What is ghostwriting?
Is it all of these things? Well, as the saying goes, you say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe. For most of my life, I presumed — most likely as you have done — that everyone wrote their own work start to finish. Authors wrote their own novels. Screenwriters wrote their own scripts. Politicians wrote their own speeches. Business leaders wrote their own articles. How could I have known then that ghostwriting is one of the pillars of publishing? Of course, it is often called something else. Generally "editing". But a rose by any other name... When an editor prunes down a three-thousand page manuscript to a tight, best-selling three hundred page book, what would you call it? When a writer turns to an editor, who is, after all, earning a living by providing editing services, and says, "I’m having trouble developing this character/scene/plot line..." and the editor lends an expert — though unseen — hand, you can call it what you want, but I call it ghostwriting. When the finished script of a Hollywood blockbuster has gone through countless "revisions", often at the hands of unnamed professional writers who earn their very lucrative livelihoods by doctoring up other people’s scripts, that’s ghostwriting! When a CEO, whose strengths are legion but whose handful of weaknesses include the manipulation of the written word or the crafting of the clever phrase, turns to an executive assistant for help in drafting a speech to a meeting of shareholders... that’s ghostwriting! In short, one of the unspoken truths of books, speeches, and scripts is the invisible pen of the ghostwriter. But what of the business person who needs help in drafting that important speech but who lacks an executive assistant capable of lending a hand? What of the scriptwriter who doesn’t have access to Hollywood’s cadre of rewrite experts? What about the first-time novelist who can’t find an editor willing to devote the time and energy to edit? Or the physician who, working eighty-hour weeks as a healer, doesn’t have the time or skill to write a book about his or her area of expertise? |
    
In short, one of the unspoken truths of books, speeches and scripts is the invisible pen of the ghostwriter. |
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Where can these people turn for help? Who can you turn to? Why, that’s easy. How can I help you? [ Home
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David Woolfe
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