agents and publishers will prefer to see this first, rather than the whole book), as well as help you with a query letter, a letter sent to agents and publishers to get them interested in the book proposal in the first place.
Naturally, of course, you also need to work with a writer that can deliver within your budget. Be aware, though. Good ghostwriters do not come cheap. A book might take several months to write. Don’t expect a writer to basically put his or her business on hold for that period of time to write your book, for mere peanuts. A decent ghostwriter might charge anywhere from to 0 per page. Those who charge on the lesser end sometimes look for compensation by taking a percentage of the book’s potential royalties, sometimes up to 50%, while those charging on the upper end might take nothing at all.
It might be wise to look for somebody in between. I personally like the idea of giving the ghostwriter an incentive to finish the book by giving him or her some percentage of the royalties (even ten or fifteen percent). This makes the writer just a little more invested in the book’s outcome.
Terms of your deal with the ghostwriter should be spelled out in advance. Make sure there is mention of a timetable. And your payment to the writer should be split over this time frame. If it’s going to take four months to write the book, then your payment ought to be split in quarters.
Other terms include an understanding of how the ghostwriter is to receive your information, the fact that the work will belong to you and appear to the outside world as though it was written by you and not the ghostwriter, and a note on non-disclosure to ensure the writer will not divulge your story to anybody without your approval.