Lately, it feels like I’ve been seeing a lot of people on Facebook and Twitter promote themselves as ghostwriters for authors.
It’s giving me weird vibes, personally.
On the one hand, it’s tough out there and I know it’s fairly normal at many companies to employ ghostwriters for leadership or admin members. I myself, in a professional capacity, have ghostwritten speeches, responses, and formal quotes for organizational leadership.
But it seems a bit odd to me to hire someone to ghostwrite an entire book.
I have seen several posts now for people either seeking a ghostwriter for their book or advertising their services as a ghostwriter. To be fair, I have no clue what the extent of these services is. I totally understand hiring a ghost writer to read and edit your work, or even give you suggestions for content if you wind up stuck on a section or plot point.
But I do not think it’s kosher to hire someone to basically write your entire book for you. If that’s the case, then you’re not actually the true author. It would also make me sad to imagine a person who is willing to ghostwrite the majority of a book for someone and then forgo any credit for money alone.
Honestly, I’d love to be totally wrong about this, but I feel like I’ve seen one too many posts advertising ghostwriting services among writer/author groups for it to be 100% fake.
I’d love to hear from anybody who has experience with ghostwriting or knows what I’m talking about!
Let me know if you’ve had any experience with ghostwriters and what you think about the practice. Is ghostwriting sketchy or just a regular ole’ service that folks in the industry should get used to?
Cailin Riley 