Posted on 12/02/2007 7:09:19 AM PST by Mobile Vulgus
That is not, and has never been, the industry standard. It's never been that difficult to dig out a ghost writer, if you try -- a good ghost writer is known in inside circles, which is what they want, because that will land them the next gig. But their names aren't on the cover.
There are many ways of pairing an interesting person with a good writer. A lot use ghost writers. I'd really like to jump on that train -- You tell me your stories, and I'll turn them into something that resembles a coherent narrative in something that can pass for English. Would I ghost a Paris Hilton autobio? Damn straight, I would. Keep my name off it and make sure the checks clear. Checks with a non-trivial number of digits. That's hot.
The other approach is "with" or "as told to." One of the most famous examples is The Autobiography of Malcolm X (As told to Alex Hailey). Malcolm had an interesting story, and Hailey was a hell of a writer. Match made in heaven. The subject gets the lead billing, but the writer gets a nod.
IIRC the “ghost writer” had a contract that she would be acknowledged in the book. Don’t recall if it was cover, flyleaf or foreward. She was also stiffed by 2/3rds of her fee over the issue. Something like $40k paid of a $120k contract, until she gave up the issue.
Do business with someone unethical and it’s no surprise that when you give product before receiving payment, you’ll be stiffed.
DK
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Nixon is the only politician (or celebrity) in recent memory who wrote his own books. Oh, sure, Peter O’Toole wrote his and some other English actors dif, but they’re English, i.e. educated.
To argue with Al Goron or some other politico about things he allegedly wrote in “his” book is to miss the point altogether, in my opinion. Our first duty should be to expose the fraud of phony authorship. I remember when Ivana Trump published a book and had a press conference to promote it. It turned out that she never even read the book she “wrote”. I suspect the same maybe true with Hitlery, Goron and all the others. After all, they’re “too busy”.
My memory is a bit vague .. I think it was either Arthur Schlessinger or Ted Sorenson.
I thank you, sir, for your kind condescension. I hesitate to note, lest it be considered an affront, that you did not take issue with a single point of fact.
For reasons I can't explain, I decoded to go with a sort of Jane Austen vibe.
If the contract was signed and the contract was broken, that's a real issue. One that, if it was a decent contract, could recover actual damages, punitive damages, attorney's fees and court costs.
If Hillary used a ghost writer, that is not a scandal. If she stiffed her ghost writer, that's a lawsuit.
read
That is AWFUL!! Makes conservatives look horrible....Liberals uses kids, not us.
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