Surround Sound

By Amy Miller

Reading is, and always has been, a beloved hobby of mine. Sharing this interest with many of my friends, I often find myself discussing my favourite authors and praising their individual styles, brands, and techniques – but the presence of ghostwriting in the industry threatens to make this conversation a touch more complicated. 

To ghostwrite is to pen a text on the behalf of another person who is presumed and credited to be its author. Provided a contractual agreement is made between ghostwriter and client, the process is legal in most countries including the United Kingdom, though it is prohibited in academic contexts as a form of plagiarism. Nonetheless, ghostwriting remains controversial and problematic despite its legality, which is exactly what I wish to discuss today. 

At face value, ghostwriting may seem inherently wrong or even immoral – after all, an author is not being credited for their work, but upon further inspection it is a deeply nuanced subject. For some ghostwriting is simply a profession, a job one is paid for upon the understanding that the final product does not belong to them and will not be treated as such. For others it is a lie, an attempt by one person to take credit for another’s work. 

In the fiction world, the murky waters of ghostwriting are often brought to light in the context of celebrity books; I remember, for example, the controversy surrounding YouTube star Zoella’s fiction series in 2014. For a more recent example, though, we can turn to Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. After publishing her debut novel Nineteen Steps in September 2023, Brown came under fire for her collaboration with ghostwriter Kathleen McGurl, whose name did not appear on the book’s cover. It is worth noting that McGurl did not fully escape recognition: Brown shared a photo of them both with the appreciative caption “I couldn’t have done this without you!” upon the release date. Still, despite her lack of secrecy, the public reaction was overwhelmingly negative and the audience concerned with Brown’s apparently false claim to authorship. 

The covers of the aforementioned novels. 

For me, the prevalence of ghostwriting among celebrities-turned-writers is no surprise. Over the years books have become another form of merchandise and have been released by actors, influencers, and musicians alike – but it remains true that most of these people are not well-versed in the art of literature, meaning they may be inclined to reach out for help along the way. If we continue with the example of Millie Bobby Brown, this might just make a little more sense. The plot of Nineteen Steps was inspired by the experiences of Brown’s grandmother during the Bethnal Green Tube disaster: her desire to tell this story may not have come to fruition without the help of a ghostwriter, whose work bridged the gap between concept and product. 

As an English student I tend away from celebrity books – hopefully not out of pure snobbery – but I can understand their appeal to a certain extent, as they begin to further resemble pieces of merchandise. A lover of ancient translated texts I truly treasure collaborative writing, but I believe this to be a completely separate issue: the care put into these pieces, and later the credit given to all contributors, simply does not exist to the same extent for figures such as Brown. Nineteen Steps sold well but was considered by many reviewers to contain “all too familiar” (Kirkus, 2023) clichés and tropes, a likely characteristic of any celebrity debut. It appears we must curb our expectations, and accept that not all collaborative literature is created equal. 

The question remains: upon the revelation that a book was ghostwritten, do its readers have the right to feel cheated? Of course, each and every reader is entitled to their own reaction, but to me it seems somewhat malevolent to unscrupulously lambast somebody for this. Assuming the process is consensual, the work well compensated and the ostensible author honest, ghostwriting is not dissimilar from the production process of a celebrity’s clothing line, for example. While it may be disappointing to learn that a treasured television star is not also a talented author, we must understand, however soul-crushing it is, that books are products too. And if we want to praise the individual talents of writers, editors, and translators alike, the work of YouTube stars just might not be the place to start.