The Ghostwriter Problem: Is There Really No End To It? - An illustration showing a stick figure on the left and a bestselling book presented in the middle. The book appears to be a "Memoirs of the stick figure." The stick figure says, "I am the author of this book." However, there is a cute-looking ghost on the right-hand side. The cute ghost says, "But I wrote it!"

The Ghostwriter problem is a writing industry epidemic that makes me feel sick. I get that there is a market for this sort of a thing. But still, it feels plain wrong no matter which way I look at it.

To the uninitiated, ghostwriting is the practice of hiring a writer to write under your name without publicly giving credit to the actual writer. This is different from the practice of writing anonymously or writing under a pen name (which I did for years).

Regardless of my opinion, the fact is that the practice of ghostwriting has existed for ages. One the one hand, a few people are extremely skilled at writing. On the other hand, influential brands/celebrities have the public reach but lack the writing proficiency and experience.

So, the said brand/celebrity hires a ghostwriter. ‘Writer as a service’, if you will; as simple as that. “Where is the problem there?”, you ask? Well, I am glad that you asked.

This is what this essay is all about. Of late, I have been noticing dark trends that take ghostwriting to such extremes that it has me feel uneasy (ethically). Before jumping to conclusions, I decided to research this industry.

What I found out not only shocked me, but left me feel cheated/scammed as a reader. If you are an avid reader too, then you need to know what I now about this industry. Let us get started.

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Ethical Issues with Short-form Ghostwriting

Our story starts with Twitter. While I’m not a big-time social media person, I do use the platform for business reasons. So, naturally, business-related accounts and tweets get pushed onto my feed.

I’m pretty used to seeing business tweets that virtue signal some sort of a novel approach. But one fine day, I came across a tweet that caught my eye. I did not recognise the account. But when I looked it up, I confirmed that the person was legit.

Basically, the person was claiming that he had made ‘x’ thousands of dollars that year by ghostwriting for other Twitter accounts. And he had some of his clients listed in the thread as well (which he removed shortly thereafter).

I had been following some of his clients’ accounts and confirmed first-hand that they indeed read very similar to one another as far as the tone and language were concerned. They were following his Twitter ‘Playbook’. While I was disappointed a little to know about this, I could understand it to a certain extent.

As I mentioned earlier, I am not a big social media person myself. So, perhaps these influential people feel the need to be present on social media, but don’t have the mental capacity to do so. I can empathise with that line of thought.

But then, the more I dug into this, the messier it got. I realised that a good chunk of the prominent accounts on major social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn were ghost-run! While this was an eye-opener for me, it was digestible. I could still live with that fact. But then, the plot just got thicker!

The Ghostwriter Problem has been Here All the While!

Writing is different from other forms of communication. It is deep-reaching; it cultivates a relationship between the reader and the writer’s words. In the reader’s head, the relationship deepens a tiny bit with every word she reads.

Naturally, the reader forms a mental picture of the writer in the context of the book/text. Imagine having built a level of trust and respect for an author only to find out later that the author never wrote the damn book!

This would break the said trust and respect, right?! On that note, here is an interesting story. One of the latest bestselling books (at the time of writing this essay) goes by the name of “Spare” written by Prince Harry of the Royal family. I know what you must be thinking:

“Don’t tell me that you have immense trust and respect for Prince Harry as an author!”

I get it; I’ll spare you the misery. No, I don’t really care about Prince Harry or his life or his book. But what led me to this book was the kind of numbers it was doing AND the fact that Prince Harry did not write it.

It was ghostwritten by a well-known player in the scene named J.R. Moehringer. Just remember that name for now, as we’ll come back to it in a bit.

Many years ago, a good friend of mine strongly recommended I read a book titled “Shoe Dog” written by Phil Knight, Nike’s founder. I took the recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.

Not only did I find the book thought-provoking and influential, but Knight really resonated with me. He came across as the charismatic leader that I had pictured in my head. By now, you probably know where this story is headed.

