According to Wikipedia: A
ghostwriter is a writer who writes books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written material. In music, ghostwriters are used in film score composition, as well as for writing songs and lyrics for popular music genres
The controversy started anew when
The NY Times printed this article about a Chef Ghostwriter. A couple of celebrity cookbook writer's took offense to the article because it suggested they didn't pen their own cookbooks.
In response to Gwyneth Paltrow's,
"this is my book and I wrote my book and it's all mine," Rachael Ray responded with: "I so strongly agree, this is how I spend the little time at home I have with my family, I spend in front of these little notebooks, in front of the computer. It sort of takes away from all of that to not be able to call that writing, of course that's writing. It doesn't mean you don't value the people who write the glossary or that help organize the pantry or that work on a project, but a writer is still a writer."
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| Credited to Owen Smith |
Does anyone else find this sort of evasive?
It seems to me if someone hands a pile of notebooks over to someone else and says, "
Here, you write it for me," that you've just hired yourself a ghostwriter. If you consider yourself a writer, fine. You're a writer. But if you had help, why not just say, "
I had help and
Thank You"? I don't think less of these people because they had help.
As long as I'm going out on a limb, I may as well say that I believe ghostwriter's should be listed in the credits for these writing projects. Give credit where credit is due.
Are you a writer because you've compiled a lot of material and it's your story to tell, even if someone else is ghostwriting it?
