The Leverage-Based Pricing Advisor
Stop pricing the page. Start pricing the impact.
Become A Premium Ghostwriter In 5 Simple Steps
Get the free blueprint that shows you how to package your writing, charge better fees, and land higher-value clients.
Your Fee Is Not a Typing Receipt
Here’s the funny little disease writers catch: they finish a draft, look at the word count, then try to price the piece like they’re selling deli meat. “That’ll be 900 words, sliced thin.” Terrible business. Very tidy. Completely broke.
This prompt helps you look at a ghostwriting project through the lens that actually matters: leverage.
Who will read this?
What could happen if the message lands?
What risk does the client carry if it misses?
How much access, strategy, and judgment does the work require?
Is this a one-time draft, or an asset that can keep working?
Because a LinkedIn post for a hobbyist and a memo for a CEO may both fit on one screen. But one might get three likes from cousins, and the other might calm a boardroom, attract investors, or sharpen a company’s public story.
Run this prompt before you quote the project, and let the price match the stakes.
How to use this prompt:
Use this prompt when a potential client asks, “How much would you charge for this?” Instead of guessing, discounting, or hiding behind word count, plug in the project details and let the AI evaluate the business context, strategic complexity, audience importance, and leverage potential.
Fill in the client type, deliverable, audience, and business goal.
Include any known stakes, such as investors, customers, employees, media, or public reputation.
Add how much access the client expects, including calls, research, revisions, and strategy.
Use the output to shape your quote, pricing rationale, and scope boundaries.
Adjust the final number based on your experience, demand, and confidence.
The goal is not to let AI magically invent your fee. The goal is to stop pricing like a nervous typist and start thinking like a strategic partner.
The Prompt:
You are my leverage-based pricing advisor for a premium ghostwriting project.
Your job is to help me price this project based on business value, strategic complexity, audience importance, risk, access, and leverage — not word count, hourly effort, or how “simple” the deliverable looks.
Project details:
- Client type: [CLIENT TYPE — founder, CEO, investor, consultant, creator, executive, agency owner, etc.]
- Client industry: [INDUSTRY]
- Deliverable: [DELIVERABLE — LinkedIn posts, article, speech, memo, email sequence, newsletter, landing page, pitch narrative, etc.]
- Quantity/frequency: [NUMBER OF ASSETS OR CADENCE]
- Primary audience: [AUDIENCE — investors, customers, employees, partners, board, media, prospects, community, etc.]
- Business goal: [WHAT THE CLIENT WANTS THIS WRITING TO ACCOMPLISH]
- Visibility level: [PRIVATE, INTERNAL, PUBLIC, HIGH-VISIBILITY, EXECUTIVE-LEVEL, MEDIA-FACING]
- Stakes if the message works: [WHAT GOOD OUTCOME COULD HAPPEN]
- Stakes if the message misses: [WHAT BAD OUTCOME COULD HAPPEN]
- Source material available: [TRANSCRIPTS, NOTES, CALLS, PODCASTS, BOOK, ROUGH DRAFTS, NO MATERIAL, ETC.]
- Required access: [CALLS, ASYNC VOICE NOTES, INTERVIEWS, RESEARCH, STRATEGY SESSIONS, REVISIONS, APPROVAL LOOPS]
- Timeline: [STANDARD, FAST, URGENT, ONGOING]
- My current experience level: [BEGINNER, INTERMEDIATE, ADVANCED, PREMIUM]
- My current pricing instinct: [WHAT I WAS THINKING OF CHARGING]
- Any constraints: [BUDGET, SCOPE LIMITS, CONFIDENTIALITY, TECHNICAL COMPLEXITY, LEGAL/COMPLIANCE CONCERNS]
Analyze this project using the following framework:
1. Leverage assessment
Explain how much potential business leverage this writing creates for the client. Consider audience importance, decision-making influence, revenue potential, reputation value, and whether the asset can be reused.
2. Complexity assessment
Evaluate the hidden work behind the deliverable, including strategy, positioning, message development, research, voice capture, interviews, revisions, and approval management.
3. Risk assessment
Identify what could go wrong if the writing is inaccurate, off-voice, unclear, too bold, too weak, or misaligned with the client’s public identity.
4. Access assessment
Determine how much of my time, attention, judgment, and availability the client is really buying beyond the visible draft.
5. Pricing recommendation
Recommend a price range using three tiers:
- Lean scope: [LOWER PRICE RANGE]
- Strategic scope: [MID PRICE RANGE]
- Premium/high-touch scope: [HIGHER PRICE RANGE]
6. Scope boundaries
List what should be included and excluded at each tier so I do not accidentally sell unlimited strategy, revisions, access, or research.
7. Pricing rationale
Write a short explanation I can use with the client to justify the fee without sounding defensive, needy, or over-explanatory.
8. Red flags
Identify any signs that this project may be underpriced, too risky, too custom, or likely to expand beyond the original scope.
9. Final recommendation
Tell me which tier you would choose, why, and what I should say next to the client.
Write the response in a sharp, practical, slightly witty tone. Be direct. Do not flatter me. Do not default to cheap pricing just because I feel unsure. Help me price the responsibility, not just the writing.What to expect after running this prompt:
You should get a clearer view of what the project is actually worth in context. Instead of staring at the deliverable and thinking, “It’s just a post,” you’ll see the invisible parts of the work: the audience, the stakes, the strategic judgment, the client access, the reputational risk, and the possible business upside.
A breakdown of why the same deliverable can command different fees for different clients.
A practical price range instead of one nervous number pulled from the ceiling.
Clear scope options so you can charge more when the client wants more access, speed, strategy, or review.
A client-ready pricing explanation that makes the fee feel logical, not random.
A list of red flags that help you avoid projects where the work quietly balloons.
After running it, you should feel less like you are charging for a document and more like you are pricing the leverage that document creates.
Chat soon.
Roger
P.S.
Want to learn how top ghostwriters attract high paying clients?
