just don't have the writing ability. And so that's, I'm there to provide that so I don't see it as being dishonest in any way.

Katlyn Duncan:
I definitely agree with that. Do you have any advice for anyone who'd want to jump into the world in ghostwriting as a writer? Do you have any advice from your experience?

Cyn Balog:
Well, just get samples. Do the--just practice writing. First of all, read, right? If you want to be a writer, there's a lot of people that actually come into ghostwriting, and they're like, well, I'm using it as a springboard to get my, to write my own stuff. I'm using it as practice to write my own stuff. Well, I went the opposite way. I wrote my own stuff, and then I decided that I wanted to be a ghostwriter, and I still write my own stuff. So you can do both. I mean, you just really, you really have to get samples, write all the time, read all the time and look into other writers and other ghostwriters and see what they're doing and see where you want to focus yourself. You can, you know, focus on nonfiction. You can focus on fiction like I'm doing. It's a rarer thing to be a fiction writer, ghostwriter, but you can just look into what you want to write and then, you know, start writing, get the samples going and then go online and go to join Facebook groups, join, go where your clients are going to be.

Katlyn Duncan:
So, in terms of your ghostwriting business, when did you decide to go sort of away from Upwork and all of those websites and sort of just set it up on your website and just divert everyone there?

Cyn Balog:
Well, I think I started about, I think I made the change about a year ago or so where I saw that my traditional publishing was maybe about 10% of what I was making. And I was like, well, you know, all my money is coming in through ghostwriting. Why am I, you know, constantly promoting my books when I should be probably promoting my ghostwriting. So I decided to get to be a little bit more professional with it. And so I went ahead and, you know, changed my website to make it more about the ghostwriting and less about the books. But, you know, I'm still, you know, selling my, trying to sell my own books and stuff like that. I, so I decided that I was just going to, you know, kind of go where the money was and where people wanted me.

Katlyn Duncan:
Definitely. Makes sense. So you touched on it before, but I wanted to know if you can give like a comprehensive idea of what you offer to clients, what ghostwriting services and things like that?

Cyn Balog:
I do editing. I do developmental editing, which is the bigger editing where you're actually looking at the bigger parts of the book that could be changed. I do full ghostwriting. I do like I look at query letters, I try to help people. Like my main thing is trying to help people if they want to get an agent. That's, well, that's the first question that I ask them is like, what are you planning to do with this book? Like are you planning to self-publish? Are you planning to look for an agent? So, I offer, you know, if somebody is stuck if somebody is having an issue like I offer writing coaching services as well. Different ways to help people get that book out there in whatever capacity they need. You know, cause it's difficult. Some people get stuck, you know, thinking out the plot. Some people get stuck, you know, with the nitty-gritty writing the book itself. So, I try to be a one-stop shop for like whatever is holding them up.

Katlyn Duncan:
So I always get a lot of questions about from people wanting me specifically because they see my video to write their book for them. So do you have any advice on how someone could go about hiring a ghostwriter if they do have that idea and don't feel like they're the one to write it?

Cyn Balog:
Well I know that there are lots of different ghostwriters out there and the prices that people charge are like all over the board. So you really do need to research. You can go onto Upwork, or you could go onto Reedsy to find a ghostwriter. There are agencies that do ghostwriting, as well. That, you know, you can also be a part of. I noticed the agencies seem to be a little bit more expensive than just individuals. But you will find some people that charged a dollar a word, some people that charge 10 cents a word. So, you really, if you're looking for a ghostwriter, look at their background look to see that they have books out, that they've written books before. And then you know make sure that that they're worth it and then compare, compare their pricing because I mean you'll find inexpensive ones and expensive ones and it's really, it's all over the board. Like ghostwriters can say whatever they want, you know, demand whatever price they want, and some people will pay it. So, you have to make sure that they have samples and things like that. Do your research.

Katlyn Duncan:
I was going to say the samples come in on the other end as well, like as a ghostwriter, you want to have samples. But as a client, you want to make sure that your ghostwriter has samples as well. So what would you recommend for someone who's working with a ghostwriter the first time? Like, what advice would you give on how to work with a ghostwriter in terms of, yeah, anything. I guess.

