Standard business book ghostwriting takes 4-6 months: interviews, outline, draft, revisions, polish. But sometimes clients have hard deadlines: book launch at major conference, coordinated marketing campaign, competitive pressure. They need 50,000-word business book in 8 weeks, not 6 months. This requires different methodology than typical project. You cannot simply work faster—you'll burn out or sacrifice quality. You need systematic sprint approach: ruthless prioritization, intensive collaboration, AI leverage, and scope management. Master accelerated ghostwriting and you can charge 50-100% rush premiums while delivering quality that doesn't reveal compressed timeline.
Week-by-Week Sprint Structure
Week 1: Intensive Discovery & Outline
- Days 1-3: Conduct 12-15 hours of concentrated interviews (3-4 hour sessions daily)
- Days 4-5: Create detailed chapter-by-chapter outline with client approval by end of week
- Deliverable: Approved 15-20 chapter outline with 200-word summaries per chapter
Weeks 2-5: Sprint Drafting (4 weeks)
- Week 2: Draft chapters 1-5 (12,500 words)
- Week 3: Draft chapters 6-10 (12,500 words)
- Week 4: Draft chapters 11-15 (12,500 words)
- Week 5: Draft chapters 16-20 + intro/conclusion (12,500 words)
- Target: 3,125 words daily (5 days/week), with weekends for catch-up
Week 6: Revision Round 1
- Days 1-3: Client reviews complete first draft (compressed review period)
- Days 4-7: Implement major structural and content revisions
Week 7: Revision Round 2 & Polish
- Days 1-2: Client reviews revision 1
- Days 3-5: Final revisions and polish
- Days 6-7: Fact-checking and final quality pass
Week 8: Final Delivery
- Days 1-2: Client final review
- Days 3-4: Address final minor tweaks
- Day 5: Deliver final manuscript
Prerequisites for 8-Week Success
This timeline only works with specific conditions:
Client Availability: Client must commit 15-20 hours over 8 weeks: 12-15 hours interviews (Week 1), 2-3 hours review time (Weeks 6-7), immediate feedback turnaround. If client travels extensively or responds slowly, timeline collapses.
Clear Project Scope: Business book, 50,000 words, 15-20 chapters, straightforward topic client knows deeply. NO memoirs (too emotionally complex), NO heavily researched academic books (insufficient time), NO first-time authors who need extensive hand-holding.
Organized Source Material: Client provides existing presentations, articles, frameworks, case studies. You're not creating concepts from scratch—you're organizing and expanding existing intellectual capital into book form.
Premium Compensation: 75-100% rush fee on top of normal rates. If normal business book is $50K, this is $87K-100K. Compressed timeline means declining other work and working extended hours. Compensation must reflect that.
Ghostwriter Experience: This is not project for new ghostwriters. You need 5+ business books under belt, proven process, and confidence to work at speed without constant second-guessing.
The Intensive Interview Process
Normal projects spread 20 hours of interviews over 2 months. Eight-week projects compress to 3-4 days:
Day 1 (4 hours): Vision & Framework
- Overall book vision and key messages
- Target audience deep dive
- Core frameworks or methodologies
- Competitive differentiation
Day 2 (4 hours): Content Deep-Dive Part 1
- Chapters 1-10 detailed content
- Case studies and examples for first half
- Key anecdotes and stories
Day 3 (4 hours): Content Deep-Dive Part 2
- Chapters 11-20 detailed content
- Additional examples and applications
- Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Day 4 (3 hours): Gap-Filling & Clarification
- Address outline gaps identified during Days 1-3
- Clarify ambiguous points
- Gather any missing elements
Record everything. Transcribe immediately. You'll mine these transcripts constantly during writing—no time for additional interviews if you missed something.
The Sprint Drafting System
3,125 words daily for 4 weeks is achievable with system:
Morning Immersion (8-11am): 1,800 words
- Review relevant interview transcripts and outline section
- Draft for 2.5 hours in single deep work session
- No email, no interruptions, no research rabbit holes
- Target: 600-750 words/hour = 1,500-1,875 words
Afternoon Sprint (2-4:30pm): 1,325 words
- Review morning work briefly
- Draft for 2 hours
- Push through resistance—momentum matters more than perfection
- Target: 650 words/hour = 1,300 words
Total Daily Output: 3,125 words
This is first-draft quality, not polished prose. You'll refine in weeks 6-7. Just get ideas and structure down.
