I scrounge the Web for people who are looking for ghostwriters, and the sorry state of affairs makes me furious with the whole business of ghostwriting. This came across the web to me recently:
I am looking for a ghost writer to write a book about time management Goal setting and the dangers of procrastination. How to get the most out of your day with proper time utilization. Why most people never succeed in achieving their tasks and goals. How making the conscious disision to raise the bar for your self and demand excellence from yourself will propel you forward quickly. That performing every task with purpose and excitement will bring new opportunity for growth and advancement. Im looking for something inspirational and motivational.
What does this client want? I could be wrong because the post is brief, but it sounds like this person wants someone to start from scratch and write a book with HIS name as the author.
The way I look at it, that is exactly 180 degrees from ethical ghostwriting.
This person writing the ad doesn’t want to write a book or even help write a book. He wants the ghost to work from a brief outline, do the research, come to conclusions, and wrap it all up in a book.
My friend, if I could write a scintillating, informative book on time management, why would I write it for someone else?
Like I said, I could be lacking some key information, but this is not ghostwriting in my book. It’s being paid to give credit for a book someone else wrote.
To be an honest ghostwriter, the ghost should depend 100 percent on what the author wants to say. That means the author does the research. The author sorts out what is important. The author provides illustrations and stories to bolster his or her points. The ghost takes the raw data the author sends and transforms it into a readable and helpful book. It is the author’s book, not the ghost’s.
Not to say that the ghost never contributes to content. Of course, that happens all the time. But the ghost follows the author, not the other way around.
Writing like this is more like paid plagiarism than ghostwriting. The author of record plagiarizes (takes the work of someone else and claims it is his own) the work written by the ghost. Why not do it that way? Go to the library or bookstore. Pick out a book on the topic you want. Change things around a bit, get it typeset, and there it is, a fully plagiarized book stolen from the author. I know times are hard, but I hope no decent writer will stoop to the level this author wants and take money in exchange for honesty.
The more I see of this type of an appeal, the more I am convinced that honest and forthright ghostwriting is becoming a thing of the past.
Don’t let it happen to you. If you need help writing your book, pay for it. If you don’t know how to express your ideas, pay someone who can.
But don’t throw money at a “ghost” to get a book back that looks like yours but isn’t. It’s dishonest and a form of thievry.
Copyright © by Joyce Griffith
Brought to you by Griffy the Ethical Ghost
Tags: dishonest ghostwriting, ghost or author, ghostwriting as theft, unethical ghostwriting
