The Gray Area for Ghostwriters

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about some basics which writers should consider before they dive into the world of ghostwriting. While doing my research for that post, I was reminded quite readily of the stigma around ghostwriters. One of the Google search results that particularly amused me was “Is ghostwriting legal?” I’ll be honest, that question hadn’t even crossed my mind until I came across that result. Ghostwriting has existed for so long with no extreme moral repercussions (like those involved with the world’s oldest profession), so why would anyone expect it to not be legal? It made me wonder: exactly how murky is the gray area of ghostwriting? Why is ghostwriting and hiring a ghostwriter considered questionable ethically?

The term “ghostwriting” originated in the 1900s, but ghostwriters are nothing new. In fact, the use of this practice in American politics alone traces back to George Washington himself. However, that doesn’t keep the concept from having a dirty feel to it. The stigma has existed for as long as the profession itself. After all, it’s a good and, presumably, experienced writer doing some or all of the work with the credit going to their client. It doesn’t seem fair to the ghostwriters, especially if they don’t get so much as a note in the acknowledgements, an increasingly common practice. It’s no wonder that there are such mixed feelings about the matter even today.

In an article written for California Magazine, Sarah Elizabeth Adler interviews several ghostwriters. Some of these writers have experienced the disdain some people have for ghostwriting while others have noticed an increasing respect for it. Barbara Feinman Todd, one of the collaborators on Hillary Clinton’s It Takes a Village, says in the article that she remembers a book editor once calling ghostwriters “basically typists”. On the other hand, Marcia Layton Turner, founder of the Association of Ghostwriters, has “‘noticed a shift from shame to pride’ both in being and using a ghostwriter.” With ghostwriters themselves having such mixed experiences, it’s hard to say who will think what about the profession.

The feelings aren’t quite as mixed on the client’s side as some ghostwriters and clients would have you believe. Adler notes the backlash which Clinton received for using ghostwriters and not giving them acknowledgement at first–an argument, by the way, which Feinman Todd wanted nothing to do with. There was even some cat-fighting on Real Housewives of New York City in 2014 in which the use of a ghostwriter is thrown around as an insult. Despite the clients usually being brilliant in the areas their books are exploring, people begin to doubt their expertise once they learn that the clients did not write their books alone. Ghostwriters might be getting more respect, but it seems that their clients are not.

Ghostwriting has been in this gray area for quite some time. Ghostwriters can be seen as commercializing their art, and their clients can come off as deceptive and ungrateful to their ghostwriters. The top unwritten rule of ghostwriting used to be to never try to fool readers into thinking that your client wrote the book all by themselves; after all, most people are too smart for that and will take it as an insult to their intelligence if you try to pretend otherwise. Nowadays, though, it seems that that rule has fallen to the wayside and, just as predicted, readers are offended not by the ghostwriter but by the client. With this increase in deception and shadowy dealings, it’s no wonder the profession has become so questionable ethically.

In general, there is nothing wrong with ghostwriters and their work. We might not have half the novels or speeches, especially biographies and political speeches, that we have without them. However, it is still an area which both writers and clients must tread through lightly. After all, one man’s collaboration is another man’s deception.

What do you think? Is ghostwriting a valid form of writing and making money? Is it a shady deal? Or is it somewhere in between? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.