Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: April 09, 2018 03:51PM
carameldreams Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tevai Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > If so, you obviously don't know any writers!!
>
> Do you use a ghostwriter as Smart did for, 'My
> Story'? A Mormon ghostwriter? Elizabeth's beloved
> father introduced them. The same dad who
> introduced Brian Mitchell to the family.
>
> 'Writing' varies, 'writers' vary. There isn't one
> way. Ghostwriters for autobiographies help a lot.
This is a complex question.
I have ghosted for people...and some other, lifetime career, writers I know have made (in effect) entire careers out of ghosting for "name" celebrities (some of these "name celebrities," who also have their own writing credits, have been regularly mentioned here on RfM throughout the years).
When these particular "name celebrities" cite their professional (writing, etc.) credits, they DO cite the works which were ghosted (but came out under solely their own by-lines---usually, in the book, with an effusive mention in the Acknowledgements section about how the celebrity just "could not have done it" without the helpful assistance, or whatever, of [person doing the actual writing]).
On the other end of the scale, NON-fiction such as Elizabeth Smart's books are, is essentially (and virtually always) a true collaboration between the celebrity and the writer of the manuscript, and requires mostly the same amount of time and effort. (It is a VERY tedious job for both.)
Fiction (novels, etc., actually written by someone else) is a different "kind" of writing than non-fiction like biography, because this means (often) that the ghostwriter is the actual creator. (Meaning: in large part, the plot arc (etc.) are coming either from the writer who is actually writing the fiction work...or, also often, the editor who has bought it.)
With fiction, the ghost is (most often) the "real" writer (as most people would see it).
But non-fiction is a real collaboration---especially given that the co-writer cannot just invent the narrative arc... dialogue...situations...details, etc. All of that which goes into a non-fiction book (in most cases) has to come from the subject of the book---which means that the subject of the book IS, equally, CREATING the book...which means, in actual legal terms, that that person is (at the very least) "an" author of the work.
As someone who has co-written non-fiction biography with a subject, I know how much work is involved for the subject, and how onerous this work can be for that person, especially if the story involves the things NO ONE wants to talk about (the instance I am thinking about now, when I collaborated on this kind of subject, involved long-term incest).
All of this IS work!!!
Work for the person who lived the story, and work for the "as told to" writer alike.
If "YOU" (anyone who is not already a professional writer) worked on a mass market non-fiction book about your own life experiences with an "as told to" writer, YOU would think it is work too!!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 03:57PM by Tevai.