How to hire a B2B ghostwriter and set them up to succeed

Sell in Public → B2B LinkedIn content agency → B2B ghostwriting

Decide which formats you're hiring for

B2B ghostwriting covers very different jobs, and the best LinkedIn writer you find may be a poor choice for a 2,000-word technical article.

One writer can often cover two neighboring formats well, such as LinkedIn posts and a newsletter, but rarely all four. Hire for the format that matters most and test the rest separately.

Where to find B2B ghostwriters

• Your network. Ask founders and marketers whose writing you admire who helps them. Start here; a warm recommendation saves weeks of screening.
• LinkedIn itself. Plenty of ghostwriters post good work under their own names and say so in their profiles.
• Trade publication editors. Editors at the outlets you'd want bylines in often know freelancers who write well for their readers.
• Freelance marketplaces. Useful for tight budgets and simple formats, though quality varies widely and screening takes longer.
• Agencies that employ writers. Worth it if you need several voices or several formats and don't want to manage a writer per job.

What a B2B ghostwriter costs

For articles, newsletters and bylines, we found no reliable published price range per piece. The usable public figures are hourly. goLance's 2026 guide puts freelance ghostwriters worldwide at $15–$30 an hour for junior writers, $30–$60 for mid-level, $60–$100 for senior and $100–$175 for experts (goLance). Upwork lists typical hourly rates of $20–$45 for ghostwriters on its marketplace, with a median of $32 (Upwork). Neither is specific to B2B work. goLance describes its senior band as writers who lead complex projects and its expert band as writers with a niche specialty, which is closer to what technical B2B pieces demand.

To turn hourly rates into something you can compare, give each finalist the same test brief and ask for two numbers: a fixed price for the piece and their estimate of the hours it takes. Divide the price by the hours and check where the implied hourly rate falls in the goLance bands. If the implied rate is junior-level but the piece needs a senior writer, ask why.

LinkedIn is the one format with published per-piece figures: a vendor guide estimates roughly $150 to $600 per post, depending on the writer, research and format (Influent). Like every LinkedIn price guide we found, it comes from a company that sells the service.

How to read a B2B writer's samples

Ask for samples in the format you're hiring for, ideally with a note on what the raw material was. A polished article written from a detailed outline tells you less than one written from a rambling interview. Check that technical claims hold up, that the piece makes one clear argument, and that it would make sense to your buyer without a glossary. Ask how much the client edited before publishing.

Run a paid test that looks like the real work

Pick one real piece in the format you need most, give the writer real input, and pay their normal rate. Agree on a deadline and one round of revisions up front.

A sample brief: "Write a 1,200-word article for our CTO on why we moved our data pipeline off nightly batch jobs. Inputs: a 30-minute interview with the CTO and our internal postmortem. Readers: data engineering leads at mid-market companies. Due in ten days, with one revision round."

Then judge more than the final draft:

• The interview. Did they ask follow-up questions that got the CTO past the polished version to the specific decision and its trade-offs?
• The structure. Does the piece make one argument, with each section earning its place?
• The detail. Did the CTO have to correct technical points, or only tweak phrasing?
• The voice. Does it sound like the CTO, or like a generic company blog?
• The revision. Did they act on your notes, or argue with them?

Contract terms to settle before work starts

A short written agreement settles the questions that otherwise turn into arguments later. Cover these, and have your lawyer read anything you sign:

1. Scope. Formats, pieces per month, typical length, and what counts as a revision versus a new piece.
2. Fees and payment. Per piece or retainer, invoice timing, and a kill fee if you cancel a piece partway through.
3. Rights. All drafts and finished work should transfer to you on payment, and the writer should agree not to claim authorship publicly.
4. Confidentiality. Cover your roadmap, customers, financials and fundraising. Say whether the writer can mention you as a client or show the work in a portfolio (usually only with written permission).
5. Revisions. How many rounds each piece includes and what happens when you change the brief after a draft is in.
6. AI tools. Whether they use them, for what, and a rule that confidential material never goes into public tools.
7. Conflicts. Whether they can write for your direct competitors while working with you.
8. Notice. Thirty days either way is reasonable, plus a clear plan for work in progress when either side ends things.

The first 30 days

Week 1: access. Hold a kickoff call. Share your sales deck, product docs, customer stories, past content you're proud of and content you hated. Introduce the writer to two or three subject experts and explain who approves what.

Week 2: first pieces. Start with the format they're strongest in. Review quickly and give specific edits. "Too formal" is hard to act on; rewriting one sentence the way you'd say it is easy.

Week 3: rhythm. Set recurring interviews, a shared list of ideas and a simple publishing calendar. Ask the writer what's slowing them down and fix it while the habits are still new.

Week 4: check-in. Review what's working, what took too long and whether the scope still fits. Adjust now rather than at month three.