Ghostwriting

When is ghostwriting? Sounds crazy, doesn't it? The compound question reflects the confusion in many people's minds, especially those of beginning writers, about several aspects of ghostwriting. Traditionally a ghostwriter wrote a book on which someone else's name appeared as author. Ghostwriting has expanded to articles and other forms of writing, especially in the business world. A well-known business writer confided to me that his P.R. job consists of writing pieces for CEOs and other business officials to claim as their own.

Copywriting can take on an aspect of ghostwriting when the copy appears as someone else's words. Of course, speech writers have long been ghosts, whether they thought of themselves as that or not. I found as I moved into heavily editing a client's book, that I was essentially rewriting it. Eventually the client began referring to this as "ghostwriting", and I had another feather in my writer's cap.

I found some good ghostwriting tips in an article by Angela Booth, How To Get Started As A Ghostwriter (scroll way down the newsletter to find the piece). Then from a free document by Marg McAlister, Should I Become a Ghostwriter, I learned I might be charging too little for ghosting.

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