If you have been reading a lot about online writing lately, you will probably have come across the term ‘ghostwriting’. But what is it? How is it different from any other kind of writing?
Could you be an unseen ghostwriter?
In truth, if you have got your first writing job you might even have done some ghost writing already without even realising it! You see, ghostwriting is basically writing something for someone else that they put their own name on and publish. So for example, you might be asked to write an article on cheese making (sorry, that was the first thing that came into my head!) for a client. So you write it and you turn it in, and they pay you.
But then they stick their own name on it and publish it or do whatever they like with it, because they have paid you for full ownership of it. They won’t tell other people they had someone else write the piece on cheese making – they will say they wrote it themselves. You have ‘ghostwritten’ the piece and you will remain a mystery in the background, as people don’t even know you exist.
I actually fell into ghost writing without even realising it. I was poodling along doing my writing and developing my client base, and I read an article on ghostwriting. And I suddenly realised that’s what I was doing! Talk about being the last one to know…
Some people have an issue with giving ownership of their writing to other people. That’s fair enough though – I can perfectly understand that. I think I have been there and got the published magazine clips, so I was happy to write for other people. Although with that said I still like to do the odd magazine piece with my name on it (or online piece, like this blog for example!) from time to time.
It’s really a case of horses for courses. If you like the idea of keeping your own name on everything then go for it and write for markets that make this a possibility. If you like to write for all kinds of different people and markets, then go for a mix of everything. Remember that this is YOUR writing career so you get to choose who you want to write for and when you want to write.
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Tags: article buyers, ghost writing, ghostwriting, writing life
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