You may know what it is, or you may not. If you don't, ghostwriting is when an author, usually a pretty popular one *coughJamesPatterson* gets someone else to write his/her books for them. The original author usually writes out some sort of plan, or at least looks over the book before it's published.

Me? I hate it. I think it's annoying and cheap. I'm buying a book because I want to read an author's style, not a cheap imitation. I was so disappointed when my suspicion of K.A. Applegate's Animorph series came true - half of them were ghostwritten.

So...opinions, anyone?

It’s why ‘celebrity’ ‘autobiographies’ exist. Publishers are obsessed with these ‘celebrity’ ‘autobiographies’, making it harder for good writers to be published. Therefore, ghost writing is generally a bad thing.

I agree with you, it’s pretty cheap. They should give credit on the front cover, “Created by _______, written by ______.”

I heard someone say that they thought The Host was ghostwritten, because it was so much better than Twilight. Hmm…

I doubt it, because I think the relationships in The Host are just as pathetic and shallow as they are in Twilight. However, it is better than Twilight, but it’s not like that’s a huge accomplishment.

I guess it would depend on how much room the ghostwriter was given for their own creativity. Actors work from the confines of the writer’s script, but competent enough actors can make a mediocre script exciting. But a mediocre script means that fundamentally, it would be shallow…

So I guess the best it could ever get is ‘good’.

Meh, ghostwriting never really appealed to me. I always considered it to be cheating, and rather low.

Well, I know Applegate always dedicated the book to the ghostwriter.

But it was never said why. :P

I really don’t see how it’s possible to write a great story that did not come from within your own mind.

You can’t, but that doesn’t mean people won’t like it. Take the Nancy Drew series. I picked the plot apart in elementary school (they were the first novels I ever read) and that didn’t stop me from reading them for fun on and off through middle school.

I wonder if there’s an inverse relationship between quality and popularity.

The BSC books...no! Man, I used to love those books, when I was like...nine. How could Martin betray me like that?

Ghostwriting seems lazy to me. You shouldn’t have someone do all the hard work for you.

I’m quite sure that the fourth Max Ride book was ghostwritten. Or at least I hope so, becuse it was terrible.

I hope that the fourth and fifth were. They were aweful. I liked the first three, but now everyone is just sprouting random, stupid powers (other than Angel), and it is their duty to stop global warming. They were supposed to save the world from an evil plot to reduce the population of the earth by half, or something like that. Now they are saving it from pollution. All of the adult characters (especially the villians) have become ridiculously immature. That is my rant, the abridged version.

The unabridged version is very long. Maybe I can make it into a coherent article for the main site.

Yes, yes they should. It makes ranters such as myself feel important.

Wow, that sounds so epically group therapy.

Yes, it gives you that tidy feeling of 'I seriously rock at this'...