I recently had the following response to my Facebook ad offering memoir assistance:
“Who would need help with this? Think about it for a second, would a person venturing into writing their own ‘memoir’ really need assistance?”
I responded as follows: “Some writers are very good at editing their own work but still need someone with a fresh set of eyes to proofread the finished manuscript. We all have blind spots.”
His response? “Sounds like [a] scam to me.”
I wondered if I should drop it at this point. “Don’t feed the trolls,” is the usual advice when someone seems to be just provoking and criticizing. But I decided to respond:
“There are a lot of scammers who target authors, but freelance editing and proofreading services are not a scam. If someone is self-publishing, it’s the way for an author to get their work into a polished form so readers get a professional-looking product. It’s hard to get sales (and good reviews) if your book is poorly structured and full of typos.”
I think my responses above make my position clear. But I want to discuss one aspect I didn’t touch on: the issue of ghostwriting. Perhaps his main concern was the idea of someone ghostwriting a memoir. How do you do that? After all, doesn’t the person who lived the experiences have to be the “author” of them? (Before I go on, I should note that most of my clients need help with editing and proofreading, not ghostwriting).
The short answer is that, yes, ideally the person who lived the experiences is the one who writes about them, but there can be good reasons for a person to use a ghostwriter. The main reasons someone might use a ghostwriter for their memoir are lack of time, lack of interest, or lack of ability.
Lack of time is a big one. There are people who’ve led interesting lives, built businesses, succeeded in athletics, overcome great challenges such as addiction or disabilities, but their responsibilities don’t allow them to dedicate hundreds of hours to writing a book. By offloading most of the writing to a ghostwriter, those hundreds of hours can be reduced to dozens of hours.
There will still be a lot of work for them to do, mind you. They’ll still be writing down timelines and key details. They’ll be interviewed several times by the ghostwriter. They’ll be answering questions posed by the ghostwriter, responding in writing or with voice or video notes, depending on their preference. They’ll be reviewing the manuscript as each section is completed and offering feedback to fill in gaps and correct errors.
Ghostwriting is a very collaborative process. It’s a team effort where one of the team members (the ghostwriter) doesn’t typically get public credit, but in no way is the final book the product of only the ghostwriter while the named “author” steals the credit. The experiences, the knowledge, the voice are all the author’s. The author reviews and approves the content every step of the way, making it very much their book.
Regarding lack of interest, some people could write their memoir themselves, but they just don’t enjoy the writing process. They want to share their wisdom and experience, but they’re much more comfortable talking than writing. Perhaps they’ve been a coach, a teacher, or a business leader, and they’ve spent decades expressing themselves verbally rather than on paper. They may quite literally “write” their book out loud, while the ghostwriter largely plays the role of stenographer, putting some structure around the content and filling in gaps.
Finally, some people who have lived interesting lives and have lessons to share are simply not good writers. Perhaps they missed out on opportunities for formal education. Perhaps English is not their first language. Whatever the reason, their lack of skill in writing is not a reason to deny the world the value of their wisdom and experience.
I believe everyone has a compelling story to share. The vast majority of people never publish a memoir. Think of the tremendous loss every time a person passes away without having captured their wisdom and experience in some form, so that their family, friends, and the wider public may benefit. I’m proud to play a role in helping some of those stories get captured, whether it’s as a ghostwriter, an editor, or proofreader.
Having said all this, I respect where the Internet commentator was coming from. It’s good to be skeptical of services offered to aspiring authors. The Internet is awash in scammers targeting those who dream of writing a book. I will address how to identify scammers in a separate blog post.