Would You Be a Ghostwriter?
This week I’m following in line with Dale and Janie on the topic of writing and blogs. I always find it interesting how some people assume the title of writer only because they maintain a blog. Anyone can start a blog. That doesn’t necessarily make you a writer. When I was reading Dale’s post about real vs. casual writers, it made me think about ghostwriters.
I’ve never understood the appeal of ghostwriting. Why would someone work hard on a book or article just to have someone else take credit for it? I guess if you needed the money or knew the person, one might agree to it. Personally, I spent way too many days in grade school doing assignments for group projects just so they can chit-chat the whole period then copy my work and turn it in as if they actually did it. It’s quite rude. At least with ghostwriting, you get some compensation.
The newest form is blog ghostwriting. Some blog owners hire people to post comments on their blogs under different names. The purpose is to generate popularity. Therefore, moving their blog up on search engines. Seems kind of sleazy to me. When you start a blog, you’re not likely to be popular right away. My Ghost Stories blog didn’t get many comments in the first year but four years later it’s grown in activity. I guess in blog world we are all in a popularity contest and some people are willing to fight dirty to be number one.
It all comes down to this: Are you a real writer if another person is doing all the writing? Have or would you consider ghostwriting? Why or why not?
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Write Anything 
The bottom line for me is, if you didn’t write it, you’re not a writer.
Ignoring all the considerations of whether or not there are certain forms of writing that are more “real” than others, if you don’t put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) then you are not a writer of any stripe.
Currently I’m considering two ghostwriting projects, both “autobiographies” for people I know well. I’m considering it because they are friends, and they have good stories to tell, but don’t feel they have the means to tell it, and the stories would benefit from being in the first person, hence autobiography rather than biography. In these cases, I’m willing to help, in the way that I’d help a friend move house, redecorate etc. I’ve got a talent that they lack, and the ability to help, so why not?
But beyond that? I don’t thinks so. There are an increasing number of established authors pouring out dozens of books a year that if you look closely are “with X” in tiny letters. Meaning that “X” actually wrote the thing, but the “name author” is going to get the acclaim and the royalties. And to me, that’s not worth it.
Honestly – I’ve never understood the appeal of being a ghost writer. It’s a hard enough slog as a writer without doing it and having someone else put their name to it.
There is a trend in the non fiction market for people who have ‘great ideas’ to hire companies with a swag of ghost writers to put their ‘great ideas’ down in words, and then market and sell the book for them. It is not the ghost writers who have their name on the books, although it is their work. To me its a blatant scam for someone to put their name to a book that they have not physically written – that is ideas are one thing, but the hard slog at the keyboard or at the page is a completely different matter.
A friend attended a conference recently where someone gave a big spiel about this – and she as a writer was horrified. It was like watering or dumbing down the craft of writing – dishonouring it.
Looking back on three years of editing, I get a little peeved sometimes about the amount of time and effort that I put in to bring articles up to scratch, so that they read as well as they did … knowing that the writer of the article would get credit for the polished work. I was told that was the work of an editor – maybe it is (I hope one day to have such a loyal and talented editor by my side!) This was one reason why I am no longer a magazine editor – I decided that it was time to focus time and energy into my own writing for a change.
I’d be perfectly willing to consider ghostwriting for the right price. (And I’d want at least a down payment before I produce a single word, thank you.) Having written a full-length novel of my own, I have a pretty good idea what it would cost me in time and emotional energy to produce one for someone else, and I’d want to be paid accordingly.
Ghostwriting…aye, an interesting subject. I would consider it for a lot of the reasons mentioned above in the comments, provided I felt ethical about it. Telling a story for someone who has no skills in writing is a great one. Being paid enough money to do it might be another, as Tiel described.
I have a friend who has…literally…over 70 ideas for fantastic stories and she is a great writer herself. However, she gets in her own way too much, so I will be helping her write her stories and we will trod through the edits together. It’s her story and she knows how she wants to tell it, but she can’t get a committment out of herself to sit down and write it. In this situation, however, I will be given joint credit for writing the piece, so not really ghostwriting.
That’s my two pence…
Arial 😉
Arial Burnz – Romance Novelist & Artist
http://arialburnz.wordpress.com
http://www.EnchantedWoodz.com
http://www.EnchantedWoodz.com/arialburnz
I think bloggers are writers, not in the same level as novel writers or short story writers, but still writers. And ghost writers are writers too.
Just not the celebreties like Wayne Rooney and David Beckham who got a million dollar contract when they can’t string a sentence together, over real writers who spend years working hard. All of this so they can pay one of us a fraction of what they’ll get and then they get the credit too. I wouldn’t do it.
Okay, I’m new at this.. So I’m leaving my link for [Fiction] Friday here… (?)
http://crapmentality.blogspot.com/2008/08/stop-at-red-light.html
Anyone can be a writer, it’s just a matter of perspective. I have done all kinds of writing, from play-writes, scriptwriting, journalism, content writing, blogging, you name it! But I can call myself a writer, because a writer write down what he/she feels. Ghost writers are writers too.. They don’t get that much credit like the others. Take the songs by pop singers, they get caboodles of gazillion dollars, but they aren’t even the ones that had written the song.
I’d consider ghostwriting, simply because it would be serious writing experience.But it would have to be a subject and about a person who really interested me.
I am so torn with this -as I too am doing a project for a friend – who has some great ideas – and wants me to put it all together – so I guess I am ghost writing it ( and thus at the end of the day when it is published – her name and not mine will be on the front of the book….) I’d not really thought of it in that way before. humm thanks – I think I need to revisit our agreement…