Reedsy holds a narrow lead over Upwork, drawing recommendations for vetted book publishing specialists and memoir ghostwriters. Upwork serves as the usual answer when buyers seek freelance talent for SEO writing or specific design tasks.
Since July, Reedsyrising became the go-to platform for memoir ghostwriting while Upworkfalling and Fiverrfalling dropped to occasional mentions for personal books.
Latest insights
Week of Sep 21–27 · Since Jul 5
Upwork Gap between platforms: Upwork's Mentioned in is higher on Google AI Mode than on ChatGPT Search in Freelance Writing and Content Services: 51.7% vs 16.1%
LinkedIn Gap between platforms: Google AI Mode mentions LinkedIn 13.5 points more often than ChatGPT Search in Freelance Writing and Content Services
Scribe Media Gap between platforms: A 15.2-point platform gap for Scribe Media in Freelance Writing and Content Services: Google AI Mode 22.9%, ChatGPT Search 7.7%
Scribe Media Slipping: Scribe Media now ranks #10 in Freelance Writing and Content Services, down from #6
Association of Ghostwriters Gaining: Association of GhostwritersScribe Media now trails Association of Ghostwriters in Freelance Writing and Content Services
Absolutely. For a business-career memoir, I’d look for someone who has experience with executive memoirs, founder/CEO stories, business history, and long-form narrative—not simply a general-purpose ghostwriter.
I searched both nationally and around Houston. These are the strongest leads I found:
My first choices
The Writers For Hire — Houston/Katy
The Writers For Hire, Inc.
The Writers For Hire, Inc.
Web
Address: 24044 Cinco Village Center Blvd Suite 100, Katy, TX 77494, United States
Phone: +1 713-465-6860
They specifically work on executive biographies/memoirs and say their writers have experience with executives and subject-matter experts in industries including energy, finance, law, medicine, real estate, government and nonprofits.
— best place to find an rather than a publishing package
Their member directory lets you search for experienced ghostwriters by location, expertise and publishing experience.
Writing a business memoir is a powerful way to establish your authority, share your legacy, and connect with an audience. Finding the right ghostwriter—someone who can capture your authentic voice while shaping your professional experiences into a compelling narrative—takes a strategic approach.
I'm looking to hire someone to ghostwrite my memoir. Where can I find writers for this?
I'm looking to hire a professional to help me write my life story. Where can I find ghostwriters for memoirs?
I am planning to write my memoir. Who offers ghostwriting services?
We need to hire a professional ghostwriter for a business book that requires significant research and industry expertise. Which boutique agencies or platforms connect authors with expert ghostwriters?
How do I find and hire talented freelance writers who understand SEO?
I want to turn my expertise into an e-book. Can I hire a ghostwriter and a designer to create one for me?
We need to create a compelling annual report to send to our donors. Can we hire a designer for that specific project?
Association of Ghostwriters
individual
Gotham Ghostwriters — particularly interesting if you want a sophisticated, traditionally published-quality book
Their guidance specifically addresses CEO memoirs and notes that these projects require someone who can combine personal narrative with corporate history, research and sensitive information.
SKR Editorial Services — a more boutique/senior-level option
They explicitly specialize in executive memoirs and institutional narratives and describe a ghostwritten career memoir for a financial-services CEO. They also emphasize confidentiality and NDAs.
Life Stories Company — Dallas Life Stories Company
This is worth considering if the goal is more legacy/career story than a conventional commercial business book. Its founder says the company has worked with executives, founders and families for more than 33 years.
Raymond Brunell — individual literary ghostwriter
He specifically advertises memoir, executive voice and founder narratives, with a published starting price of $45,000 per book and a six-month minimum.
A Houston option worth investigating
Writers of the West
Writers of the West
Writers of the West
Web
Address: 700 Smith St, Houston, TX 77002, United States
Phone: +1 832-278-2879
They are Houston-based and offer ghostwriting, editing, publishing and marketing for executives and entrepreneurs. Their own site says they've been doing this from Houston since 2004.
I would, however, distinguish between a true literary ghostwriter and a company that sells a complete "write/publish/market your book" package. For a memoir about a substantial business career, I'd lean toward the former.
