Aussie Readers discussion

Is anybody else sick and tired of great writers farming out their books to others?

I refuse to read anything else from Clive Cussler &, James Patterson &, Tom Clancy &.....

They can't be that desperate for a dollar that they need to do this can they?

Rob.

Rob wrote: "Is anybody else sick and tired of great writers farming out their books to others?

I refuse to read anything else from Clive Cussler &, James Patterson &, Tom Clancy &.....

They can't be that des..."

I agree - and since receiving a book by Clancy & ANO as a present from my wife I haven't read anything further of Clancy's output. As soon as I found out how many books Patterson churned out a year I didn't believe it possible, so another 'author' hit the dust. I like the one a year guys such as Vince Flynn, Stephen Leather etc Even Douglas Reeman, who us very prolific, considering that he writes as Reeman & Kent, limits his yearly output :-o)

Are they called 'ghostwriters'? Or are ghostwriters not recognised in any way? James Patterson seems to be the worst that I've noticed.

In 2001, the New York Times stated that the fee that the ghostwriter for Hillary Clinton's memoirs will receive is probably about $500,000" of her book's $8 million advance, which "is near the top of flat fees paid to collaborators."

The above copied from Wikipedia -

So there is money as a ghostwriter if you pick your subject, but 'collaboration' novel writing is something else, which to me means 'cheating' the book buyer. It is not even 'fan' fiction, if it has the original famous name in a prominent position on the cover as the author and in very small print 'In collaboration with John Blow'.

Geoff (Scouse) wrote: "In 2001, the New York Times stated that the fee that the ghostwriter for Hillary Clinton's memoirs will receive is probably about $500,000" of her book's $8 million advance, which "is near the top ..."

I do agree that not prominently crediting the ghostwriter is pretty unfair to your loyal fans and readers.

On the other hand, sometimes ghosted books can be better than the original. Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant's Animorphs series was ghostwritten towards the middle, and although some of the later books were absolute dreck, there are certain books (The Revelation, The Sickness, The Sacrifice that were actually some of the best books in a very patchy series.

Geoff (Scouse) wrote: "In 2001, the New York Times stated that the fee that the ghostwriter for Hillary Clinton's memoirs will receive is probably about $500,000" of her book's $8 million advance, which "is near the top ..."

Do you feel the same way for series that are not finished when an author dies? eg. Brandon Sanderson finishing off the Wheel of time series... granted his name is fairly large on the cover, I don't think they are trying tricking anyone.

Melanie,
You could say that GWTW was never 'finished ' if you are looking for a sequel. The sequel for GWTW was ‘Scarlett’ and I made an attempt to read ‘Scarlett’, but never finished the book. Alexandra Ripley, the author of Scarlett, had the backing of the Mitchel Estate, but the book failed to grab me anywhere near as GWTW, which has become a favourite of mine in both film & print.
Check how many James Bond books have been produced by a number of different authors since Ian Fleming's death - all with the support of the Fleming Estate. To date I haven't read any of them, which could be my loss, one day I'll get round to it . . . .:-o)
At least Scarlet & the newer Bond books did not pretend in any way to sell the concept to the buyer that the original author was involved. :-o)