THE BUSINESS OF WRITING
Ghosting around
Writers love telling stories. Simon Whaley chats to two writers who help bring others’ stories to life through their ghostwriting services
As writers, we have the skills to bring our stories to life. Understanding the importance of structure, grammar, and how to entertain readers in an engaging way also means we have skills others don’t.
Some people have the most fascinating tales to tell, but they don’t know how to go about sharing them. So why shouldn’t they employ a writer to help them tell their story? It’s no different to calling in a plumber to fix a leaky tap. When we need a job doing, we call in a professional.
Writing other people’s stories is called ghostwriting because the writer is usually invisible. The writer does the work, but the client gets the credit.
Some may think this is unethical. After all, if a book has ‘by Joe Bloggs’ on the cover and it turns out somebody else wrote it, then it is understandable readers may feel misled. However, the name on the cover is whose story it is, not who decided which words to use.
Confidentiality clause
Celebrities, or their publishers, often insist on confidentiality clauses, preventing ghostwriters from telling anyone they wrote, or worked on, the book.
In traditional publishing, ghostwriters aren’t typically paid royalties. Instead, they’re receive a work-for-hire fee, which compensates them for the time they spend writing the book. Many prefer this because they know exactly how much they’ll earn from the project.