Talk:Ghostwriter

message: Make Wikipedia better by backing up the information in this article with sources.  I am especially curious to see some sort of verification that certain major authors have used ghostwriters, as mentioned in the article. --DeanoNightRider 06:48, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Improving Wikipedia

message: I added the notice about the article being biased because the article has a strong tone against ghostwriting when I don't think it's appropriate.  In academia it's a severe academic offense.  However in other forms of writing it's (in my opinion) perfectly fine to hire, or be hired, for the purpose of paying for content where the author isn't getting credit.  They are getting paid for their work and typically know this is what's going on.  Can someone go through and clean up the tone?  If others disagree about the ethics of using a ghostwriter for general use we should state the controversy immediately after the introduction.   
Freelancer1234 (talk) 19:58, 23 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I just skim-read it again and I have to see I don't detect a particularly hostile tone toward the topic - it's not one of Wikipedia's best articles for a number of reasons, but it seems fairly objective and descriptive. Could you quote some of the particular passages that you think are questionable? Barnabypage (talk) 20:34, 23 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Article seems to have an unreasonable bias against ghostwriting

message: I revert an valuable yet controversial contribution (see
difference)
made by the user 68.169.242.117 (signed Claudia Suzanne) becouse:
* It is not written in encyclopedic style
* It removes mindlessly a big part of work of previous contributors (not in Wikipedia spirit)
* It is done from IP guilty of vandalism
* It is signed in a way that looks like a publicity of her ghostwriter services
Still I suggest editors of the article to look at her contribution, because of maybe some valuable ideas
-- DariuszT 04:26, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Last edit by 68.169.242.117 

message: Obviously some decision needs to be made on whether Cecil Adams should be included in the list of ghostwriting teams. I say he should be left out, precisely because there is disagreement on the subject: there are enough uncontroversial examples without struggling over the inclusion of a controversial one. --Paul A 02:12, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I forget all the details, but at one point his staff started signing some articles in a way that made it clear Adams was not always the main author. Was some ghostwriting going on before then? It seems likely, even reasonable. Notice that the Cecil Adams article doesn't even mention this in passing. Piano non troppo (talk) 18:42, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Cecil Adams

message: Unless my memory is faulty, I seem to remember a different author for every Star Wars movie-turned-book, seeing as Terry Brooks wrote the novel Star Wars: Episode I, based on the movie, and another author wrote Episode II. I can't seem to find these books anywhere, though, to confirm my memory... I'll check amazon.com or some place later. [unsigned]
Ghostwriter status in the Star Wars series only applies to Star Wars Episode 4. If I recall correctly, this book, like the movie was originally tiled "Star Wars". The other movie novilizations along with all of the expanded universe ones were directly corrected to their authors. Joncnunn 18:35, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: My copy of "Star Wars" (i.e. the novelisation of 'Episode IV') is credited to George Lucas.  It's a 1978 reprint of the BRITISH paperback edition, which itself was first published in 1977. Mr Larrington (talk) 23:44, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

text: hi 50.233.202.66 (talk) 17:35, 12 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Novilization" of Star Wars books 

message: I have removed the statement that "Essay mill services do not violate the law by providing ghostwritten papers; the act of academic fraud and misrepresentation only occurs when the student submits the ghostwritten paper as their own work."
This is a very bold and sweeping interpretation of the law, not only for one jurisdiction but for the entire world.  I don't think that it is possible to say with confidence that, in every country, there is no offence of conspiracy to commit fraud when the paper is commissioned and/or provided - i.e. the ghostwriter knows full well that his essay will be used fraudulently and he conspires with the person who commissions him to produce that essay to be used for fraudulent purposes.  As a lawyer, albeit not a criminal lawyer, that looks like conspiracy to commit fraud to me.
If it is true someone could say 'there have been no reported cases where a ghostwriter has been charged with fraud or conspiracy to commit fraud, but I think it would take more than a quick search on Google to be able to make even that statement with confidence...  WeAreSilver (talk) 09:23, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: "Essay mill services do not violate the law"

