Anybody here ever do ghostwriting?

[Pan]

I've been looking into ghostwriting as a source of extra income, and I'm so intrigued by what I've found!

Did you know that all the Nancy Drew books were ghost written by several different women, none of which shared the 'author's' name? Also the Warrior book series (the rad one about the cats we all read in middle school) is ghost written by several different authors under the Erin Hunter pseudonym. Some other titles I know were ghost written: the latter half of the Vampire Diaries books, a healthy number of James Patterson works, the Goosebumps series, and this one is still the most shocking to me: The Count of Monte Cristo!

I'm curious if anyone has ever ghostwritten before. I know due to NDA's you can't share the title of the work lest you violate the contract, but I'd be interested to hear experiences, thoughts, insights, etc.

If you don't ghostwrite but want to, talk to me. If you don't ghostwrite but have opinions, I'd love to hear them! This is such a fascinating topic to me, and I'd love to have as clear a discussion as your NDA's will allow

[GesuGesu]

I've been offered ghostwriting by a student I tutored when he got so frustrated with having to write his essay, he offered to pay me double to just write the essay for him.

I've seen job offers for ghostwriting services on craigslist, and typically it's about $60/page, and bonuses are offered upon landing a good grade.

I've never seen people ghost writing novels though.

[Pan]

That's super interesting! I always thought ghostwriting was specific to autobiographies and self-help books, but as it turns out the novel ghostwriting scene is pretty prominent. I read this super interesting article that I'll share below written by a woman that writes romance novels under other people's names as her job. Looks like if you're talented, know how book structures work, and can meet deadlines it's not a shabby idea! I think it's harder to get into than she makes it seem, however XD

5 Things I've Learned as a Romance Ghostwriter

[jpnakashima]

Ghostwriting is certainly an interesting subject.

Just to add up to your list, I know that many of the late Animorphs books were ghostwritten. Not a surprise, since there were so many of them so fast. Wikipedia even has a list of the authors doing the work.

[Pan]

Ohh, you know, I kind of always assumed the Animorph books had more than one author, but it's super neat to have that confirmed! I once had a professor in college that told our class she had ghost written a famous politician's autobiography, but due to her NDA she couldn't reveal for whom.

Super interesting stuff

[Kura]

I know it's actually pretty common for amazon books, as stories under a known name sell much better then stories under and unknown name. So smaller authors will sell their writing for more than they could get on their own, to authors with known names that can profit off the story far more than what they paid for it (which the original author could never do because of not having a fan base.

Not sure how much I agree with the practice tbh and have never done it myself (or really wanted to do it myself) but it seems to be mostly beneficial to both parties in the end.

[Pan]

Hmmm I can't say I disagree with you, if an author is publishing their own story under another's name solely for profit. If, say, an author ghostwrites from a template provided to them by a book packager, I think better of it. But if it's your own story from conceptualization to publication, I'd be much too sad not to have my own name on it.

I guess, for me personally, my view on the ethics of ghostwriting depends on a bunch of different factors, each situation is different! Thanks for your insight, I didn't know it was common for amazon books!

[NickRowler]

My guess that book series would make more sense if they were ghost written. That would mean that in the library, all the books would be in the same section instead of separated my the author's name.

[Zaboem]

Shoooooot, I am still waiting to be paid for my one published article from twelve years ago. I have yet to meet anyone willing and able to pay me a dollar for my editing service, and I am a much better editor than a writer. I was once rejected for a volunteer position as script writer for a college election because I did not have professional scriptwriting experience. Getting paid directly by someone else to write in that person's name seems like an impossibly distant goal, not a compromise position for extra income.

What the heck, give it a shot. No one here has anything to lose by applying. Try to get those ghosty positions, Tapasians, and let us know how it works for you.

[TomSands]

Shame that I could never write anything good. I wanted to be a ghostwriter, i thought that it is an easy thing to do, but I was really wrong. I struggled with writing when I started college and I had to look for help. I was paying my friend to do my essays and my grades improved a little bit but it was not enough. I started looking online for writers and I found smartpapers247.com. They have really helped me with my essays and my grades were really good. They are professionals that will complete your essays in a few hours and the quality is the best.

[DarJodo]

Oh, to take that out of context.