--- title: "Op-Ed of the Month: Ghostwritten Tier-1 Bylines for $2,500" description: "Op-ed ghostwriting for founders: one placed tier-1 byline a month for $2,500, 3-month minimum. The outlets, the monthly process, and who it is right for." author: "Shilika Jain" date: "2026-10-01T06:13:36.101+00:00" tags: ["op-eds", "ghostwriting", "thought leadership", "content writing"] canonical: "https://www.shilikajain.com/blog/op-ed-of-the-month-ghostwriting-service" --- # Op-Ed of the Month: Ghostwritten Tier-1 Bylines for $2,500 By [Shilika Jain](https://www.shilikajain.com/authors/shilika-jain) - 10/1/2026 Op-ed ghostwriting for founders: one placed tier-1 byline a month for $2,500, 3-month minimum. The outlets, the monthly process, and who it is right for. --- # Op-Ed of the Month: Ghostwritten Tier-1 Bylines for $2,500 Op-Ed of the Month is my op-ed ghostwriting service for founders: $2,500 a month, a 3-month minimum, and one tier-1 placement each month. I interview you, write the piece in your voice, pitch it to the right editor and handle revisions until it runs. Target outlets include CoinDesk Opinion, Cointelegraph, Decrypt, Forbes Councils and AI Magazine, picked by fit with your argument, not by what's easiest to land. It's the narrowest thing I sell, and for a lot of founders it's the right first step. ## What you get each month One placed op-ed. Not a draft, not a "submitted to" report. A piece with your name on it, published in an outlet your buyers, investors and peers read. Everything that goes into that: - [ ] A 30 to 45 minute voice interview to pull out the argument and your phrasing - [ ] An angle memo: the thesis, the outlet it's aimed at, and why that editor will want it now - [ ] A full draft, usually 700 to 1,200 words depending on the outlet's format - [ ] Revisions with you until you'd happily defend every sentence on a panel - [ ] The pitch to the editor, written and sent by me - [ ] Editor revisions handled on your behalf, with your sign-off on anything substantive - [ ] A distribution kit when it runs: LinkedIn post, X thread, a short version for your newsletter You spend roughly 90 minutes a month on it: the interview plus one or two review passes. ## Why $2,500 a month, and why a 3-month minimum A single op-ed is a nice moment. Three op-eds in three outlets over a quarter is a position. Editors notice a founder who keeps showing up with sharp arguments, and so do the reporters who read those outlets for sources. The minimum also exists for a practical reason. The first month carries most of the setup: learning your voice, mapping your opinions, building the outlet plan. By month three, drafts get faster and closer to your voice on the first pass. | Option | Price | What you get | When it makes sense | |---|---|---|---| | Op-Ed of the Month | $2,500 per month, 3-month minimum | One tier-1 placement per month | You want a steady drumbeat of bylines | | Founder Essay Package | $3,500 per piece | One 1,200 to 1,800 word essay, two voice interviews, two revision rounds, placed in a contributor outlet | You want one longer flagship piece | | Founder Voice retainer | $4K to $10K per month, 6 to 12 months | Op-eds plus podcasts, profiles, speaking | You want the full founder profile built | If you only need one essay, the [Founder Essay Package](/blog/founder-essay-package) is the better buy. If you want podcasts and speaking alongside bylines, look at [founder profiling](/blog/founder-profiling-service-op-eds-podcasts). ## Which outlets Op-Ed of the Month targets Outlet choice drives everything else. A piece written for CoinDesk Opinion is a different piece from one written for AI Magazine, even on the same topic. | Outlet | Format it rewards | Best fit for | |---|---|---| | CoinDesk Opinion | Contrarian, evidence-backed takes on market structure and policy | Crypto founders with a strong view on regulation or infrastructure | | Cointelegraph | Clear industry arguments, often tied to current debates | Web3 founders explaining where a sector is heading | | Decrypt | Accessible, slightly more narrative arguments | Founders bridging crypto and mainstream readers | | Forbes Councils | Practical founder lessons and operator advice | Founders who are members of the relevant council | | AI Magazine | Enterprise and applied-AI perspectives | AI founders selling to businesses | A note on Forbes Councils: they're vetted, paid membership communities, and membership is between you and Forbes. I write and shape the pieces; the membership itself isn't something I can buy or include. I don't promise a specific outlet in a specific month. I promise a tier-1 placement that fits the argument. If the first editor passes, the piece is reshaped and goes to the next outlet on the plan. ## The monthly process, step by step Here is what a typical month looks like in practice. | Week | Step | Your time | |---|---|---| | 1 | Voice interview, angle memo agreed | 45 minutes | | 2 | First draft delivered, your comments back | 30 minutes | | 2 to 3 | Final draft approved, pitch sent to editor | 10 minutes | | 3 to 4 | Editor questions and edits handled, piece runs | 5 to 15 minutes | | After it runs | Distribution kit delivered for your channels | Optional | Some months a piece runs in week 2. Some months an editor sits on it and it runs in week 5, which overlaps with the next cycle. That's normal. The count across the quarter is what matters. ### The angle memo is where most ghostwriting fails The most common problem I see with ghostwritten op-eds is not bad writing. It's a weak argument. "AI will change finance" isn't an op-ed. "Most AI compliance tools will fail the first real audit, and here's the specific gap" is. So every month starts with a one-page memo. It forces a single claim, names the evidence, and checks the claim against what the target outlet published in the last 60 days so we're not repeating someone else's piece. ```text ANGLE MEMO (illustrative format) Thesis (one sentence): Why now (news hook or debate it answers): Target outlet and section: Evidence we can cite (data, public sources, your own numbers you're cleared to share): The objection a smart reader will raise, and our answer: What we are NOT saying (to keep it out of trouble): Founder approval: yes / changes needed ``` ## What a finished quarter looks like Take an illustration. Say you run an AI compliance startup selling to mid-market banks. A sensible first quarter might be: - Month 1: an AI Magazine piece arguing that model audit trails, not accuracy scores, will decide which AI vendors survive bank procurement - Month 2: a contributor piece on what your team learned shipping into regulated buyers, written as operator advice rather than a pitch - Month 3: a sharper, more contrarian take tied to whatever regulatory debate is live that month By the end of it you have three placed bylines that tell one consistent story about you. Your sales team has three links to put in follow-up emails. Your next investor update has something more interesting than a product changelog. And the next reporter writing about AI in banking has a reason to find you. That consistency is deliberate. I plan the three pieces as a set before the first one is written. ## Who Op-Ed of the Month fits It's a strong fit if: - [ ] You have opinions you'd defend in public and can explain them out loud - [ ] You're a founder or senior exec in Web3, AI or cybersecurity - [ ] You want credibility assets your sales team and investors can forward - [ ] You can give about 90 minutes a month for at least a quarter It's a poor fit if: - [ ] You want promotional pieces about your product (editors reject them, and they should) - [ ] You can't share any real view because legal won't approve anything substantive - [ ] You need a press release distributed; that's a different service entirely - [ ] You want five pieces a month; volume like that belongs in a retainer ## Objections, answered plainly **"Isn't ghostwriting dishonest?"** The ideas, opinions and approval are yours. I do the drafting and the editor relationships, the way a speechwriter does for an executive. Every piece is built from your own words in the interview, and nothing runs without your sign-off. **"Why not just submit op-eds ourselves?"** You can, and I've written a guide to [placing bylined op-eds in CoinDesk, Decrypt and Forbes](/blog/web3-founder-ghostwriting-bylined-op-ed-coindesk-decrypt-forbes) if you want to try. The usual failure is a weak angle and a cold pitch that never gets read. The fee buys the angle discipline and the editor access. **"What happens if a piece doesn't land?"** It gets reshaped and moves to the next outlet on the plan. The service is scoped around one tier-1 placement a month, so we work the piece until it lands rather than calling a submission done. **"Do op-eds help with AI search?"** They do. Tier-1 bylines are exactly the kind of source assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity tend to cite when someone asks who the credible voices in a category are. That's a side effect, not the main point, but it's a real one. ## Getting started We start with a short call where I ask about the three opinions you'd most like to be known for. If I can't find a placeable argument in that conversation, I'll tell you, and we won't start. The service page with full scope is [content writing](/services/content-writing), and there's a standalone overview at [op-ed ghostwriting service](/pages/op-ed-ghostwriting-service). Three bylines in three months is enough for a reporter to start calling you first. *Have an argument you've been meaning to publish? [Book a 30-minute call](/contact) and we'll find the angle.* --- **Book an op-ed angle call with Shilika** - https://calendly.com/shilikajain/30min/ Canonical: https://www.shilikajain.com/blog/op-ed-of-the-month-ghostwriting-service