Cyn Balog:
I would definitely say start with as much information as you could possibly get. Like start putting it together. Like put together your character profiles, put together your plot information, put together like your beats. Like if you know the story as far as how you want it to go. All that information is really like vital to a fiction ghostwriter, and it's necessary if you are, especially if you're like very like much of a control freak, and you want it a certain way. If you want it a certain way, then make sure that you tell them that because if you don't, there's a million different ways to write a story and so they might not write it the way that you want it to be written. If you don't care, I mean like if you want it to be written in any way and you really just don't care, then tell them that, you know, like you just want it written any way. You know, I get a lot of clients that are just like, Oh, just write it. You know, I don't care who it sounds like, and I'll do it fine. But yeah, if you, but if you have a definite idea in mind, make sure you compile that information and send it to them, like samples of things that you want it to sound like different. You know, like I said, the plot, anything that you really want to include in there, make sure you provide it and just make sure that you communicate anything that you really want in your book cause it's important.

Katlyn Duncan:
We touched on this briefly, but what, what would you advise someone who's looking for a ghostwriter to look for in qualifications of their ghostwriter? Do you think having a backlist, for instance, is the most important thing or helpful? What, what do you think would be some advice you can give?

Cyn Balog:
Well, I would think that, I know that there are so many ghostwriters out there that just write, just ghost write books, and they haven't written anything for themselves. I would think that it would be important to have somebody who has actually written and published a book, but that's me speaking because I've written and published books. But I would think that that would, that would be important because it would show you that they know how to do it. It would also, I also provide publishing information and advice to anyone who wants to get traditionally published. That's just an additional thing that I provide, which is kind of helpful because a lot of people don't know how to find an agent or find an editor. So I'm always there to answer any questions for my clients. I'm sure that there are writers out there that can do it, and you know, have not been published before, but I definitely think that it's a definite plus. Of course, probably the people that are previous published are probably more expensive. Not always, but yeah.

Katlyn Duncan:
To you, what is your perfect client like? Like more specifically, what makes your experience in any different type of way a positive one with a client that you'd want to work with, you know, in the future?

Cyn Balog:
Probably, I hate to say that it's somebody that's like really hands off and just lets me write anything I want to right. Now the perfect client is the person who communicates the information to me as much as possible so that when I turn it into them, it's what they want, you know, that that's to me makes it a perfect situation. When I give something to them, and they're like, this is exactly what I wanted, and I know that I hit it. If they communicate the information to me and I try to put everything in that they give me and if I do a good job, then and they're happy with it, then that makes them the perfect client for me and you know, communicative and able to me stuff that I need and yeah, basically that's it. And then comes back with more work. So, you know, like I love repeat clients. I have a lot of them. That's good too.

Katlyn Duncan:
That's a great thing. On the other side, were there some challenges that you faced with clients that you'd want maybe just to offer some advice on things not to do if someone is looking for a ghostwriter? Just to make the process a little more agreeable and like a fun process, more professional?

Cyn Balog:
Well, some clients are I think they just don't know what they want. And I have had clients who, a lot of clients come to me, and they have a book that's like half-written, and they really want to keep that half of the book or like really want me to just kind of write around it. That actually ends up being harder than writing a book from scratch by myself. Because it's lacking in plot, it's lacking in all--style, and it's just terrible. So, like sometimes, it's just better to start from scratch. So I think that some clients might be concerned that, you know, Oh, okay, well this she'd wanted to change all this stuff. Why, when there's, there's a reason behind it. And so you kind of really need to trust your ghostwriter and say, okay, well she knows what she's doing. She's done this enough. I always try to give explanations as to why things aren't working and why I'm making changes and stuff. But sometimes I have gotten to clients, and they've been like, well, you changed this all around. Why? And there is a reason for it. It's not me just I don't like you, and I'm going to change your work. You know, there's a reason for it. And I think you should also know that as a writer we have very thick skins like, and as a writer you need to have a thick skin. I didn't always have one. People are not going to like your writing. There are just people out there, and it's not me just not liking the writing. It's actually that it doesn't work the way that it's written.

Katlyn Duncan:
So you recommend that flexibility on both ends.

