Dark Quill Agency sounds good, doesn’t it.
Agency.
Like there’s a team.
A creative director, maybe.
A few writers sitting in a stylish open-plan office arguing about em dashes and semi colons.
The reality: it’s me.
Dark Quill is a ghostwriting agency that I am building from scratch.
I do the writing,
I do the business development,
I do the admin,
I do everything.
The “agency” part is where it’s going though not where it is right now.
Ghostwriting is an interesting business.
The work is invisible by design.
The client’s name goes on everything you write.
Your job is to capture their voice so accurately that no one would know it wasn’t them, and then not tell anyone you did it.
This creates an odd marketing problem.
You can’t point to your work.
You can’t build a portfolio in the traditional sense.
Most of your best references come from people who, by definition, want to keep quiet about using you.
So how do you grow it?
Relationships.
Referrals.
Reputation built slowly, one client at a time.
You also make yourself the case study (I will get into this in a later post)
There’s no funnel for this.
You do good work, the right people find out, and they pass your name on.
The short version: I’m writing for clients, building the structures that let me eventually bring other writers in, and figuring out as I go what a solo-built agency actually looks like in practice.
Some days it looks like a legitimate business.
Other days it looks like a freelancer with a website.
The gap between those two things is where all the work lives.
I’ll keep you posted.
Cameron is building four businesses at once and documenting every win, loss, and ugly middle bit in real time.
He’s the founder of Build Your Vegan Blog, the Vegan Certification Authority, Epiktet Supplies, and Dark Quill Agency.
He is also the voice behind NABB.coach, where he writes about the realities of starting and running businesses without the coaching industry’s usual spin.
No blueprints.
No gurus.
Just what’s actually happening.