Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Tuesday Talks | Ghost Writers

To find out more about Tuesday Talks, the discussion group created by Janie and Janelle, visit the goodreads group. There's a new topic every week and it's always fun to discuss bookish things with other bookish people.

Ghost Writing: Good or Bad?
I have never put a whole lot of thought into ghost writers. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's basically when you craft a story but someone else does the writing. Or at least that's my understanding. I think there are different levels of ghost writing. One is where the ideas, story, and characters are all your own and you have someone else writing down your thoughts with some suggestions. Another would be for you to come up with an idea and then have someone else shape the actual story. Again, this is my understanding so it could be completely wrong. 

Over the last year or so there has been some controversy surrounding ghost writing. I honestly don't really care one way or the other. I definitely think it's something the author should acknowledge, giving credit to the other person. Even discussing exactly what their process as creator/ghost writer was. But if the book is good (whether it be fiction, non-fiction, etc), then I don't much mind who did the writing or who came up with the ideas. Knowing that a book was ghost written would not sway me to read or not read it. What the book itself is about would do that. 

What are your thoughts on ghost writers? Like it, dislike it, don't care?

4 comments:

  1. Wellll, technically, I don't care as long as the book is good. However, even with credit give to the ghost-writer, I think it is wrong that there are genuine authors who have worked on their book that can't - for various reasons - get it published!

    TheDonkeyInvasion - A Bookish Blog!

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    1. I completely get what you're saying. It's always been an odd thing to me that people would want to write and let someone else have the credit.

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  2. I don't like the idea of someone else taking credit for the work that you've done, but maybe that's because I write myself and having someone else get all the credit would make me feel so sad. As long as you give the people credit who helped you along, then I guess it is fine.

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    1. Being a writer myself as well, I completely understand where you're coming from. I don't know why people choose to ghost write instead of writing their own work. Maybe it's the only way they can make money writing or they don't want to be in the public eye like that... I don't entirely understand it. Either way, if it's their choice, I would still like to know that the name associated with the writing isn't the only one who worked on it.

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