Ghost writers often use transcribers to turn their taped interviews into the basic material for their book. How can we transcribers help them best?

What is a ghost writer?

A ghost writer is someone who writes a book or other materials on behalf of someone else. Celebrity autobiographies are often written in this way – just take a look at the title page for a “with John Smith” note or in the acknowledgements (some don’t acknowledge using a ghost writer). People use ghost writers when they’re not confident of their own writing ability or don’t have time to write a book. A good ghost writer will capture the style and “voice” of the celebrity so it really does sound like it has been written by the celebrity themselves (this is where we can help).

How does the ghost writing process work?

Typically, the writer will spend a set amount of time interviewing the subject. This might be done in an office, in the subject’s home or out and about with them. Sometimes, the subject will submit their own tapes they’ve dictated themselves.

The writer will send the transcriber the tapes to transcribe. These are typically quite long, as they want to get the value out of each session. They might go through the subject’s life chronologically, they might not. Sometimes they will interview other people in the subject’s life, and sometimes there will be a two-person interview. Often there will be a few interviews after the initial rush where the writer seeks to clear up issues or confusions.

Timescales can sometimes lag a bit here, as you’re working with your client, the writer, and their client, the subject, so there’s lots of room for delays. Expect these, but also tight turnaround times when the tapes do come in.

Special features of ghost-written projects

Ghost-written projects have some interesting and unique features which it’s worth knowing. When in doubt, remember that you’re there to a) help the writer, b) help represent the subject in their own words. I’m assuming you will check what the writer needs in terms of time stamping, etc., at the outset.

• Retain the voice of the subject. The book is going to be written in “their words”, therefore the writer needs you to take down exactly what they say and how they say it. Once you’ve checked whether they want you to include all ums and ers, make sure you copy the way the subject speaks as precisely as you can. Get known for this and you will be recommended on from writer to writer (this happened to me).
• Don’t mock the subject. If they have a very Yorkshire accent, for example, don’t go overboard with taking down their accent, all oop t’mill this and that. It will look like mockery and the writer will have to undo it all.
• Do your research and keep a glossary. If it’s a musician, look up their band member, album and song titles. A film star, have a list of their roles and co-stars handy. I take down notes in a glossary and ask my writer if there’s something that comes up a lot that I can’t make out. They will still fact-check but make it as easy for them as possible.
• Admit when you don’t know. Use [unclear 01:45] for something you can’t hear at all, and [? 10.45] for something you’re not sure of. Then the writer knows they need to check the tape and clarify what their subject said. If you plough on regardless, guessing what they’ve said, the writer will assume that’s what they said and might not have time to check every word.
• Set expectations – after a few tapes you know how long an hour of this person’s voice takes you to transcribe. Don’t be a hero or offer to work all night: set sensible expectations.
• Be discreet. You might well have to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) – I have a standard one I send out anyway. Don’t tell everyone whose book you’re working on.

It’s fun working on ghost-written projects and seeing “your” book on the shelf in a few months’ time. Some ghost writers are given acknowledgements of their own and you might see your own name in there! But usually they are pretty hidden and so you’re completely hidden: no, that’s probably not fair, but that’s how it goes.

I hope you found these tips for working with ghost writers helpful.

Other transcription articles on this blog

I’ve written lots and lots of articles on transcription: here’s a list of all of them.

Many journalists, academics, writers and ghost writers use professional transcribers like me to type up their tapes of interviews into Word documents. A professional transcriber can usually type faster than average, and by outsourcing to someone like me the writer can save their own time (typically it takes me 3 hours to transcribe 1 hour of tape; it often takes non-professional typists a lot longer).

If you are working with a transcriber, here are some top tips to make that transcriber happy. Because you want to keep your transcriber happy, right?

1. Book in advance

If your transcriber is good, they probably get booked up in advance. You’re likely not to be their only customer and they have to juggle their workload. For example, in the autumn of 2018 I was working on one academic project with 50 x 1 hour interviews, two book projects with ghost writers, and various other one-off journalist pieces. If you came to me with an hour’s worth of tape you needed turning around in no time at all, I might well have said no. And I hate disappointing people, so I try not to say no.

If you’re dealing with me and you have interviews booked in but not confirmed, it’s fine to say to me, “I’ve got an interview in two weeks’ time, can I reserve your time to type it up?” Far better to do that and then move or cancel it (I can cope) than to come to me in two weeks’ time with an urgent job.

2. Set expectations and realistic deadlines

Remembering that it takes your transcriber 3 ish hours to transcribe an hour of tape, even they can’t work miracles and deliver a three-hour tape overnight (commercial transcription agencies might be able to do that: if they outsource to people in different time zones, fair enough, but I’d watch the quality). It’s fine to send three tapes and ask your transcriber to deliver them as they do them, though. And if it is urgent, let us know up front as far in advance as possible. In addition, if things changes, as they often do, let your transcriber know so they can tweak their schedule.

3. Be clear on your requirements

Some of my clients like time-stamping by each of their questions, some none. Some like their words to be in CAPITALS, some in italics. Let your transcriber know your preferences – I send a little questionnaire to new clients for them to fill in. You’d be surprised how many options there are!

4. Tell your transcriber who the interviewee is

This helps with research and gives your transcriber a clue as to what the topic will be.

5. Be sensitive to your transcriber’s sensitivities

I have some set text I send to my prospective clients asking them to let me know if there are any vivid descriptions of violence or animal cruelty on their tapes. However, I really don’t mind drink and drug references or swearing (apparently a lot of the commercial transcription agencies don’t tolerate bad language which is bad news for music journalists!). So my clients very kindly let me know if there’s stuff I’m going to find hard to work with, and allow me to skip parts of tapes with extreme content (this has only happened once in my whole career so far).

