Ran into another person today who did not understand the difference between authors, writers, and ghostwriters. Allow me to elucidate.

The AUTHOR of a piece is the person whose name is on the cover, the person whose ideas or story forms the foundation of the piece. Traditionally, the WRITER was also the AUTHOR, but that is no longer necessarily true. Today, AUTHORS often hire WRITERS to turn their ideas into books, speeches, articles, blog posts, and static web content. An AUTHOR no longer has to know how to write; that’s what WRITERS are for.

So what’s a GHOSTWRITER? Someone who turns an AUTHOR’s ideas into a book, speech, article, blog post, static web content (and sometimes academic/scholarly paper) without expecting or receiving byline credit. A GHOSTWRITER is, in fact, legally prohibited from taking byline credit, and ethically prohibited from revealing who they have ghosted for. WRITERS who do take byline credit or list their clients’ names or titles, therefore, are either not really GHOSTWRITERS, or are skimming the edge of ethical behavior.

Why would anyone bother about such nice distinctions? Because AUTHORS looking to hire a GHOSTWRITER need to understand that those GHOSTS are not going to send out samples of what they’ve written for other clients. But they are going to keep the material in the AUTHOR’s voice and maintain the AUTHOR’s intent and make sure the AUTHOR is happy with the final product.

I teach WRITERS how to become GHOSTWRITERS in GHOSTWRITER TRAINING, a 14-week course that covers all those nice distinctions as well as all the other GHOSTWRITING skills, theories, and business realities. Next class starts in May, 2009. Click the GHOSTWRITER TRAINING  link on the left sidebar for more info and registration.