Ghost Writers

As someone who sits down daily and tries to plunk out a least a few paragraphs of a work-in-progress, I'm highly annoyed at the publicity and fame many have enjoyed because of the talents of their ghost writer. I'm not sure I understand how there can be any feeling of accomplishment on the part of the so-called author, when the closest they came to creating the novel was verbally relaying information to someone else. But let's face it, you can't live on pride alone.

From the monetary perspective, I think I chose the wrong profession. I should have tried my hand at ghost-writing. According to Wikipedia, although some ghost writers are hired to polish a completed manuscript, most are hired to write the entire novel. Information garnered as I read made me nauseous. It's reported that ghost writers for 'big name authors' contracted by NY publishers receive anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 from the 'author's' advance. At the time the information was compiled, Hilary Clinton's memoirs had not yet been completed, but it was estimated that her ghost writer would receive $500,000 from Hilary's eight million dollar advance. Cough, gasp, vomit! What about her life is memorable enough to warrant eight million dollars when people are starving to death in America???

Barak Obama used a ghost writer to pen his novel, too. It makes me wonder if either he or Hilary become president, will they be able to sign necessary documents in the oval office, or will they have someone do it for them? *lol*

I had no idea how many people are taking bows for someone else's writing. Did you know that the pseudonym used on the Nancy Drew Mysteries represents a slew of different ghost-writers who, following a similar format or template, penned the various books? I didn't, and in my opinion, that's just depressing. I pictured one person pumping out the series that has enthralled young people around the world. I guess you never know who really wrote the books you've read unless someone in small print they receive recognition. I guess I'll have to pay more attention.

Make sure you note I gave Wikipedia full credit for this information. Cassie Edwards suffered terribly for utilizing 'research' statements in her books. I sure don't want to be accused of plagiarizing anything. Seems silly doesn't it. You use one person's sentence verbatim and you stole it, but someone else can write a person's entire book and the so-called author can take credit. Duh uh!

How do you feel about ghost writers? Does knowing that a book was written by someone other than the person claiming to be the author affect your desire to purchase and read said book? I wonder how these 'authors' can sit on talk shows and discuss "their" books. I guess I'm missing the point. The biggest joy of being an author for me is knowing that I DID the work, but it seems in order to reap BIG rewards or appear on Oprah, you have to let someone else do thejob for you. How sad is that?

The older I get, the less things make sense to me. Now I hear people have ghost-bloggers. Oh, give me a break.