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.”
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Peggy!
Hey! Another blog post for ya!
Great explanation about what the industry term means, thank you!
When you are in your own circles, you use your own verbiage. But outside of those circles the same verbiage can (and obviously is) misused. I am guilty of this!
I believe it also has to do with the term and what kind of world we live in. Just five years ago, no one would have thought that it was right/wrong to be a ghost writer on a blog, now…people want transparency with that medium and the term “ghost writer” does not exemplify that. But it still does in the physical print world.
Sign of the times? Who is to change their vernacular? The writers or the ones who are reading/judging/buying the content?
Great job!
-jen
@jenharris09
Great article!
I agree with you about ghost-writing; unfortunate name, but the service is necessary and proper. I would hate to deny people with interesting stories or important information the opportunity to put their best foot forward and benefit from good writing and style. The quality of writing is so important to readability and comprehension!
Great explanation, thank you for filling in some blanks on how the ghostwriting process works. As someone who has an editor review and edit anything I write for publication, I believe in collaboration to get the best end-result.
I totally agree, but why isn’t the same standard applicable to social media?
I understand there are situations where ghost-writing in social media is misused, but it’s also misused in traditional print as well.
As a case example, I saw an advertisement in the want ads asking for assistance with Twitter and other social media sites. The ad was posted by a successful doctor who wanted to utilize SM. His time is obviously very expensive and he doesn’t want to spend the time getting up to speed with the aspects of SM. Therefore he would like to hire someone to do this for him. He would be the one to supply the information and knowledge in his field, but the ghost-writer who would be established and knowledgeable with SM will do a much better job at disseminating his information.
Does that mean the Doctor is cheating, or being fraudulent … I seem to think he’s making smart use of his time.
I still feel there are legitimate reasons for using ghost-writers in SM. I agree a lot of SM is a personal window into the writer, but there are just as many people using it correctly on the commercial side of SM and it doesn’t all have to be personal.
One of the ways I can see someone using a ghost-writer with their SM is to leave the technical aspects of SM and anything that is impersonal to the ghost-writer, whereas anything personal can still be done by the owner.
In the case of a celebrity, or personal branding, I agree, the use of a ghost-writer would not be wise and would be disingenuous.
Thank you … Scott
@ScottProck & @eTweeple