By
Karen Cole
Words:
800
That’s
the most common thing I get when I tell people I’m a ghost writer: “Hey, isn’t
that illegal and doesn’t it violate copyrights laws?” Nah, it doesn’t. It’s
completely street legal, functions under “work for hire” clauses in each state
of the USA and also in other countries, and the clients usually get to keep
full rights and copyrights to all of the material you ghostwrite for them
However,
it can be hard to talk about, as it’s kind of “hush-hush” stuff. When I work
with famous people, they generally want all the credit for their work, so I
can’t really discuss their names with other people. Recently, however, I have
worked with a Holocaust survivor of ten different internment camps, who is
going on a national book tour to sell his book, and the daughter of the FBI
agent who caught Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassin, James Earl Ray.
One
of the figures in that book, known as “the Dallas Duplicator,” was possibly the
infamous Blonde Man of Dealey Plaza, who picked up one of the bullets that
killed President Kennedy – he was also the FBI agent who arrested Lee Harvey
Oswald in the Dallas movie theater. The Duplicator, however, refuses to admit
that he was the Blonde Man, although he was in Dallas at the time. I’ve worked
on projects involving the Mafia, which I can’t go on about at length, and the
CIA – involving murders. And I worked on a book project concerning the infamous
murder case where Amber Frey testified against the killer.
So
I have dealt with some interesting people, such as a real life Nazi from the
original party, some film stars (Nicholas Cage, Prince, Fabio) several makers
of motion pictures, some famous book authors, and lots of book publishers and
literary agents, as well as music industry moguls and top recording executives.
But I can’t talk a lot about any of these people – I’m supposed to be purely a
background figure, and to not release a lot of information about my clients or
even about my business contacts – just enough about them to let the public know
that I deal with them.
Anyway,
I only work on commission for select book authors and screenwriters. They have
to have a publisher literally all lined up, or a movie studio or producer ready
to film their project for me to work only on commission. Sometimes, however, I
run a deal when I think a book is likely to be published or a script is likely
to be produced, where we take 5-15% of net sales and also a substantial upfront
payment during the completion of the project. This deal is not our usual
practice, which is to take solely upfront payments during the course of
completion of the book or script project.
We
also do other work as it comes in; but usually we don’t write articles unless
it’s part of an overall greater project. And we never do academic writing for
students, only editing and proofreading. We also always write and ask for
permission for usage of other’s work, and we never plagiarize. As for how it
feels not owning all of my own hard work, well, nowadays I mostly send out the
incoming projects to other ghost writers on our team, and I only do some of the
editing work that comes in. But in the past, I guess I have no real regrets.
I’ve been paid well enough, and I’ve not had to deal with any of the problems
or infamy that a book on a tender subject might bring.
As
to advice for other writers: write, write and write some more, practice your
editing of spelling, grammar and syntax, and become as expert as you can at “Show
not Tell” writing and developmental or content editing. You will find that as a
ghost writer, you will need thorough editing and rewriting skills. Also, get
some of your own work with your name on it published, so that you can show it
to clients, and build up a decent portfolio of your published work. You can get
articles published on various sites on the Internet for free.
Once
you’re ready, you should begin to take on those “interesting” clients for some
terrific pay. But don’t be afraid to take on “first time” author ghost writing
clients, if they are willing to pay you decently for your services. You don’t
always have to work for famous people to get your name recognized (if that’s
what you want) or to make a great living.
