Ghostwriting on its own has become a very popular way for those with busy lifestyles to still become published authors. Not to mention that partnering with a seasoned ghostwriter who is a veteran in their field guarantees the sense of quality content that you would expect.
But you want to make sure that the freelancers you are going to work with have been vetted on the platform they’re conducting work on and are trustworthy enough to ensure delivery of your final product in a timeline that best suits you. After all, although you aren’t actively involved in writing your book, you still want to be involved, right?
Your freelancer should want to make your vision a reality, and this is what you need to look for when creating a partnership with your chosen freelancers!
The Benefits of Working With Vetted Freelancers
Think of a company that curates freelancers to create the perfect pool for you to choose from. As you venture through a freelancer site that has vetted freelancers, you won’t have to stress and worry about how to put everything together or how well you can edit.
Your chosen freelancing team will take care of this and so much more!
There are many different benefits that completely outweigh the risks of working with a vetted freelancer. Here are a few that we think you should know about:
Quality assurance:
When you choose a freelancer site that has vetted freelancers, you can be guaranteed that a specific level of quality will be abided by. What’s great is that many of these sites put the ball in your court, and you can hand-pick your freelancers. Not to mention, it is also a way for you to ensure the skills, background, and experiences that you want to have in your writing are present and accounted for! Some freelancing sites will vet their freelancers through multiple interviews and test orders, so you can rest assured that your ideas are in good hands!
Time-saving:
If you had to go around and vet freelancers on your own, you would probably spend much more time than you expected. You could even have started writing your book in that time! Your freelancer site would simplify this process for you. All you really need to do is put together your perfect team!
Reduced risk:
You want to make sure your freelancer has the relevant skills to get the job done properly. Focusing on communication, their previous writing history, reviews, and deadlines ensures your timelines are respected. These are the hallmarks of the perfect freelancer!
Simplified payment processes:
Freelancer sites often provide a platform for payment, which can simplify the payment process and reduce the risk of payment disputes or other issues. This can help ensure that you pay your freelancer promptly and that they receive payment for their work. You know what you are paying for, and you have an expectation of the quality you should receive for that payment!
You want to have quality work, especially if you plan to publish through a publishing house. With your choice in site, make sure to head on over to their reviews page, especially to ensure that their previous customers were happy with the level of work they received.
As you look for freelancers, you want to make sure that you choose freelancers who aren’t new to the game and don’t understand the book creation process. Your vetted freelancers know the system, the tricks of the trade, and are not scared to ask questions! This is what you need to look for! The last thing you want is for an inexperienced freelancer to take your questioning as a personal attack!
The Characteristics of Reliable Freelancers
You now have a better expectation regarding how to really find the perfect vetted freelancers for your book-creation journey! But for a freelancer to be really good at their job and stand out, having a few extra cardinal qualities is both important and necessary.
You want a freelancer who delivers what they promise within a time period that is both acceptable and realistic for achieving your goals and plans. These aren’t the only extra qualities to expect. Let’s go ahead and unpack a few more qualities you should look for when selecting a freelancer:
- Responsiveness: As you read through the work of your freelancer, you are at liberty to point out parts that you feel need to be reworked in a different direction. Remember, it is your project! You want your freelancer to respond promptly to messages and emails, and vice versa; they will need some form of regular communication to ensure they are on the right path.
- Professionalism: A reliable freelancer acts in a professional manner, meets deadlines, and communicates clearly and effectively. At the end of the day, you are a paying customer and deserve a degree of respect when being interacted with.
- Time management: A freelancer that is reliable will be able to not only manage their own time well, but can deliver their project by, or even before, the intended deadline! Can they work under pressure and deliver on time all the time? Again, life happens, but veteran freelancers will be able to put in the extra work necessary to make up for any delays.
- Attention to detail: You want to choose a freelancer who understands your outline to the tee and can word everything together in a way that is accurate, gripping, and makes sense. Whether they are a writer, editor, or illustrator, being able to flesh out topics with sufficient detail is a skill that you should not waver on!
- Adaptability: A freelancer that you choose should be able to work on your requirements and adapt or tailor them to your feedback with ease, especially while keeping all the other high-quality work that they have already written.
- Positive attitude: A freelancer that speaks positively about your ideas, wants to help them develop, and is open to constructive feedback is the type of freelancer that you should want to work with. This promotes an increase in the quality of work, communication between the two of you, and a more enjoyable experience overall!
Instead of looking for a freelancer, you want to look for a person who has the above qualities but is also a freelancer. Finding the perfect freelancer may not be easy, but it is definitely possible and worth the search!
The All-Coveted Rating System for Content Creators
One of the more advanced ways to help vet freelancers and make everything easier for you is the incorporation of a rating system. These systems can usually tell you the quality of work a freelancer will deliver, as well as how well they manage their time and deadlines.
Many different freelancing sites will have both an intrinsic and extrinsic rating system where a freelancer is rated by both those they worked in a team with as well as the customer. It is important that, when choosing your freelancer, you look at both of these elements!
For example, you may value communication, so you will naturally tend toward freelancers who have a marked high rating of communication across a multitude of different projects.
The ratings that freelancers get are typically expressed as a cumulative score that you can use to generate a shortlist of the freelancers you would want to work with.
After all, although these rating systems provide you with some basic information about a freelancer, if you delve deeper, they actually portray a whole lot more.
Benefits of a Freelancing Rating System
As you look at these freelancer rating systems and the scores of specific freelancers, think of what extra qualities a freelancer may have been tested on to receive the rating that they have. This will help you deduce the benefits of having a rating system, which we have included below! These are the following, but are not limited to:
- Trust and credibility: By knowing how well your freelancer works, you are able to build a sense of trust with your freelancer. You want this, as you will be more confident in interacting with them and more comfortable portraying how you feel about their writing and any changes that need to be made.
- Improved quality of work: A rating system can let you see the overall level of quality that a freelancer provides. You want them to have the desired skills, but you also want them to have a degree of credibility and experience to back up those skills.
- Transparency: You want to know who you are hiring, and a rating system gives you a good overview of this! Not to mention, you can always message the freelancer before hiring them. You know, just to get a sense of their communication style and willingness to write your book.
- Accountability: Hiring a freelancer is more than just hiring them to write your book. You are hiring a person with a specific behavior and way of doing things. This means that you should rather avoid freelancers who have consistently received poor ratings.
- Efficiency: Setting checkpoints with your freelancer and having them actually reach those checkpoints is a big plus in any freelancer-customer relationship. Having a rating system will let you see how effective a freelancer is at making changes, addressing issues, and ultimately communicating with you as the customer.
This part of finding reliable freelancers can be the most difficult! Why is this? Because a rating system can only tell you so much about a freelancer. You want an all-around freelancer, which is rather difficult to deduce from merely looking at their profile.
This is why we say that you should trust your gut! Many freelancing sites will monitor the entire process with you, and if the customer-freelancer relationship just isn’t working, they’ll let you choose another freelancer. There needs to be a good fit for a high-quality manuscript to be written.
In Summary
Characteristics of hiring reliable freelancers can be difficult from just viewing their profile. But this is why it’s imperative to communicate with your prospective freelancers and get a bit more information on how they communicate and whether you think they are a great fit for your project.
As a future bestseller, you need to make sure that you are not sacrificing the potential and quality of your book by choosing a subpar freelancer. This can be a time-consuming process, but at the end of the day, it is definitely worth the time you have put in to find the perfect freelancer!
