Jezebel 
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New York, 9:31 AM
Sat Nov 14
65 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/03/09
10/03/09
The ghostwriter doesn't just get hired and then have to sit down and create an entire book out of thin air and then not get credit for it. The author writes extremely detailed outlines and the ghostwriter just puts it all together, and is always included in the aknowls page. It's pretty fascinating, and a LOT of people make a living that way.
10/03/09
We assume it relates directly to the creative process in a way that other labels don't, but this is all part, really, of the creation of the modern (and relatively recent) concept of author. The idea of the creative individual expressing their thoughts directly to the reader via the means of language has surely been undermined for like, a billion years. Come on people! At the end of the day the way we look at the world at the moment always favours the performer, and not the creator. Politicians are personal brands for ideologies much bigger than they are. Columnists in newspapers represent editorial choices far and beyond their own thoughts and word choices. This is why actors can become huge stars while the people that write the screenplays and scripts are mostly unknown to the public. I don't condone the sidelining of ghost writers - they deserve credit for the work they do - but to act as though this is a particularly duplicitous industry is simply untrue... it happens in many forms everywhere.
10/03/09
Untrue. See: Knowles, Beyonce or Lohan, Lindsay.
10/03/09
Some scary shit there.
10/02/09
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley, comes to mind.
10/02/09
Someone recently asked me to ghostwrite a brief memoir/essay on his addiction and recovery - and was pissed when I said I would need him to supply details about both. He seemed to think I would just pull them right out of my ass and he wouldn't have to do any work at all. But I'm guessing Palin, being so in love with herself, was just the opposite and contributed a ton of material, most of it unuseable, for her poor writer to sort out.
10/02/09
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10/02/09
Funny about pop stars getting songwriter credit. Before the singer-songwriter movement of the 60s and 70s, there were singers and there were songwriters. (Carole King, anyone?) Now people scoff at singers who don't write their own material (ugh, Britney didn't even write it!), so much so that their handlers shoehorn the star's name into the writing credits so that they will be taken seriously. There have been plenty of reports of current songwriters bitching about their works' performers claiming that they wrote it alone.
10/02/09
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10/02/09
Thank you, ghostwriters and coauthors -- without you I'd be reformatting 400+ pages of all-caps text (in twenty different colors/fonts) on a daily basis ... even before the atrocious grammar, "creative" spelling, and plagiarized material from Wikipedia gave me a nervous breakdown.
10/02/09
10/02/09
Did Obama write his own books? I'm honestly asking because I don't know.
10/02/09
10/02/09
10/03/09
10/02/09
There are many degrees of ghostwriting. Some ghosts write everything – the whole book from scratch.
Personally, the way I've worked it to have SCADS of material, either written or spoken (interviews) from the "co-writer" and then worked that into a book.
In this case, ghost writing is a feat of organisation, and yes, of writing, but it is definitely not done using material I generated myself. They're not "my" books – the views expressed, the experiences are not my own.
Some people have stories to tell but can't write – that's where ghostwriters come in. I don't believe that book contracts are necessarily a "reward" that can only go to those who can write – they are also given to those who have an incredible life story to tell, and to those who will make a lot of money for the publishing company. (Never forget that publishing is a commercial, not a meritocratic venture.) If books were only written by people who could write, we would miss out on a hell of a lot.
Many of your favourite books were probably perfected by an editor, or benefitted from a team of researchers. Winston Churchill had a ghostwriter, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
10/02/09
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10/02/09
Because one doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth?
10/02/09
"President Bartlet, what do you think of Gov. Richie's book?" "I'll read it when he does."