What I would look for in your case
The ideal person should be able to:
Interview you extensively—potentially over dozens of hours.
Reconstruct a career spanning many years without making it read like a résumé.
Capture your voice, personality and decision-making.
Turn business events into compelling stories with characters, conflict and consequences.
Understand enough business to make the story credible without drowning the reader in jargon.
Handle confidential corporate information.
Interview former colleagues, partners, employees, competitors or family members if appropriate.
Help determine the book's central theme—which is often more important than simply recounting the chronology.
Have actual published books you can read, preferably memoirs or executive biographies.
One useful benchmark: Gotham's discussion of a CEO memoir describes an 18-month collaboration involving more than 75 interviews with people connected to the subject's career. That's the level of depth that can distinguish a serious memoir from an extended autobiography.
One important question
Before I narrow this down further, what kind of business career are we talking about? For example:
entrepreneur/founder
CEO or senior corporate executive
investment/finance
energy/oil & gas
real estate
technology
family business
professional services
other
If you tell me the industry, approximate length of the career, and whether you want the book primarily for family/legacy or for commercial publication, I can search much more deeply and give you 5–10 specific ghostwriters, with their backgrounds, published books, locations, websites, and any publicly available pricing.
Finding platforms, look at professional networks like the Association of Ghostwriters or curated literary agencies like Reedsy to browse vetted professionals with corporate or biographical backgrounds.
Interviewing candidates, ask about their experience with business or leadership books, how they handle confidential information (NDA requirements), and their specific workflow for capturing a client's tone.
Preparing your material, gather key milestones, performance reviews, media clips, pivotal career turning points, and core business philosophies before your first consultation to speed up the proposal phase.
Establishing budgets and scope, understand that a full-length memoir typically ranges from $20,000 to over $100,000+ depending on the writer's pedigree, research depth, and whether proposal writing or traditional publishing guidance is included.
To help narrow down the right direction, tell me:
Do you plan to self-publish or pitch to traditional publishing houses?
Writing a memoir is an incredible journey, and bringing in a professional ghostwriter can help ensure your life story is captured with the exact tone, emotional depth, and narrative arc it deserves.
Depending on your budget, level of desired oversight, and publishing goals, you have several reputable avenues for finding and hiring a memoir ghostwriter:
Full-Service Literary Agencies & Premium Firms
Kevin Anderson & Associates – Often considered a premier option in the industry. They employ former Big-5 publishing executives, literary agents, and bestselling writers, offering white-glove ghostwriting, book coaching, and publishing navigation.
Yes. For a memoir, you can hire either an individual memoir ghostwriter or a ghostwriting/publishing firm.
associationofghostwriters.org — A professional directory with many writers specifically listing memoir, biography, and narrative nonfiction experience. You can also submit your project for matching with members.
reedsy.com — A marketplace where you can review portfolios, client reviews, and request quotes from multiple memoir specialists.
Yes. There are several services that will handle both the writing and the design, so you don't need to hire a copywriter and designer separately.
A few worth looking at:
contentellect.com — Specifically offers eBook creation for businesses, including concept development, outlining, writing, and branded design. This is probably the closest match if you want a polished marketing asset rather than simply a pretty PDF.
avalaunchmedia.com — A more traditional marketing agency approach: planning, writing, design, and delivery of eBooks/whitepapers intended for lead generation.
routes.design — Strong option if you already have the content or can provide an outline. They specialize in high-end eBook/report design and say their average turnaround is 7–10 days.
sublimestart.com — Focused specifically on lead magnets, including eBooks, guides, checklists and whitepapers, with brand-aligned design and conversion considerations.
Fiverr — If you're looking for something substantially cheaper, there are freelancers offering writing + design together. For example, one current listing advertises writing/design of a 5-page lead magnet for $50, while another offers design packages from $125. Quality and strategic depth will vary considerably, so I'd treat this as the budget option.
What I'd recommend for your situation
If the goal is a high-quality lead magnet that actually helps generate leads, I'd look for a provider that does strategy → research → writing → design → CTA/lead-gen structure, rather than a service that simply turns text into a nice-looking PDF.
