How to be a ghostwriter

Here’s a true story to begin with. Sometime in the late Seventies, Virago, the all-women’s house devoted to exclusively feminist books, published a novel, Down the Road, Worlds Away by ‘Ms Rahila Khan’. The theme was topical and the writing, crisp: an immigrant’s experiences in London and the painful process of adjustment in an alien environment that also raised the question of multiple identities. But ‘Ms Khan’, who submitted the manuscript by post, refused to meet her publishers face-to-face. She is believed to have said that her religion did not allow her to meet strangers without her veil. If the veil could not be removed, what was the point of a meeting? In any case, all editorial queries and changes could be clarified by post.

So it was done her way and the book published amidst ‘much acclaim’. Three weeks after the ‘author’ had received the statutory author’s copies under the contract, a white man, Reverend Toby Forward, revealed that he was the author and that ‘Ms Khan’ was his pseudonym.

This revelation raised some questions. First, is it necessary for a publisher to meet the author face-to-face, especially when it comes to a first-time book? Second, are ghostwriters a necessary evil whose identities should be kept under wraps? Third, does it really matter what sex a writer happens to be or for that matter what colour?

Yes, it is necessary for a publisher to meet the author face-to-face for both to size up the kind of person he or she would have to deal with. Publisher-author relationships are always tenuous; they extend far beyond the signing of the contract and the published book. There are questions of promotion, sales, royalties that crop up and misunderstandings that arise. It is necessary therefore that the publisher knows the psyche of the author to handle the many problems that crop up after ‘the baby is born.’ Publishers believe that authors are prickly characters who have to be handled with care and the best way to do this is to sort out the differences that arise from time to time. Correspondence, which is rather like the computer-generated responses we get for our complaints these days, is no substitute for a one-to-one meeting.

Ghostwriters are much more widespread than before and many have come out of the closet now with the demand that they should be given a share of the advance and royalties. Take autobiographies or memoirs for instance. Autobiographies aren’t ‘auto’ any more; the as-told-to technique is taking over. Celebrity figures under deadline pressures say what they remember into a recorder for shaping by professional writers who then polish it up and lace it with anecdotes.

But it is not just autobiographies where ghostwriting is rampant; it is equally prevalent in academic books. Sometimes these ghosts are research assistants but more often they are professional editors with wide writing skills. In fact, it is no longer a secret deal, it is out in the open, with the author acknowledging ‘the assistance’ in his Introduction to the book. Of course, the ‘assistance’ comes with a heavy price tag, depending on the quantum of work that needed to be done.

Ghostwriters are very much a part of the publishing game. They are the backroom boys who are constantly in demand because very few of the big and the famous can actually write. Their copy needs to be revised or completely rewritten before being published.

Of course, sex, colour, caste or creed does not matter any more; what does is good and relevant writing for the reader. But if you are an attractive young thing, a pretty face on the back cover takes you a long way to getting published. The backroom boys can always do the writing.