Interview #102: How Benjamin Westhoff Makes Money Writing
In this interview, Ben admits he’d likely have to quit journalism if not for his ghostwriting side-hustle that pays up to $10,000 a month.
Ben Westhoff is an investigative journalist who describes his career as a “Road Runner cartoon”—he’s constantly scampering across a rope bridge that’s collapsing behind him. He’s the author of the best-selling Original Gangstas, wrote the definitive book on the opioid crisis with Fentanyl, Inc., and produces his own investigative documentaries. Yet, despite his government consulting and high-profile appearances on Joe Rogan, he’s candid about the fact that traditional journalism alone wouldn’t pay his bills.
In this interview, Ben breaks down the book writer’s jail that follows a flop, explains how he earns up to $10,000 per public speaking gig, and reveals why ghostwriting is the only reason he hasn’t had to quit the industry. If you want to see how a top-tier investigative reporter pieces together a six-figure income from journalism, speaking gigs, and ghostwriting, this one’s for you.
What you do: Journalism.
Years writing professionally: 24.
Earnings range: $125k–$150k per year.
This issue is a little different. Instead of our usual Q&A, Ben wrote a candid essay breaking down the evolution of his journalism career. I really enjoyed reading his take on the industry and I hope you do too. Enjoy.
My career is like a Road Runner cartoon, with the rope bridge collapsing beneath me as I scamper across. Whenever I find steady work in a particular journalism niche it goes away, from print newspapers to internet startups to book publishing. With all due respect to the name of this Substack, these days I’m less of a writer, and more of a public speaker, documentarian, ghostwriter, and consultant. I’m also podcasting, which is probably a bubble too!
I came up in alt-weeklies, taking my first job as a fellow for St. Louis’ Riverfront Times in 2003, making $25,000 annually, and then, when promoted to staff writer, got a raise to $32,500. I thought I was rich.
To “make it” as a writer I moved to New York at age 29, where I got a literary agent, freelanced music articles for 50 cents per word (or, more often, 10 cents a word), and sold my first book, New York City’s Best Dive Bars. The pay was $1000, with $1000 more in drinking money. In 2011 I moved across the country to be L.A. Weekly’s music editor, making as much as $70k per year, and getting free tickets to Coachella.
I wrote two books about hip-hop: Dirty South, for a small publisher in 2011 ($5,000 advance) and Original Gangstas for a major publisher in 2016 ($125,000 advance). I’ve long been receiving royalties for Dirty South ($200-$500 per year), but though Original Gangstas has been published in a half dozen languages and sold almost 60,000 copies across formats, it hasn’t yet earned out.
After Original Gangstas I was in demand as a hip-hop expert, back when white guys could still be that, and was a talking head in documentaries about N.W.A, Death Row Records, Eazy-E, and Tupac, for outlets like BET and CNN, which paid between $500 and $2000 each.
The late 2010s were lean times for me; I made only about $50k annually. I was in my 40s and we had two kids. My wife certainly would not have minded not being the primary breadwinner.
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The turning point in my career was my 2019 book Fentanyl, Inc. for which I received $150,000 (minus, as with every book, the 15 percent agent fee and all my reporting expenses). But the real financial boon was in the aftermath.