Ghostwriters/Collaborations

[Damian]

So everyone wants to be heralded for their own writing... but is this at the detriment of the story itself?

If one has a very very very long story a which will take them forever to write - is it not best to 'hire' people if one can (by charge or for free) so that one can spend time on the essence (whilst overlooking the presentation) developing more time to story development (Lucas)

Would this not make half the stories out there better but it may mean genuine talent may be diluted

Ghost writing tends to have a feeling that one is 'copping out' of the work load or not being able to divulge thoroughly oneself (for a variety of reasons) BUT it may help drive a project further and farther than one thought possible?

If not Ghost write - would you give away your 'idea' for a collaboration and share the name on the cover just to quicken the project?

I guess the question is about speed in the end. Ideas can take forever... efficiency & the loss of integrity are the price for shortcuts.

I personally want to be the sole creator as there is only me that writes like me... but I have other stories that I would like to write which just seem a million years away at the moment as I am always working on one very long and complex project but I do not want the other ideas to get wasted.

 

[BWFoster78]

So everyone wants to be heralded for their own writing... but is this at the detriment of the story itself?

If one has a very very very long story a which will take them forever to write - is it not best to 'hire' people if one can (by charge or for free) so that one can spend time on the essence (whilst overlooking the presentation) developing more time to story development (Lucas)

Would this not make half the stories out there better but it may mean genuine talent may be diluted

Ghost writing tends to have a feeling that one is 'copping out' of the work load or not being able to divulge thoroughly oneself (for a variety of reasons) BUT it may help drive a project further and farther than one thought possible?

If not Ghost write - would you give away your 'idea' for a collaboration and share the name on the cover just to quicken the project?

I guess the question is about speed in the end. Ideas can take forever... efficiency & the loss of integrity are the price for shortcuts.

I personally want to be the sole creator as there is only me that writes like me... but I have other stories that I would like to write which just seem a million years away at the moment as I am always working on one very long and complex project but I do not want the other ideas to get wasted.

I think that most of us have more ideas than we can possibly use.

I guess my question is: What can you offer a ghostwriter/collaborator?

If you're James Patterson, you can pay quite a bit of money. If you're John Ringo, you can offer a newcomer your name to put as co-author in order to create an audience.

Personally, I think I'm a decent writer and have a chance of, one day, having a following. Right now, I don't have much to offer a "collaborator." Saying that you cowrote with Brian W. Foster isn't going to bring you much business. I can't afford to pay you anything near what a decent hourly rate would be.

 

[Damian]

Imagine if Tolkien had Peter Jackson adding his thoughts on story tension : )

 

[Steerpike]

Imagine if Tolkien had Peter Jackson adding his thoughts on story tension : )

That's a good argument against collaboration right there

I don't have a problem with collaboration and ghost writing if that's what people want to do. As Brian said, if you're an unknown author you don't have much to offer a collaborator unless you're going to co-author and go in 50/50 on the novel. I've ghost-written non-fiction, and it can pay fairly well. I'm not sure why I'd ghostwrite a novel for anyone unless they were going to pay a lot of money for me to do it. Otherwise, if I'm going to the trouble of writing a novel I'd rather have my own name on it.

 

[Devora]

I've wanted to try my hand at ghostwriting, but I could never figure out how and where to begin.

 

[Yellow]

I'd say it all depends on how you go about collaborating. I for one believe in being honest to your audience, so I don't really agree with having someone else write your book and then claim that you wrote it on your own, but I see nothing wrong with co-writing or providing ideas for someone else to write, as long as you're honest about it. In fact I think collaboration can be really fun, and very productive, even if all you do is brainstorm with some friends for an afternoon.

 

[Damian]

Yellow - Yes I agree, I would never want to state my writing as my own if someone else had contributed so in that sense my original question is in referral to collaborations. Everyone should be credited for their artistic contribution.

 

[Alexandra]

My first book-length writing project involved two people at its core: me (author) and a politician (source and co-author); we were going to write a non-fiction book on policing in Toronto. The short of it: twas very difficult to work with another person on something as intimate as a book, and my agent made it clear to me that publishers do not like books written by committee (unless the committee members are famous, such as John and Yoko). Things are different today; with digital publishing anyone can publish anything but technology would not necessarily make it easier for a number of people to work creatively on the same book. Books, particularly non-fiction, are often created by teams of people but the editors, researchers, publicists, et al act as support staff.

 

[Penpilot]

Collaboration does not always equate to finishing a work faster. Sometimes one person can finish a project faster than two people. The reason being is communication. No matter how meticulous your notes to a ghost writer are, there will be times where they probably don't get it 'right', so they'll have to rewrite something two, three, or even more times, compared to maybe only once for yourself.

In general, most authors probably want to write their own stuff. So unless you make it worth their while, financially or otherwise, why would they want to work on your ideas instead of their own?