It’s worth checking in with your transcriber if there is some iffy content and working out how to handle it with them, and they will appreciate it.

6. Be precise on the length of the tape you have

Again, bearing in mind that 3 x tape length time for transcribing, if you tell your transcriber you’ve got an hour’s tape and it’s actually an hour and ten minutes, that’s an extra half-hour to find in my schedule. Which is sometimes very tricky to find! You know how long your tape is, so it’s best to be precise, then it’s easier to set appropriate deadlines.

7. Make the best recording you can

It’s always going to be harder to hear someone else rather than yourself. You might be able to make out your questions and the fascinating answers through the shrieking of fellow diners and banging of cutlery; your transcriber won’t find it so easy.

Try to set your recorder to “conversation” or “interview” rather than “meeting” or “general” if you can, put it close to the subject and try to choose a quiet place to do it in the first place.

Do listen to the recording before sending it off; we all appreciate a warning if the tape quality isn’t that great or the background noise is high, and your transcriber might need to allot more time to the project.

8. If you have more than one interviewee, differentiate them

If you’re expecting your transcriber to label different people’s speech with their name, there are a few tricks you can use:

• if you have a couple of people round a table, have one to the left and one to the right
• always have all interviewees identify themselves for the tape
• try to mention their names now and then as you ask them a question; that way the transcriber knows they’ve got them the right way around
• with a round table discussion or focus group, try to have the attendees say their name before talking
• another idea with round tables and focus groups is to film them, then it’s clearer who is speaking

9. If there’s specific vocabulary or jargon, give your transcriber a source

I pride myself on getting terms right but sometimes it’s hard to tell. If your book is about a particular art form or you know your interviewees are going to be using for example hospital jargon, send your transcriber a list of commonly used but odd terms or point them to a glossary or resource.

10. Give your transcriber feedback

I always like to check I’m doing it right, as what I want to do is produce the best and most useful possible transcription for my client. And if there’s a word or name I’ve had to mark as unclear several times, I find it really useful to know what that word was, especially for an on-going project.

Also do confirm you’ve received the transcription: some of them are very long and can get lost in the ether, and it’s always good to know it has actually arrived.

I hope these tips will help people using a transcriber to understand what their transcriber needs and how they can help the relationship and the project run smoothly.

Whether you’re new to transcription (read this article if you’re considering becoming a transcriber) or getting into a transcription career, these hints and tips I’ve gathered from my own work might just help you do the best job you can.

Set appropriate expectations – of yourself and for your clients

Work out how fast you transcribe (e.g. it might take you on average three hours to transcribe one hour of tape). Add some wiggle room. Remember to account for breaks. Now you know you can’t promise to transcribe a three-hour tape in six hours – or even nine – you’ll probably need ten to eleven and that includes sleep time, too. Use this to set expectations first of all of yourself, and then for your clients.

Explain up front what you will and won’t do

This should be part of any business arrangement, but there are some special features of transcription work that we need to pay attention to:

• Do you offer specialised transcription such as legal or medical transcription (which you either need training on an official course for or you need to have been a medical or legal secretary (with the relevant courses under your belt))? If not, you need to say so and you really should turn down such work until you’re qualified to do it. At best, it will take you longer than usual to do the work; at worst you will make mistakes that might be costly to the client.
• Do you have things you can’t handle hearing and typing about? That’s fine, but it’s better to be honest about that upfront rather than returning a transcription full of gaps or not doing it at all. I state in my initial terms and conditions that I’m not happy dealing with graphic accounts of violence and/or animal cruelty, but I don’t mind swearing and drug and alcohol references (some commercial transcription agencies won’t accept tapes with swearing, I’ve discovered. Doesn’t bother me). This leads my lovely clients to warn me about off-colour jokes or apologise on tape for using the big swears, which is lovely, but they do also warn me of bad stuff, or check I’m OK to do it.

Ask exactly what your client needs then do it

Some clients know exactly what they want: their questions in bold with a time stamp by each question. They want their questions in note form but the interviewee’s responses must be written out verbatim. They might even have a template for you to fill in (this is more common with commercial clients).

When I’m arranging to work with a client for the first time, I send them a mini questionnaire collecting their preferences. I then note this down on their record and keep a note of it and stick with that from then on, unless they ask me to change.

Other clients don’t know what they want and trust you to know. If that’s the case, I have a standard set of conventions (them in italics, time stamping every 10 minutes, interviewee’s speech tidied up of ums and ers but not too sanitised) which I lay out for them and check is OK.

Don’t surprise your client with extra charges

If your client needs you to turn round a transcription in 24 hours and you charge extra for urgent work, you need to tell them as soon as you are aware it’s urgent. That way they know what the maximum price will be and can agree that with anyone they’re claiming expenses from, etc.

Do the work on time

I know this is obvious but I did once recommend a fellow transcriber for a job who then didn’t return the work on time, which was really embarrassing for me (I tend to only recommend people I know or who come highly recommended now). I usually set a longer deadline than I need, just in case.

Do a bit of research

You don’t have to have everything picture-perfect and no client I’ve had has ever castigated me for missing looking up something, but a bit of looking up to clarify song titles, colleagues or book titles shows you’re going the extra mile and makes your client’s job that bit easier. It’s also interesting to find out a bit about your subject, and it shows your client you care.

When in doubt, don’t guess

If you can’t make something out on a tape or you’re not certain you’ve got it right, annotate it however you wish to with a time-stamp so you don’t convey guessed information to your client. They will likely know what their interviewee said or be able to piece it together and none of my clients have minded having to check the odd unclear bit of tape.

I hope this has given you a few pointers on how to do a good job for your transcription clients. If you have other suggestions, please do add a comment below!

Other transcription articles on this blog

I’ve written lots and lots of articles on transcription: here’s a list of all of them.