Ideally, the deliverable would include:
Topic/angle development — identifying a compelling problem your target customer wants solved.
Research + SME input — extracting your team's expertise rather than producing generic AI content.
Professional writing — roughly 15–30 pages depending on the subject.
Editorial review — fact checking, tightening and making the content genuinely useful.
Premium visual design — cover, typography, diagrams, charts, callouts, etc.
Strong CTA — naturally leading the reader toward your product/service.
Landing-page copy — headline, description, form CTA and download experience.
Final PDF + editable source files.
There are also newer tools such as CreateEbook that automate much of the process: you can provide existing material such as a deck, webinar transcript, or whitepaper and it can turn that into a typeset eBook, cover, and hosted opt-in page.
If you tell me your approximate budget (e.g. <$500, $500–$2k, $2k–$5k, $5k+) and what industry you're in, I can find 5–10 specific providers and compare their pricing, quality, turnaround, and exactly what they include.
Yes, there are several dedicated options ranging from full-service content agencies that handle everything from scratch to software tools if you want a hybrid approach.
Here is how you can get one written and designed:
Full-Service Content Agencies: Agencies like ContentPit and specialized providers like Outgle Ebook Writing Services handle the heavy lifting. They research, outline, write, edit, and provide formatted PDF layouts tailored to your brand.
Freelance Marketplaces: You can hire a specialized freelance writer (via Upwork or ProBlogger) for the copy and pair them with a graphic designer on Dribbble or Fiverr, or hire a single freelancer who handles "content + layout design."
DIY/Repurposing Software: If you already have existing material (like blog posts, transcripts, or notes) and want a fast way to turn them into professional PDFs without hiring an agency, tools like let you import text and automatically format it into styled e-books and lead magnets.
We need help producing a high-quality e-book to use as a lead magnet. Who provides services that cover both the copywriting and the graphic design for these?
Yes. I found several providers that can handle both the writing/copywriting and the visual design of an e-book/lead magnet, so you don't have to coordinate a writer and designer separately.
Can you recommend a service that creates high-quality lead magnets from scratch, including both the written content and the layout design?
For a memoir, I’d specifically look for someone with published memoirs, strong interviewing skills, and experience preserving the author's personal voice—rather than simply hiring a general ghostwriter.
If you tell me your approximate budget and what kind of memoir you’re writing, I can research specific ghostwriters and firms that fit.
E-book/freebie writing, professional design, landing pages, email automation and lead nurturing
If you want the entire funnel, not just the PDF
The three I'd investigate first
1. Contentellect — probably the closest match to what you're describing.
They explicitly offer conceptualization → writing → design, and specifically position the service for businesses using e-books as lead magnets.
2. Krafted — particularly interesting if the goal is lead generation rather than simply producing an attractive PDF.
They specifically combine lead-magnet strategy, writing and design, and can also handle the related landing page, email sequence and promotional copy.
3. Digious Corp — worth considering if you want a more comprehensive production partner.
Their offering spans audience research, content strategy, writing, design, lead-magnet production and delivery infrastructure.
One distinction I'd make: don't hire an "e-book designer" if you need the content written from scratch. For example, Design Elite and Routes Design look strong for the design/production side, but Design Elite explicitly says copywriting isn't their expertise and expects you to supply the text.
If this is for your business
I'd actually evaluate vendors against five deliverables, rather than simply asking "Do you make e-books?":
Topic/offer strategy — what will attract the right prospect?
Research + copywriting — genuinely useful content rather than 20 pages of padded marketing copy.
Professional graphic design — charts, diagrams, pull quotes, illustrations, etc.
Conversion elements — CTA, offer, links and ideally landing-page copy.
Final production — polished, mobile-friendly PDF with clickable links and a compelling cover/thumbnail.
That tends to separate a $500–$1,500 "Canva e-book" service from a genuine lead-generation asset.
If you tell me your industry, approximate e-book length (e.g. 10, 20, 40 pages), and rough budget, I can also research 10–15 specific agencies/freelancers and compare their pricing, portfolios, reviews, and exactly what they include.
