Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

If a writer comes up with all the characters, locations, and story lines. Would their story, written by a ghost writer, be cheating somehow?

kind of, i feel

readwithrishika wrote: "kind of, i feel"

It makes me wonder how common it is in the industry.

There are several well known series where several books were written by ghostwriters, including Nancy Drew, The Vampire Diaries, and The Babysitters Club. James Patterson books is mostly ghostwritten from my understanding.

Cheating? I can't say yes or no.

You just need to look at the books advertized as 'A TOM CLANCY BOOK' being published in the last few years, like Mirror Image . First, you have 'A TOM CLANCY BOOK' in huge letters, followed by the title of the book in a bit less huge letters and then by the name of the actual writer, in minuscule letters that escape attention at first. All that to attract the attention of potential buyers, who expect at first that book to have been written by the actual Tom Clancy. To me, it constitutes at the minimum intellectual dishonesty. Even if you are supposedly writing in the style of Tom Clancy, with the approval of Clancy's family, then you should sell your books on your own merit, meaning under your CLEARLY VISIBLE name. If you try your best to hide your name as being the author of a book, then don't call yourself a successful writer: you are only using the fame of someone else to sell your books.

Theresa wrote: "There are several well known series where several books were written by ghostwriters, including Nancy Drew, The Vampire Diaries, and The Babysitters Club. James Patterson books is mostly ghostwritt..."

The Vampire Diaries, I didn't know that franchise used a ghost writer.

Michel wrote: "You just need to look at the books advertized as 'A TOM CLANCY BOOK' being published in the last few years, like Mirror Image. First, you have 'A TOM ..."

It's kind of like buying a SUV with a Toyota symbol on it with a Fiat engine under the hood lol