Ghostwriting

Confession: After getting 2.5 hours of sleep last night, it only took four doughnuts and a cup of coffee to carry me through the afternoon. Not too shabby.

Reading:

• "Eleanor's Music," by Mary Gordon
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold" - Outline 80%
  

Revising:

• "The Revenant"
• "Cora and the Sea" - Third draft 50%

Someone asked me today if I would ever consider ghostwriting. For those of you unfamiliar with the writing biz, that's when a celebrity who can't put three words together hires some poor schlob to write their life story, but takes the credit, the byline, and any attendant accolades.

Hmmmm. I think that description is enough for you to guess my opinion.

Not all kinds of ghostwriting are like that. In fact, some of my favorite ever books were written by ghostwriters. When I was a kid, the Tom Swift series was one of my favorites. (Specifically, the third generation ones, although I also collected the second generator Tom Swift Jr. stories.) They ignited my original love for sci-fi, before I even got into Star Trek. They were supposedly written by Victor Appleton III, but there was not such person.

It's like the Hardy Boys, written by the ever prolific Franklin W. Dixon, or Nancy Drew, as penned by Carolyn Keene. The name of the author becomes a brand for the product. Who would read a Hardy Boys story by Ian Conroy?

According to Wikipedia, the original Nancy Drew author was Mildred Wirt Benson, who was given $125 per book, and gave up all her rights to the work. She was also committed to maintain confidentiality--in other words, she couldn't even say that she'd written them.

Well fuck that.

I'd rather labor in obscurity than achieve publication at that price. It's not the idea of seeing my name in print. I'll all about the pen name. But it will be my pen name, and the stories will be my stories.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 3