Say it loud and proud: I work with a ghost!

When I first wrote The Complete Guide to Ghostwriting a decade ago, ours was a very different – and very secretive – profession. People like me worked with authors, shaped their words into a highly readable book and then quietly vanished. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know all that has changed. Last year, for a brief time, celebrity ghostwriter JR Moehringer who collaborated on Prince Harry’s book Spare, stepped out of the shadows and became part of the story. He wrote an explosive article for the New Yorker, describing his experiences of working with the royal on what became the UK’s fastest selling non-fiction book ever. For those unfamiliar with the profession, this might have come as a bolt from the blue. Truth be told though, things have been changing for a while.

This week sees the publication of a new, updated edition of The Complete Guide to Ghostwriting. As with the original version, I interviewed ghostwriters, agents and publishers to get their take on this business. What I discovered was; everyone is much more open about talking about collaborations. In fact, it is becoming a badge of pride for authors to show they’ve worked with a professional. And, it’s about time.

A lot else has changed too. Certainly, there is a much higher demand for professional ghostwriters today. This is, in part, down to advances in technology impacting the world of publishing. The cost of producing books has decreased substantially, thanks to digital and print on demand, plus the presence of easy-to-access online marketplaces like Amazon and uk.bookshop.org. which make it easier for potential readers to find and buy books, without them having to be mass produced and distributed to bookshops around the country. This, in turn, means it is now much easier for new entrants to publishing and the number of books published by small independent presses, or self-published by the author, has increased exponentially. The barriers to entry for people wanting to share their memoirs are nothing like as onerous as they were even just a few years ago. This has opened up the concept of ghosting to ‘ordinary’ people.

The celebrity book market has expanded considerably too, in line with the fact there are just so many more celebrities today. Thanks to the growth in social media and reality TV, we are all exposed to a whole host of new household names. Publishers love books with a celebrity name on the cover. In an ever-more crowded marketplace, such books are to publishing what Tom Cruise or Ryan Gosling are to cinema. They’re not a guarantee of success, but as close to that as it is possible to get. Not every book with the name of a celebrity, influencer or reality TV star is ghosted by a professional writer, but the large majority are.

Why, you may ask, don’t people write their own books? After all, anyone at the top of their profession, whether a TV celebrity or businessperson, is likely to be pretty eloquent, or they won’t have got as far as they have. The short answer is: success, time and discipline. Success, because a good collaboration will double anyone’s chances of getting a publishing deal and the book becoming a bestseller. Time, because, planning, structuring and writing a book of 80,000 words is no small undertaking even for an experienced writer working full-time. And discipline, well, give writing a book a go and see. Most people don’t have a spare four hours a day to spend on writing and, even if they start out with good intentions, they rarely keep it up.

There is also another very crucial reason why many more people are turning to ghosts today. Ghostwriting is not just about getting the words on the page in a pleasing order. It’s about finding the most compelling narrative, which is something that comes out of the interview process between ghostwriters and authors. Look at it this way. Most people have some sort of social media presence and that goes doubly, or triply so with those in the public eye. Each day, they blog, tweet, or post on Insta the endless minutiae of their daily lives. It’s not good enough to repeat the same old tired stories in a book. It sounds inauthentic and it won’t sell. It’s a ghost’s art to tease out authentic, interesting and completely fresh revelations to provide the fanbase with something new.

Ah, you may be thinking, what about AI? And, you’re right, it is impossible to write about modern ghostwriting without at least considering what next. It cannot be denied that digital tools are irrevocably changing the writing landscape. There have already been numerous fiction books published that have been written entirely by AI. Will it have an impact on the ghostwriting market? Almost certainly. We just don’t know how yet. For now though, human collaborators have the advantage when it comes to creating a relationship with authors and using their individual creativity to faithfully translate their story, in their unique voice, in a way that will grab the reader and keep them entertained.

For now, at least, I predict the demand for established ghosts will continue to grow in line with the ever-wider range of publishing opportunities, as more people from all walks of life seek to share their stories. In an increasingly noisy online world, ghostwriters are the answer to staying relevant and getting noticed. Let’s celebrate that.

The Complete Guide to Ghostwriting, by Teena Lyons, published by Rethink is available from 16 January 2024.