Thursday, June 01, 2006

Do you believe in ghostwriters?

If I was forty years younger, still in my twenties, and if I was afflicted by that absurd ambition to write books for a living, I hope I would have enough good sense to realise that the only practical way forward would be to become a ghostwriter.

So says Michael Allen, also known as The Grumpy Old Bookman, and if that's not an eminently quotoble paragraph, I've never seen one. If you've ever wondered exactly what a ghostwriter does, scoot over there and read today's post, which also includes some fascinating anecdotes about celebrities who have "written" books--like the footballer who was fined for an offense his ghostwriter embellished for the book, but which "sounded" enough like the athlete that it was taken for a confession.

4 comments:

Bonnie S. Calhoun said...

I've got enough trouble trying to write my own, let alone someone elses...that's what Jenna Glatzer, over at Absolute Write does. i think her last one was Celine Dion's book!

Brenda Coulter said...

I'm with you, Bonnie. I couldn't be a ghostwriter.

Julie Carobini said...

I'm a former article ghostwriter. Spent a ton of time learning to write in another person's "voice." That experience is coming in handy now that I write first-person chick-lit :-)

That said, I don't recommend it. At least not for the long haul.

Brenda Coulter said...

Thanks for stopping by, Julie. And best wishes with your chick-lit.