Ghostwriter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Ghostwriter (disambiguation).
A ghostwriter is a writer whose work is credited to another. Ghostwriters are often employed by celebrities to write autobiographies in situations in which the celebrities themselves may not be talented writers, or are too busy doing other work.
Many politicians also employ at least one ghostwriter to compose letters for them. Even officials with refined writing skills generally lack the time to both perform their duties, and respond to the large volume of correspondence they receive. They may, however, sign these letters themselves, or simply approve them to be autopenned. A ghostwriter is distinct from a speechwriter, who writes public remarks for an official, although both jobs may be done by a single person.
Other writers are also employed, with proper billing, by authors whose names alone will sell a book, such as Tom Clancy, many of whose recent works bear the names of two persons on their covers — Clancy's name in larger print and the other author's name in smaller print. Sometimes a professional writer will receive partial credit, signified by "with" or "as told to". Credit may also appear as a "thanks" in a foreword or introduction. Strictly speaking, if the less famous writer's role and name are clearly acknowledged in the work as published, this is not ghostwriting but collaboration.
Just because a book is ghostwritten does not necessarily mean that the credited author did not make a significant contribution to the work; a ghostwriter is often employed to polish and edit existing material, or to work directly with the credited author to shape the book from start to finish. The opposite, however, is also often true: the estate of romance novelist Virginia C. Andrews hired a ghostwriter to continue writing novels after her death, under her name and in a similar style to her original works.
A related concept is that of the house pseudonym, where a series is credited to a single author to disguise the fact that it is the work of diverse hands. This practice is distinct from ghost writing proper in that the author of record is usually not a real person. Prominent examples, many of them created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, include Carolyn Keene ("author" of the Nancy Drew mysteries), Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys and Ted Scott Flying Stories ), and Maxwell Grant (The Shadow).
