Authors who don't write their own books
By KATRINKA
@KATRINKA (1624)
United States
September 8, 2007 5:32pm CST
What do you think of authors who don't write their own books? For instance, recently, I heard that James Patterson has a team who writes his books. He does still write one of his series himself. When I purchase a book by an author, I expect that author to write the book. Maybe I'm just weird that way. Other than greed, what is the motivation for an author to hire someone else to write his books? What are your thoughts on this?
4 responses
@Aurone (4755)
• United States
9 Sep 07
What do we do about all those ghostwriters out there, then? Many long running book series originally author has passed away and has been finished or ghost written by another author? I would prefer to know who wrote the book I am reading, but as long as I enjoy the book, I see a problem.
1 person likes this
@maybebaby (1230)
• Canada
8 Sep 07
I suppose the bottom line is that if the book is still good then you're getting the same level of enjoyment out of it regardless of who wrote it. Saying that, I would like the name on the book to be the person that wrote it. It seems wrong that you would write a book and then put someone else's name on it. It's almost faudulant. Like lip syncing to a song or not citing your sources in a paper. But it the book is still good...this could become a very interesting debate.
@laowai (136)
• United States
9 Sep 07
It's all about name recognition for publishers to hopefully make money. It's the marketing world. It's nice when credit is given to the writer, but what truly matters is the content of the book. Granted, plenty of readers like to find books by the same author, and this can cause a problem for the ghostwriter if/when he/she decides to write under his/her own name.
@HollyK (29)
• United States
9 Sep 07
I almost don't want to know this. I have my favorite authors and would be very disappointed to find out that it could have been several different people. It has always seemed to me that every writer has their own style and sound to their work, I find it hard to believe that the tone is being produced by more than one person. How in the world do they get consistency in the voice with a team? I suppose it can be done, but very disappointing to me.
