Understanding Ghostwriting
Awe! The subject of Ghostwriting. First of all, what exactly is Ghostwriting? Ghostwriting occurs when a professional writer creates a book that is published under someone else’s name. When a book is written in this manner, the person doing the writing is paid to write the book, but they do not receive any credit for writing the book. For instance, if I had wanted to hire a Ghostwriter when I was writing my children’s book, I would have contacted a professional who has experience in this sort of thing. After listening to my ideas and/or reviewing what I had written, the Ghostwriter then writes my story. I can do as little as I want.
This is completely legal and is most commonly used for speeches, memoirs, autobiographies, and some business books. However, there have been novels written by Ghostwriters as well. The Ghostwriter’s anonymity is kept confidential (hence the name Ghostwriter) by signing an NDA. Although there are situations in which the author chooses to acknowledge the ghostwriter as a co-author or collaborator. You, as the author, have the final say before anything is published.
To be honest, this does not feel right. I do not think very much of someone who hires someone else to write a book for them and then takes all of the credit. First of all, how can someone honestly put their name down as the author when all they did was come up with the idea and left the rest to be written by a Ghostwriter? Now, that is not to say that books such as memoirs, autobiographies, and well, okay, we’ll also throw in perhaps speeches for the President of the United States, should not be written by someone other than the person or thing written about. Like most things, there are exceptions to the rules. But, any other book written in this manner feels dishonest. Secondly, if a book is written by a Ghostwriter, then that person definitely needs to be acknowledged in some form or another. However, this type of writing has become increasingly common, and the rise of AI tools has added another layer of uncertainty. It can now be difficult to know who—or what—created much of the content found online.
To me, being an author is something to be proud of. The work is not easy, and a person spends many, many hours trying to produce a book that is engaging to the reader, and the pay (unless you are very well established) is not good when you are first starting. When I was doing my research, a publisher that I was listening to said, “If you are an author and you think you are going to be rich at first, you are in the wrong business. Authors do not write a book (especially a children’s book) thinking they are going into it because of the money. Most authors write books because they love to write.” Sometimes it takes years to become a well-paid, established author. I would also hate to take compliments from people reading my book, knowing that I am not the one who actually wrote the book. That would be taking credit for someone else’s work, in my eyes.
What do you think? Do you think it is okay to hire a Ghostwriter to write a novel or children’s book? Drop me an email at Patrice@booksbypatrice.com and let me know your opinion. I would love to hear different perspectives.
