Wyrd Warrior

Is ghostwriting deceptive, unethical or illegal? A ghostwriter is simply someone who writes something anonymously. The person who purchases the services of a ghostwriter obtains the rights to the work. The very nature of this business can sometimes create issues regarding honesty and deception. However, it’s important to realize that there is nothing illegal about ghostwriting or hiring the services of a ghostwriter.

Perhaps the most common myth about ghostwriting is that it is related to plagiarism. One reason for this misunderstandings that you’ll sometimes read about someone well known who claims to have written something, and it turns out that he or she actually used a ghostwriter. In other words, they did not write the book (or whatever it may be) themselves, but hired someone else to do the writing.

This may be deceptive, but it’s not plagiarism –as long as the ghostwriter was paid! If someone simply steals someone else’s work without obtaining permission, that is plagiarism –and has nothing to do with ghostwriting!

The fact of the matter is, many people do not have the time, skills or desire to write. This may be a celebrity who wants to write his autobiography. In many cases, the celebrity (or her agent) will hire a ghostwriter to write, co-author or rewrite this autobiography -or should we say “autobiography” with quotes?

Now here is a difficult question -is it unethical to claim to have written something yourself when you’ve actually hired someone else to write it? As someone writing from the ghostwriter’s perspective, my natural impulse is to say “no,” but to be honest, I’d have to say “it depends on your point of view.” It also depends on the situation.

The fact is, most ghostwritten material is mainly informational, and a lot of it does not even have an author’s name attached to it. This includes many blogs and web site pages. Then there are articles that are found on websites, ezines and article directories which are attributed to an author. Some of these are written by the author listed, but many are ghostwritten. Since the vast majority of these website owners and bloggers are relatively unknown, it makes little difference to the general public who gets credit for them.

In certain instances, such as academia, ghostwriting is pretty clearly outside the boundaries of what is considered ethical or acceptable. For example, if a student hires someone to write his or her term paper or thesis, they are clearly violating the university’s policy. This is still not something criminal, but it would be grounds for expulsion from most institutions. Ditto with a professor who has someone else write his research paper.

The above example of a term or research paper differs from a ghostwritten autobiography in an important respect. The whole point of a research or academic institution is to do your own research and write your own papers. Celebrities, however, are not usually writers , and books attributed to them are usually about their careers in politics, movies, sports, etc. In other words, writing is not their central activity or what they are known for, so their choice to outsource this skill may arguably be forgiven.

Some well known novelists are rumored to use ghostwriters to pen some of their work. This would seem to cross the boundary into the deceptive, if not outright unethical (though probably still within the boundaries of the legal). This would be similar to a renowned artist having an assistant paint for him -again, something some of the master painters of past eras were known to do.

The latter would be, in my opinion, a less than ethical action to take on the part of the writer. However, few ghostwriters (myself included) would be likely to turn down a large paycheck offered by a famous author or his agent. While some might consider this a self-serving, possibly even hypocritical stance, as I see it, any ethical issues are on the shoulders of the person who hires the ghostwriter, not the ghostwriter herself. Keep in mind, we aren’t talking about having people killed here; it’s only words! The latter may seem a sacrilege coming from a writer, but I do think it’s important to keep things in perspective.

We might ask, when it comes to either a book or painting, if the writer or artist approves the work of the assistant or ghostwriter, and the public cannot tell the difference, what harm is done? There is also a gray area when it comes to editing vs. rewriting vs. ghostwriting. The vast majority of writers use editors. At what point does editing become rewriting? I don’t have the answer to these questions, and there probably are no definitive answers.

I have raised some difficult issues without really answering them. To address these questions gets into some fairly deep ethical and philosophical territory. However you feel about them, ghostwriters fulfill a necessary if hidden role in the overall output of words on paper and computer screens.