Out-of-work Sydney mum's lucrative side hustle writing books she's never allowed to talk about

Ghostwriting was the last side hustle Kristy Lee Kelly thought she'd fall into after being made redundant in 2020.

The 32-year-old from Sydney didn't even know ghostwriting existed until an old colleague suggested it could help her make ends meet.

Kelly figured there was no harm trying it, at least until she found a new job.

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Instead she ended up ghostwriting for more than four years.

For those not in the know, a ghostwriter is a professional author paid to write books (among other things) for other authors, celebrities, even royals.

Prince Harry's Spare was ghostwritten by acclaimed journalist and author J. R. Moehringer, who reportedly charges seven figures per book.

Other, less established ghostwriters make tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per book.

The trade-off is that most receive no credit for what they write because it's published under someone else's name (celebrity ghostwriters such as Moehringer are outliers).

But Kelly, a self-proclaimed "lover of words", didn't mind writing for other people at first.

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She was just happy getting paid to do something she enjoyed.

"You can't realistically live on one income anymore," she told 9news.com.au.

"It was a combination of extra cash while having a creative outlet that appealed to me."

It only took a few beginner projects to build her confidence and start landing bigger, well-paid contracts writing romance.

It's a booming genre, with Australians forking out $50 million on romance novels in 2024 alone, according to Nielsen BookScan.

And Kelly was "floored" to realise how many authors in it and other popular genres don't write their own books.

"People don't know how much of the publishing industry is built on ghostwriters," she said.

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Like most jobs, ghostwriting gigs are advertised online with details such as the genre of the book, the level of experience required, and the rate of pay.

And almost all of them require the hired ghostwriter to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prohibiting them from ever revealing they wrote it.

Kelly had to sign one for every single book she worked on, but the cash was worth it.

Before long, she was ghostwriting for major publishers in the US and UK, as well as a few authors directly.

As her profile increased, so did her pay.

"I would negotiate the overall amount, then get paid in milestones," she explained.

"It started with the outline, then it was usually in 10,000- to 20,000-word increments, and then for any further edits."

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It became a lucrative side hustle and when Kelly landed a full-time job in the disability sector in 2021, she decided to keep ghostwriting.

Having an extra income as the cost-of-living crisis was kicking off was a huge relief.

Especially when Kelly and her husband learned they were expecting their first child the following year.

It was a challenging juggle and Kelly had to write before and after work and on her lunch breaks to meet tight project deadlines.

"Whenever I had a spare moment, I was writing," she said, describing it as "exhausting but fulfilling".

"Then on weekends I smashed out as much as I could."

The only drawback was that Kelly had no ownership of her writing, even on the projects where she was given almost total creative freedom.

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For one project, she was given a vague theme and allowed to run wild with it for three books.

But as soon as the ink dried, her words were taken away to be published under a stranger's name.

"That's the one series I wish I could've put my name on, because it had so much of me in it and I still to this day have no idea where it ended up," Kelly said.

Of the 20 books she ghostwrote, Kelly has only ever found two on shelves – both by accident.

What happened to the rest remains a mystery.

It was only after becoming a mother that Kelly decided to finally step away from ghostwriting after more than four years.

"It was incredibly draining to give pieces of myself - my humour, my creativity, even my trauma - to other people's books," she explained.

"I started to question why I was bringing other people's stories to life but not the ones that I've been carrying around inside of me."

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Hoping to show her daughter that it's never too late to chase your passions, Kelly is now writing original fiction between part-time work and raising a toddler.

But she doesn't regret her time as a ghostwriter.

"This has all led me to a path where I'm working on my own writing, and I'm excited to see where it leads me," she said.

"It could lead to a pile of books that never see the light of day, but at least I put pen to paper."

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Leach at mleach@nine.com.au

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