Is it cheating to hire a ghostwriter?

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “ghostwriting?” I recently had a great conversation with social media maven Jen Harris on the subject that really got me thinking about it.

People outside the world of creating, writing, editing and publishing books tend to think of it as something clandestine and maybe less-than-ethical.  They picture a scenario wherein some celebrity claims to be the author of a book, when really someone else — who gets no credit — did the actual writing.

But that’s not exactly how it works in my experience. Working with a ghostwriter is usually a highly collaborative process. And a good business move for a client who has knowledge, information, insights, or unique experiences to share with the world — but they’re not skilled at writing. Or maybe they are skilled at writing, but can’t take 6 months away from their business to put a book together.

So is hiring a ghostwriter cheating? Not by a long shot. For example, I’m now working as a ghostwriter on a book with a brilliant academic and businesswoman. She has already written a dissertation, collected mountains of research and case studies, and developed seminars and presentations on her topic. And she writes beautifully with an easy flow.

So where do I come in? My job is to help her turn that wealth of source material into a focused, relevant, highly readable book targeted to a specific audience. The information is hers, the voice is hers, the ideas and stories are hers; I’m technically the writer, but my role could also be described as the translator, the scribe, the reader advocate. I’m also the project manager who is responsible for making all of this happen in time to meet our deadlines.

My client has spent the last several years developing the source material, and after a few weeks of intense planning and collaborating, I will spend 3-4 months writing and organizing it into a book. In my mind, this is unquestionably her book, not mine.

Do I feel used? Not at all — it’s a joy doing this kind of work, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to contribute and to be paid for doing work I love.

Maybe what we need is a better word for the job, like co-writer or collaborator or writing partner…but my object is to use a title that will make it easy for clients to find me, and right now, that title appears to be “ghost.”