Cyn Balog:
Yes, yes. Try to be flexible and try to like, you know, if something, if you ask, require something like you asked for something to be sent, like 10,000 words at a time know that it might not make sense now, but it might, but it will make sense at the end, you know, that it all come together when the project is finished.

Katlyn Duncan:
So I wanted to move into more of the business side and in terms of, because you seem very busy and you have a lot of great clients, so how do you I'm a big planner so I wanted to know how you keep track of everything and future projects and things like that. What is your, do you have a schedule? Like what, how do you plan for your your business on both ends: author business and ghostwriting.

Cyn Balog:
Okay. I am not a planner. I am like the worst when it comes to like organization and stuff. Like I, I'm glad you can't see over here, but there's like a pile of paper that's like so high. It's like higher than me because I have so much like plots and things that people want me to write and things like that. And it's I'm just, I'm not very organized. And when I started writing, I was like, okay, well, I'm just going to start with an Excel spreadsheet of like, you know, income and expenses and that's what I'm going to just go with. And that's all I've been using for two years. But I have as far as the schedule goes, I have a written because I have to keep everything in writing. And one of my clients a year or so ago gave me one of those nice Erin Cond-en planners.

Katlyn Duncan:
Erin Condren.

Cyn Balog:
Yeah. And it was really nice. But I found myself, I was doing all these little stickers, sticking stickers on and doing all that. And I was like, you know what, I'm wasting so much time doing this with the stickers and making it look pretty. So I ended up getting like this really cheesy cheap planner from Five Below. And that is where I put all my stuff that I'm working on. I usually put the client that I'm going to be working with, cause I will handle maybe three to five projects at any time. I'll be working at each time. Like each month, I have about three to five different projects I'm working on, and some of them are full ghostwriting, and some of them are just like edits and smaller projects. Like I have a children's book I'm doing, and that's like takes less time than obviously than a than a full novel that I'm writing. So I'll have that all on my planner. And I will put like how many words I'm supposed to write that day so that I know that I can reach my deadline. And like for today I have like, you know, the name of the client and I have 5,000, cause that's what I--how many words I need to write. So yeah, so that's basically all I do. And then I make sure that the number of words that I write equals the amount that I'm supposed to be, the date that I'm supposed to be turning it in. So yeah, I'm very unorganized, but it works for me. Like I never miss a deadline, so I guess it's okay. If I had any problems, like I started missing deadlines and stuff, then I would probably change it. But it's not a problem at this point.

Katlyn Duncan:
What can we expect next from you? Do you have any current projects happening on under your name?

Cyn Balog:
Yeah, I've, I'm going to be submitting to my agent a new book. I'm finishing it up right now, and hopefully, it will find a publisher. I have an option with my current publisher, Sourcebooks. So hopefully it will find a home, and they will like it. But yeah, I'm continuing with the writing. It's just, I used to have a book out every year. For nine years, I had a book out. And with ghostwriting, it kind of slowed down a huge amount just because that's where my attention got taken to. So but I, I'm still writing my own stuff and what I do is in order to balance the two of them, I write during the day, I write all my ghostwriting stuff. And now at night, I'm like cutoff, like six o'clock. That's when I start writing my stuff. So, and I try to do like a thousand words of my own stuff at night. I do try to make time for the kids because I do have two kids hanging out here. And I try to make time to do their home, to help them with their homework and to, you know, have family time and go for walks and things like that so that we can, you know, kind of get together and, you know, get out of the house every once in a while.

Katlyn Duncan:
So, where can anyone find you online in regards to your author under your name and under your ghostwriting. So, where can we find you on social media, your website things like that?

Cyn Balog:
It's, it's like super easy. It's my website has everything on it, so it's a Cyn Bay-log C Y N B A L O G. COM. So that's where I am. And then, all my social media is attached to there. So I don't use Twitter. I have a Twitter account, but like you'll never see me on there. I have a Facebook page. I don't really update that very much, either. I don't know. I'm not really, into social media, and you know, but I, I'm on Facebook, I guess. So, yeah. Nice.

Katlyn Duncan:
We'll you're busy anyway. I can't imagine you'd find too much time for social media, but so great. That was awesome. I enjoyed speaking with you. Thank you so much for coming on here.

Cyn Balog:
Thank you for having me.

Katlyn Duncan:
So I'm excited to see what you have next.

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