The Legalities Of Ghostwriting

In a recent post in the Bookseller Blog, Freya North discussed the likelihood that good books by unknown writers are being rejected in favour of books by celebrities, which are more often than not ghostwritten. It's an important point which warrants further discussion but a second point was made in the comment stream to that blog post, which is the one that I want to address here: that of the legalities of ghostwriting.

Discussing the news that Cheryl Cole has now been signed to write a series of chick-lit titles, a commenter by the name of Charles Hale (who states that he's a QC, no less), wrote,

I am a lawyer, and with regard to the Cheryl Cole book situation, there is no question that if properly legally challenged, publishers would find themselves in trouble for their implication that Cheryl Cole wrote the books. It is, to be blunt, against the law to pass off a product sold as being anything other than that which it is.

Do you think that publishers which bring out ghostwritten memoirs and celebrity books are misrepresenting their products? Does anyone actually believe that the celebrities concerned really wrote their books? How complicit are we, as readers, in this apparent deceit? And does anyone think that publishers will ever be challenged on this front?

Ghostwriting

When you see a book with a celebrity's name on the cover, or a memoir about someone’s appalling life, you shouldn't automatically assume that the person named on the cover wrote the book alone. Chances are that they got their publishing deal because of their celebrity status or amazing life story, and their publisher quietly arranged for a ghostwriter to give them whatever help they needed to get the book written.

The level of help received can range from a little editorial assistance to writing the whole thing although it is usual for the “author” to participate in the process, perhaps by spending time discussing their ideas or their life story with their ghost, or providing journals, letters or emails to provide something more personal than can be achieved by the usual background research.

I once saw Katie Price, better known as Jordan, insists that while her children's books were ghosted for her she'd done all of the difficult stuff herself by coming up with most of the ideas; while when Naomi Campbell was asked what her novel was about, she notoriously replied, "I don't know, I haven't read it yet."