Non-Writing Time:
- Lunch break and light admin (11am-2pm)
- Evening: Off completely (avoid burnout)
- Weekends: Catch up if behind, otherwise rest
Leveraging AI for Speed Without Quality Loss
AI dramatically accelerates 8-week projects:
Interview Transcript Analysis: Upload transcripts to AI asking: "Extract all content related to Chapter 5: [topic]." AI pulls relevant material from 60 pages of transcript instantly versus manually searching.
First-Draft Sections: Provide AI with outline section, relevant transcript excerpts, and desired length. AI generates first draft you then revise for voice and polish. This can produce 40-60% of rough draft, cutting drafting time significantly.
Research Synthesis: AI summarizes industry reports, competitive books, supporting research in minutes versus hours of reading.
Structural Feedback: Run chapters through AI structural analysis identifying pacing issues or weak sections before client sees them.
AI handles mechanical work. You provide strategic thinking, voice refinement, and quality judgment. This division of labor makes accelerated timeline feasible without sacrificing standards.
Managing Client Expectations
Set realistic expectations upfront:
"First Draft Quality" Agreement: "Week 6 draft will be complete but rough. Expect ideas and structure fully there but prose needing polish. Weeks 6-7 transform rough draft into publication-ready manuscript. This is normal accelerated process, not quality failure."
Compressed Feedback Windows: "Standard projects give you 2 weeks per review. We have 48-72 hours per review. Please block time immediately when drafts arrive. Delays cascade in compressed timeline."
Scope Lock: "After Week 1 outline approval, scope is locked. No new chapters, no major pivots. Changes are refinements, not rewrites. This is non-negotiable for timeline success."
Limited Revision Rounds: "Standard projects include 3 revision rounds. Accelerated projects include 2. Additional rounds require timeline extension and additional fees."
Quality Maintenance Strategies
Speed doesn't require quality sacrifice with these safeguards:
Daily Quality Check: End each writing day reviewing that day's output. Fix obvious issues immediately while fresh. Don't accumulate quality debt.
Weekend Review Sessions: Use Saturdays to review week's output for voice consistency and structural flow. Better to catch issues after 5 chapters than after 15.
Peer Review (If Possible): If you work with other ghostwriters, quick peer reviews on 2-3 sample chapters can catch blind spots before client sees work.
Voice Reference Sheet: Keep client voice guide visible always during writing. Compressed timeline increases contamination risk from your default voice. Constant reference prevents this.
When to Decline 8-Week Projects
Sometimes accelerated timeline isn't feasible. Decline when:
- Client Can't Commit Time: If they can't block 15 hours Week 1 or respond within 48 hours during reviews, timeline is fantasy
- Unclear Vision: Client hasn't crystallized what book is about. Discovery work alone takes weeks they don't have
- You're Overbooked: This requires dedicated focus. If managing 3 other projects, you can't maintain required pace
- Complex Research Required: Topics requiring extensive external research (interviews with multiple stakeholders, academic literature review, original data collection) need more time
- Wrong Genre: Memoirs need more contemplation. Academic books need more research. Some projects inherently resist compression
Better to decline and maintain reputation than accept and fail to deliver.
Post-Project Recovery
Eight-week sprints are intense. After delivery:
- Take minimum 1 week completely off
- Don't start new major project immediately—schedule easier work
- Reflect on what worked and what to improve for next accelerated project
- Consider limiting accelerated projects to 1-2 per year to avoid burnout
Sustainable ghostwriting practice can't be constant sprints. Accelerated projects are exceptions commanding premium fees precisely because they're unsustainable as regular practice.
Accelerated business book ghostwriting is achievable with right client, clear process, AI leverage, and ruthless focus. It's not for every project or every ghostwriter, but when conditions align and compensation justifies intensity, you can deliver quality business books in 8 weeks that don't reveal compressed timeline. Use River's AI ghostwriting tools to accelerate outline development, research synthesis, and draft generation while maintaining the voice authenticity and strategic thinking only human ghostwriters provide.