The Ghostwriter Problem: Is There Really No End To It? — An illustration showing a stick figure on the left and a bestselling book presented in the middle. The book appears to be a “Memoirs of the stick figure.” The stick figure says, “I am the author of this book.” However, there is a cute-looking ghost on the right-hand side. The cute ghost says, “But I wrote it!”
The Ghostwriter Problem — Illustrative art created by the author

When I was researching Prince Harry’s book, I learnt that Moehringer also wrote Shoe Dog. Well, the moment that I learnt of this, I popped a nerve. I felt cheated and scammed in a way. But wait; there’s more!

It turns out that Moehringer also wrote Andre Agassi’s “autobiography” titled “Open” in 2009. If you read that book without knowing this fact, you have my sympathies.

Is the Ghostwriter Problem Here to Stay?

You know what ticks me the most? It is the fact that Shoe Dog is an autobiography as well. What part of “auto” do these folks not get? I’d be perfectly fine if the said celebrities/public figures gave Moehringer the credit he deserves and call the books biographies instead of autobiographies.

Well, it turns out that Moehringer has just the answer for that. During an interview with the Times, Moehringer revealed that he insisted that his name be left out from the cover. He explained:

“The midwife doesn’t go home with the baby…It’s Andre’s memoir, not our memoir, not a memoir ‘as told to.’ It’s his accomplishment, and he made the final choices.”

— J.R. Moehringer.

Moehringer is perfectly fine with staying behind the scenes here. He did the same with Shoe Dog and Open as well. Moehringer claims that he spent around 250 hours with Andre Agassi to write the book. So, obviously, he is dedicated and comfortable with what is going on here.

So, where’s the issue here? Well, I, for one, believed that Phil Knight wrote Shoe Dog as I read every word of the book. If Moehringer wished to stay behind the scenes, he could have signed a secretive contract that kept his name anonymous.

The media would have never approached him, and I would have never learned of the fact. Now, I know. And I am not happy to know of the fact.

You might think that I am picking on Moehringer unfairly here. But he represents just the tip of the iceberg for this problem. A ghostwriter named William Novak wrote books for Magic Johnson, Nancy Reagan, etc.

So far, I have been discussing the issue I see with ghostwriting in social media (lesser so) and autobiographies (more so). But does this issue exist in other genres/markets? Take a wild guess. Of course it does!

The Ghostwriting Problem: Is there Really No End to It?

I was recently having a chat with StephenwithaPhD  about a semi-technical book project that I am working on. During our conversation, StephenwithaPhD revealed that this dreaded practice of ghostwriting exists in the world of school/college textbooks as well.

Very talented technical authors write, say, mathematics text books. Note that education boards and other authorities strictly control such textbooks.

The Ghostwriter Problem: Is There Really No End To It? — An illustration showing the cute-looking ghost saying the following: “Don’t hate the player, folks! Hate the game!!”
The Ghostwriter — Illustrative art created by the author

But when a publisher agrees to publish the said textbook in a particular country, they often require that the book be attributed to a local superstar textbook author instead of the actual technical author.

Is this fair to the technical ‘ghostwriter’? Well, no. Does this practice sell more copies? Well, probably.

So, the question boils down to how far we are willing to push/support this practice as a community of writers, readers, and publishers.

Final Comments

It would be a real pity if all I did was a rant about the ghostwriter problem in this essay. So, I’d like to end on a slightly more positive note by proposing solutions.

Firstly, I accept the fact that there is a place for the practice of ghostwriting in our world. I can especially see its use case with highly established brands and organisations.

However, when it comes to “autobiographies” and personal accounts, I see ghostwriting as a strict no-go. As a reader, I prefer a badly written autobiography any day over being deceived by a ghostwriter.

If a celebrity/public figure seeks expertise from a ‘ghostwriter’ for a memoir, they might as well be transparent about the fact. As a good example of the credibility of this approach, David Goggins comes to mind.

So, it is definitely possible to publish successful autobiographies without deceiving the readers. Do influential “authors” care enough? I don’t know.

But what I do know is that you and I, as avid readers, have a choice. Now that you know more about this problem, you have the choice of researching each book/text before you commit to reading. With tools such as ChatGPT, this problem is only about to get worse.

So, be alert and stay safe out there as a reader. Any avid reader is too valuable to be deceived by ghostwriters!

Reference and credit: CNBC and Trung Phan.

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