Writing a novel is hard. It takes months of work, mostly alone at a keyboard. It’s mentally and emotionally taxing. If you didn’t personally do that work, don’t say you did. It’s dishonest, plain and simple.
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It’s a balance of probabilities. Did the celeb come from a script-writing, journalistic or comedy background? Do they seem to choose their words carefully and have an ear for language? Do they care about words? If so, there’s a reasonable chance they did the work.
In principle I agree with you - though also 1) i don't read the most common kind of ghost-written books, 2) being 'in the business' feel i would never want to, and 3) wonder if 'the public' who do read them care about the quality of the writing/life of authors? Dunno. Worth thinking about.
Yes. I wonder what ghost-writers feel about it? Do they like their earning potential in exchange for invisibility? Maybe? The basic delusional/lying celeb bit does annoy me, though..
Yes, agreed. I daresay ghost writers like the income, and fair enough. I’m not against ghost writing per se at all. I just think the publisher should be more clear - find a form of words by which an interested reader can see who did what. It doesn’t seem a lot to ask.
It’s weird how only writing is treated this way. You can’t imagine celebrities using “ghost painters” to paint artwork. And when it was found that Milli Vanilli hadn’t sung on their records they were stripped of their awards and the backlash drove one of them to suicide.
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