I received a call from a prospective client a few days ago. He said he had called many ghostwriters before finally trying us. We discussed his book project. Books are usually extremely time consuming to write and so therefore you can expect to pay quite a lot if you're going to hire a professional. Part of my standard spiel is that if the project runs into serious money, we can work out a payment plan. I explained to him that the first payment is due when we begin work, the final payment is due when we finish. The completed work is delivered immediately following receipt of that final payment. The number of payments, where they occur in the process and the amount of each payment are details to be negotiated with us. The fellow was surprised. He said none of the other writers he'd talked to would accept periodic payments. I mentioned that we've even worked out arrangements where an author would pay us to write 50 pages at a time, then whenever more money was available, we'd write the next 50. It's all about accommodating client needs. If, for example, we estimate writing the book will take four months, we could tailor the payments to occur in five installments. The first payment is due up front, then three payments separated by a month, then the final payment due upon completion. The details are negotiable and would be specified in the contract. Bear in mind, we are not talking about a ridiculously low payment such as $19.95 a month. That isn't gonna happen. We are not bankers. But we will do our best to accommodate a client's needs.