Are Copywriters and Ghostwriters Two Different Entities?

There seems to be some confusion when it comes to the titles given to some writers nowadays. Copywriter, ghostwriter… what does it all mean?

To clear up the mystery, copywriting and ghostwriting are really very much the same thing. No matter what you want written, if you hire a writer to get the job done for you then that job could be referred to ether as copy writing or ghost writing.

Ghostwriting is the more glamorous sounding term, but all it refers to is the fact that a writer will create your work and you then put your own name to it. So you could ask a ghostwriter to write ten articles for your website, and when you upload them you would add your name as the author instead of theirs. They are paid to provide the content and nothing more. The term copywriting meanwhile comes from the fact that some written pieces are sometimes referred to as ‘copy’ rather than writing.

You will sometimes notice that certain types of writing are referred to more as ghost writing than copy writing, or vice versa, and this is largely where the confusion over what each term refers to comes from. For example some celebrities ask professionals to write their autobiographies for them, and this is most often referred to as ghost writing.

So in essence it doesn’t matter what kind of work you need to have done. It could be an e-book or a press release, an article or a sales page. Whatever it is, you can look for both ghostwriting and copywriting services when you are searching for a writer to take on the work for you.

In truth you shouldn’t worry about the term a particular writer or writing service uses to describe what they do. What matters is whether they have any experience of doing the kind of work you require. If you look for a ghostwriting service to take on your e-book for you, you could miss out on the best writer for the job, who just happens to call themselves a UK copywriter instead.

Sometimes what you need to know isn’t in the job title - it’s in the job itself.