Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop!

Today’s topic is: Ghost writers. Let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly.

And remember to visit my fellow writers to see what they have come up with. You can find their works here!

This one is an interesting topic. I think my views on this are a bit mixed. It very much depends. In some cases, celebrities “write” novels that race off up the best seller lists. Some of these are ghost written, with varying levels of input from said celebrity. Really these are often a vanity project on the part of the celebrity, using their status to bring in the sales. I will say, that’s not the case every time, but it certainly happens. And when it does, I’m not a fan of this process.

It’s not just celebrity authors either. There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about James Patterson. One of the most prolific and successful authors around. It’s no secret that he has co-authored a great many books with a wide variety of people. But there is also talk of him having a stable of ghost writers. He plots and outlines all of his novels, then hands them off to others to flesh out. This I’m less keen on, as you are reading his ideas, but not his writing. This is how he is able to be so prolific. It also ensures plenty of sales, best seller ratings and revenue for him.

There are some perfectly good reasons to ghost write though. Organisations or individuals may well be experts in a given area. They have an immense amount of knowledge and insight to share with people, but are not natural writers. By using a ghost writer, it allows them to put forward their ideas in a coherent, well-written fashion.

So with all this in mind, do I agree with ghost writing or not? Well, it really does depend.