by Giovanni Casali, editorial coordinator
It works like this: you tell, we write. A five-step journey that starts with a free consultation and ends with a book signed by you. Our name appears nowhere, ever.
This is not our first time, it is our craft: the studio has 44 titles written and 262 editions published, and our novels have been reviewed by international critics with 4 and 5 stars. The same hands that made those books make yours.
It works for any book: the story of your life, your expertise turned into a manual, the story of your company, the novel you have had in mind for years. What changes is the starting material, not the method. The full range is here: what a ghostwriter can write.
The book is yours. Signature, rights, royalties: all yours, written into the contract. We stay invisible.
You do not need to know how to write, and you do not even need to know how to tell a story. We bring the right questions. You talk the way you would talk at the dinner table.
You never pay blind. You read the chapters as they are written, one by one, and you approve them.
It starts at 150 euro for an hour of consulting, if all you need is a direction, and at 300 euro for an assessment of the material you already have, with a written report and an outline: if the work then goes ahead, those 300 euro are deducted from the quote.
A short project starts at 2,500 euro. A biography starts at 3,500 euro and usually takes 3-6 months, 6,000 in the full format, which also includes the book ready to sell. A manual or a business book starts at 7,000, a novel at 9,000.
Payment is in stages, never everything up front. The exact figure for your book comes after the first consultation, which is free and commits you to nothing. We have devoted a whole page to prices: how much a ghostwriter costs.
Write us a couple of lines, even vague ones, even just «I would like to write my father's story and I have no idea where to start». You do not need clear ideas: making them clear is our job, not yours. Then we meet on a video call whenever suits you, and we tell you frankly whether it can be done, how we would do it and what it costs. If the project does not stand up, or is not for us, we say so: an honest no is worth more than a sold yes. It commits you to nothing.
The contract is there for you more than for us. It sets out what we deliver, when and at what price, so the quote cannot change halfway. And it sets out the two things that matter: the book is entirely yours, signature, rights and royalties, and our name appears nowhere. What you entrust to us, recordings, photographs, documents, diaries, stays confidential and comes back to you when the work is done.
This is where the book comes to life. We meet on a video call, unhurried and with a method: the right questions, in the right order. You do not need to leave home and you do not need to prepare anything. For a typical book it is a few hours of conversation spread over some weeks.
If there are things you would rather not talk about, just say so: you tell what you want to tell, and you decide what goes into the book. People who do this work have heard everything already, and they do not judge.
We turn your words into narrative, written in the first person in your voice: the people who know you must hear you when they read. We send you the first chapter early on purpose, because that is where you immediately feel whether the tone is right. If it does not sound like you, we do it again until it does, and that holds for the whole book: you receive the chapters as they come, you ask for the changes you want, you approve them one by one. There is no surprise at the end, because you watched the book grow page by page.
You can stop at the manuscript, ready to submit to a publisher, or go all the way to the finished book on sale: cover, layout, publication on the stores, print on demand. We know the publishing platforms and we handle them, ISBN included: you do not open an account and you do not upload a file. If you wish, also in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
It happens often: a manuscript in a drawer, a parent's diaries, a first draft that does not convince. In that case we do not start from scratch: we do editing or rewriting, it costs less, and it can still go all the way to the published book. The first step here is the 300 euro assessment of the material, deducted from the quote if the work goes ahead.
No: the whole journey happens on video calls, wherever you are. We see each other face to face, which for work like this matters.
No, never: not on the cover, not inside the book. That is the ghostwriter's trade, and it is in the contract.
We do it again. The right voice is found by working, and it is expected: chapters are approved one by one precisely for this.
No. Most people arrive with a box of memories and no outline. We build the outline with you, and it is the first thing we do.
Want to understand who can write your story? Read also: Who can write my autobiography?
The first of the five steps is free:
tell us about your project in a few lines.
or, if you prefer:
info@dualpenbooks.com
Giovanni Casali, editorial coordinator, will reply.
Want to get a sense of how we write first? Read a few excerpts.