These authors get up close and personal with the A-list to write their books…<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Bonnie McLaren<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/12\/GettyImages-2189222403.jpg” alt=”Paris Hilton” title_text=”Celebrity Sightings In New York City – December 10, 2024″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Ever looked at a best-selling book by a celebrity and thought \u2018How on Earth did they have the time to write that?!\u2019 Well, a not so well-kept secret is a lot of stars don\u2019t write their own books.<\/p>\n Enter ghostwriters: authors who will transfer the words of the A-list, sports stars and influencers to the page. Ghostwriting has been happening for hundreds of years, but the phrase was only coined in 1921 by an American sports agent who wanted authors to write for his baseball players.<\/p>\n Fast forward to now, and the world\u2019s fastest-selling non-fiction book \u2013 Prince Harry\u2019s Spare \u2013 was written by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist J.R. Moehringer. And Britney Spears\u2019 long-anticipated memoir The Woman In Me \u2013 released after she finally broke free of her conservatorship \u2013 was, according to The New York Times, put together by a team of three writers.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just the A-list who are filling the shelves with ghostwritten books. Your favourite online celebs are, too \u2013 with sales that are translating in real life. \u2018I think when people think about ghostwriting, they assume it\u2019s going to be Hollywood celebs,\u2019 one ghostwriter \u2013 who has worked with numerous UK celebs, but wishes to remain anonymous \u2013 tells Grazia, \u2018but if you think about big books that are selling in your local book shop, it\u2019s reality stars and influencers.\u2019<\/p>\n And she notes that these books \u2018are not always autobiographies, they\u2019re sometimes a mix of memoir and advice.\u2019 A recent bestseller to do this is Pete Wicks\u2019 Never Enough, which touches on themes of mental health and toxic masculinity.<\/p>\n When it comes to finding the perfect ghostwriter, just like a dating agency, she tells us that a \u2018variety\u2019 of writers meet the celebrities, either on Zoom or in real life \u2013 so all involved can ensure it\u2019s a right match. \u2018It does actually work,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019ve generally written for celebrities who are interesting and likeable, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re successful.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] The deadlines for writers to put together these books is usually tight, with only a few months to write the manuscript. \u2018It\u2019s an intimate, but temporary relationship,\u2019 she says, \u2018but they do trust you \u2013 they tell you stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n In terms of how it all ends up on the page, the ghostwriter says a plan for the project is thought up by the celebrity, publisher or ghostwriter, then the ghostwriter will interview the celeb numerous times, which will then be written up and turned into the book.<\/p>\n Our ghostwriter says that she\u2019s typically contracted to spend 20 hours with a celebrity \u2013 though she says this doesn\u2019t always happen due to hectic schedules. \u2018You generally get more time [with the celeb] at the end when they realise the deadline is looming, but that\u2019s when you\u2019re busiest writing.\u2019<\/p>\n Ghostwriters tend to be paid flat fees \u2013 which our ghostwriter says is usually around \u00a310,000, depending on word length \u2013 whereas celebrities will \u2018get something upfront, but if they sell past a certain amount, they\u2019ll go into royalty territory, where they\u2019ll get extra money.\u2019<\/p>\n And of course, as the book is under the celebrity\u2019s name, they get the final say as to whether they\u2019re happy with it. It means ghostwriters are very different to journalists \u2013 they won\u2019t include anything the celebrity doesn\u2019t want them too, and our ghostwriter says that she\u2019s happy to take things out which they might have said earlier. \u2018I\u2019m not trying to catch them out,\u2019 she says, \u2018as when I write things I\u2019ll write them in a way which protects them.\u2019<\/p>\n It’s not just self-help and memoir either, the practise looks like it\u2019s becoming more common in fiction writing. Does anyone remember Kendall and Kylie Jenner\u2019s sci-fi young adult book Rebels? (Obviously, the two main characters are sisters.) Or Millie Bobby Brown\u2019s WW2 set romance book, Nineteen Steps? In both cases, it wasn\u2019t a huge secret that someone else had written the book. Maya Sloan, who wrote the Jenners\u2019 book, said she spent time behind-the-scenes with the sisters during a fashion week, and Brown thanked her ghostwriter\u00a0Kathleen McGurl in an Instagram post.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a lot of celebrity fiction which isn\u2019t so clear. And the Society of Authors \u2013 the UK\u2019s largest trade union of authors, illustrators and translators \u2013 has called for ghostwriters to receive more recognition (particularly when it comes to celebrity books aimed at children).<\/p>\n The ghostwriter we\u2019ve spoken to hasn\u2019t written fiction for celebs, but she thinks the SOA has a point, and fiction should be credited as double byline \u2013 because writing a story demands more from the ghostwriter. \u2018Memoirs and non-fiction are often based on people\u2019s lives, experiences and thoughts, but a lot of fiction is also being written by ghostwriters \u2013 not all \u2013 so it can be quite confusing, especially if you\u2019re a reader who\u2019s not in the publishing industry.\u2019<\/p>\n Whatever the type of book, in the acknowledgements is where the ghostwriter is usually thanked by the celebrity \u2013 and it isn\u2019t always clear that it\u2019s written by a ghostwriter. \u2018It will phrase it in a way that\u2019s sort of like: thanks to so and so for helping me get my thoughts together,\u2019 she says. Though there are exceptions: Mariah Carey named her ghostwriter Michaela Angela Davis on her memoir.<\/p>\n Maybe, in the future, we\u2019ll know more about the people who are actually writing the words behind the scenes. \u2018I think the secrecy around ghostwriters feels a bit out of date at this point, because we\u2019re in this world of authenticity, and influencers especially are prized for their original voices,\u2019 our ghostwriter says. \u2018It makes sense for them to be [like] it\u2019s all my thoughts and creativity, but I had someone help me get it down on paper as I\u2019m really busy, and I needed help with structure and telling it in 60,000 words.\u2019 But, until honesty becomes more common, you can always check the acknowledgements.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”fp-in-article-bold” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_font_size=”18px” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These authors get up close and personal with the A-list to write their books…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5835"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5840,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions\/5840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘You form an intimate relationship with the celebrity’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]