Candidate profile
Start with identity and working context.
Collect the basics needed to communicate and schedule across locations.
- Name, email, location, and time zone.
- Website or portfolio URL.
- Contact preference and response hours.
Describe the writing projects you staff. Makeform creates a ghostwriter job application form for relevant samples, credits, rates, availability, and collaboration preferences.
Route candidate submissions to email, Slack, Google Sheets, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose the hiring scenario closest to yours, edit its details, or send it to the Makeform builder.
Audience
Writers applying to shape a first-person life story
Format
Portfolio application with interview and process questions
Prompt size
333 chars
Example form structure
Portfolio application with interview and process questions
Experience and memoir specialties
Relevant samples and your contribution
How do you preserve an author's voice?
Availability and time zone
Rate structure and estimate
Suggested routing tags
Book ghostwriters
Editorial review
Rate follow-up
Ask candidates to label each sample with their role, audience, and level of editing; a polished link alone does not reveal what they actually wrote.
Step 1
Apply
candidate shares experience, samples, and rates
Step 2
Compare
reviewers assess format, voice, process, and fit
Step 3
Shortlist
strong applicants move to an interview or paid test
Step 4
Staff
the selected writer receives a clear project brief
Better writer screening
Ghostwriting is often private or collaborative. A structured application lets candidates explain their contribution and gives reviewers consistent evidence.
Pair each sample with its format, audience, candidate contribution, and editing level so reviewers know what it demonstrates.
Show conditional questions for memoirs, business books, articles, speeches, or social posts.
Capture interview style, feedback habits, subject knowledge, capacity, and availability alongside the writing.
Adapt it to the engagement
Choose an engagement, then adjust samples, pricing, screening questions, and routing.
Review structure, interviews, research, chapter process, timeline, and book credits.
Compare formats, verticals, rates, capacity, lead time, and time zone.
Assess voice matching, subject fluency, interviews, approvals, and channel samples.
Separate drafting, editing, research, and revision experience.
Build the application
Describe the work, refine the evidence, publish, and give reviewers consistent context.
Name the format, subject, audience, length, collaboration rhythm, and timeline.
Request relevant evidence and show conditional sections for selected formats.
Set expectations, preview on mobile, and share one link across recruiting channels.
Send applications to the hiring inbox or sheet, tag specialties, and apply shared criteria.
Form vs email vs generic application
Make private and collaborative work understandable without disconnected attachments.
Field guide
Use six sections to assess craft, process, commercial fit, and availability without requesting confidential material.
Candidate profile
Collect the basics needed to communicate and schedule across locations.
Specialties and credits
Ask about genres, formats, audiences, industries, and project stages relevant to the role.
Writing evidence
Request relevant samples and ask what the applicant drafted, revised, researched, or shaped.
Collaboration process
Ask how the candidate handles interviews, feedback, revisions, and approval.
Rates and scope
Let applicants specify a pricing method and what the figure includes.
Availability and next steps
Confirm workable timing, then collect references and interview availability.
Related tools
Pair the specialized ghostwriter intake with general recruiting, candidate detail, project scoping, and freelance pricing forms.
Screen candidates for articles, web pages, newsletters, and other content roles.
Open toolCreate a broader application when the role includes responsibilities beyond writing.
Open toolStandardize contact, work history, availability, and recruiting notes across candidates.
Open toolCollect general employment information for a structured internal hiring process.
Open toolTurn the selected writer's assignment into a practical scope, audience, and deliverables brief.
Open toolGather pricing and scope details when commissioning a defined freelance project.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for authors, agencies, publishers, and content teams screening ghostwriter candidates.
It evaluates writers who create work in another person's or organization's voice. It collects experience, samples, contribution, process, rates, capacity, and availability for consistent comparison.
Ask about formats, subjects, audiences, relevant samples, contribution, research, interviews, voice matching, feedback, rates, capacity, and start date. Tailor questions to the assignment.
Accept a public sample, a permitted anonymized excerpt, or a project description that omits the client. You can provide a short exercise. Tell candidates not to disclose confidential information.
Let candidates choose a pricing method and state what it includes. Capture scope, research, interviews, drafts, and revisions so different rate structures remain comparable.
Yes. Use conditional sections. Book applicants can see outline and milestone questions, while article or social applicants see questions about cadence, channels, and capacity.
A short exercise can show voice matching, but state its purpose, length, criteria, deadline, and whether it is paid. Move longer exercises to a clearly explained shortlist stage.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect applications without a response cap. A paid tier is available to remove the Makeform badge.
Use a shared rubric for sample relevance, contribution, voice, structure, subject fluency, collaboration, availability, and commercial fit. Record follow-up questions instead of relying on client names.
Replace scattered portfolios with comparable applications.