Ghostwriting: Yeah or Boooo?
I met with a new client this morning to set up her first blog. We talked about the importance of blogging regularly and I told her that I would be happy to write a post once a week in between those she writes so that she knew there would at least be some new content each week.
Whenever I write for a client (newsletters, speeches) I ask when they'd like to say – what view point do they have – just a couple little tidbits and then I take it from there.
Well, I got back to the office and was doing a little reading and came across a post Mike Sansone from Converstations that comes out AGAINST ghostwriting on blogs.
He has an interesting perspective – "it's a lie" he says, and I can see how that might be true. However, is it a lie when I write the "President's column" for a quarterly newsletter of a client?
Mike has a few alternatives:
1. editing the customer's draft
2. expanding on the customer's thoughts left on voice mail
3. write for a client but use my own name in the byline
What do you think? Do you ghost write for anyone – for any reason? Is it a lie?
Deborah Chaddock Brown
Professional Writer, Liar? Not hardly
AllWrite Ink
Communications | admin | 31 May 2007 |
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By Tim King, May 31, 2007 @ 11:16 pm
Well, ghostwriting has a long tradition. That said, there are various ways to go about it. And I think it depends on what you want to accomplish.
If you want to put your seal of approval on everything that’s said, put your name on it. Just make sure you actually read and approve of it.
If you want to build a community atmosphere (or just want it to seem like more than one person), get someone else to put his name on it, even if you’re paying him to write it.
Inbetween, consider a byline for both co-authors. Or a byline for you, with your ghostwriter on a secondary byline. For example, Maxine Clark’s book The Bear Necessities of Business is credited as by “Maxine Clark… with Amy Joyner.” I’m speculating here, but I’m guessing Amy actually wrote the book, while Maxine was busy running Build-a-Bear Workshop.
-TimK
By Deborah, June 1, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
Great comment Tim. You are right, ghostwriting has been around a long time. I guess that was part of my surprise with Mike’s post. And yet, the difference with blogging is that we are building relationships and therefore a ghostwritten blog could appear dishonest. Can’t imagine a blog post that would be signed:
Deborah Chaddock Brown as told to Someone Else.
So I guess in the end, I agree with Mike. Wow – did I just come full circle?