Ghostwriters in the news
When launching The Ghostwriters Agency one year ago, we celebrated that ghostwriting was, at long last, coming out of the shadows. This was, in great part, down to the publication of the Duke of Sussex’s memoir Spare, which became the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever and, at the same time, propelled its ghostwriter JR Moehringer into the limelight. On a lesser note, I would modestly suggest that The Ghostwriter Agency’s Giving Up the Ghostcast podcast also contributed a little to lifting the veil on this once secretive profession.
There is, perhaps, a downside to more being known about our role in helping to pen some of the world’s most popular books. At the start of the year, Mark Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter for President Joe Biden, was dragged into a political row over the President’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. Special Counsel Robert Hur’s announced that the ghostwriter had deleted his interview recordings after learning about the Justice Department’s investigation. Not only this, Hur noted, but Zwonitzer should never have been party to much of the information at all, since he’d never held security clearance. The resulting furore saw Zwonitzer pursued in the streets by paparazzi.
This week, it emerged that JR Moehringer had also attracted the attention of the media. In fact, in a piece in MSN.com, the ghost said he felt ‘stalked’ by a ‘frenzied mob’ of photographers and reporters in the aftermath of the release of Spare. Members of his family had been targeted by the paparazzi too.
These two examples are clearly worrying developments in the acceptance of the presence of ghosts. Very few people would welcome being under that sort of scrutiny. Add to this, most ghosts I know are highly introverted, which has a lot to do with their choice of profession. We like nothing more than time spent in our own company, writing. Yet, despite this, and with due respect to the ordeals endured by messieurs Moehringer and Zwonitzer, I still think that on balance it is a good thing that ghostwriters are being recognised.
Over the past year, Shannon and I have been doing the rounds, banging the drum for our amazing membership of 65+ bestselling ghosts. When we’ve approached publishers, we’ve heard the same refrain more than a few times: the agency is great, exactly what the industry needs at long last. In the past, when publishers signed up an author, the cry would go around the office ‘does anyone know a good ghost?’. There simply wasn’t a resource to put authors and publishers together with the best co-writer to tell the story. Now there is.
Something else that has emerged over the first year of The Ghostwriting Agency is what a varied role us writers play. While most of our enquiries from authors are seeking help in writing a full memoir, or ‘how I did it’ style book, others have sought out a more coaching-style relationship, where our ghosts help them to pen their own books. Helping authors to develop and organise their narrative, and write for their audience is something that experienced ghosts are more than equipped to do. We’ve also had enquiries about writing publishing proposals, or to polish and revamp manuscripts that don’t quite fit the bill.
During this period, Shannon and I have both been called upon a number of times to speak about ghostwriting in the media. Something we have been very keen to do is gain recognition about what an important part of the publishing mix we ghosts are. We don’t just come along, record an author’s thoughts and slap them down into a manuscript. Professional writers are creatives, who help shape compelling narratives, pushing authors to get the best stories, even if it is sometimes uncomfortable for them to tell them. While we are keen not to attract any unwarranted attention, or to become the story, the more we can talk about ghostwriting the better. If you want to find out more about ghostwriting – we’re here.
Teena Lyons