message: The statement "Outsourced ghostwriters whose qualities are at par with US, UK or Canadian ghostwriters" is a value judgement rather than a statement of fact and should, if it is true, be changed to something like "Outsourced ghostwriters whose qualities are considered by [?] to be at par with US, UK or Canadian ghostwriters", with a source quoted.  I have not amended it because I have no idea whether this statement is actually true. WeAreSilver (talk) 09:23, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Quality of Indian ghostwriters on a par with US, UK or Canadian ghostwriters

message: The section on pen names doesn't really look like it belongs to this article. Wouldn't it be more logical to put this in the Pen name article and link to it from here? Anguis 03:14, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Looking more closely at the Pen name article, it looks like everything in this section is already there, so I'm going to go ahead with just removing it, and putting a link to that article instead.  Unless someone has a good reason to want it here as well. Anguis 19:01, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pen Names 

message: "Essay mills and ghostwriters providing customized essay-writing ask for the course outline, topic, number of sources, and the mark that the student hopes to get for the essay (e.g., an "A-", "C+", etc.). While some select a high grade on the ghostwritten paper to boost their average, other students with poor grades may choose to purchase a paper that deliberately contains errors, which will receive a grade of "C+", because this will reduce any suspicions that they have committed academic fraud."
Removed b/c it was masquerading as a reference, and it's not sourced.
Janet13 03:15, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi, why do you call it a fake reference? It is called a footnote. It provides extra information. I am being polite here, but your language is arguably offensive, with the words "fake" and "masquerading". I put it there to provide additional info for readers. There was no attempt to pretend that it is a reference.OnBeyondZebrax (talk) 01:16, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Archive of fake reference from mainpage 

message: The section on ghost-writing blogs seems confused. A ghost-writer should be the one writing the blog posts; hiring people to post comments and votes to simulate support of the post is an example of astroturfing. As a freelance writer, I hire out to assist with blogs - by writing the posts for the bloggers themselves - but spamming a bunch of comments under several fake names is something I wouldn't do for any money.
The difference is that one is a collaborative effort of creating content, while the other is nothing but paid marketing, and very deceptive at that. Am I biased by my work point-of-view, or do I have a valid point?
hosiah 03:10 28 June 2007 (EST)
I want to add that the sentence "Blogs are sometimes rated according to how many web 'hits' they get from users viewing the page, and this rating is used by advertisers considering paying for ad space on a blog website." is way to vague, shows a distinct lack of knowledge and precise terms, lack of sources/citation and is potentially wrong anyways, due to the latest Google updates. Furthermore "sometimes rated", by whom? I assume the editor meant Google? But if so, it is not "sometimes" rated this way, it is (either) rated like that or NOT ! I hope some SEO- & Google expert can provide more proven, to-the-point information, as I myself don't have it, I just know that the above is wrong. Most advertisers "pay per click" (or rather by conversion %) by the way, traffic or (hard to measure) "views" don't really do it anymore in 2012. --Philipp Grunwald (talk) 04:48, 12 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Blog Ghost-writing 

message: http://www.caslon.com.au/ghostingnote.htm  195.68.89.135 (talk) 14:13, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Any use? 

message: John McCain's book The Faith of My Fathers was written by him and his administrative assistant, Mark Salter. Salter received co-authorship credit. Unless someone has a citation to indicate a third, un- or undercredited author, it appears that this work doesn't fall into the definition of "ghostwritten" as stated above. 131.96.47.8 (talk) 19:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  John McCain's Book 

message: 'Ghostwriting' is a predominant business-domain activity that fuels major organized crime, such as routine manufacturer music-album piracy and illegal copyrights.  'Ghostwriters' write what others could and should be able to write themselves (and are in fact trying to write), many times writing nonvoluntary information elicited from intimidated people.  Ghostwriters also assemble in print many different inputs from many different people under one or a few names; ghostwriting is how one person's or many people's original experiences and thoughts are published under a narrator's name.  The more language-proficient a ghostwriter is, the more capable of 'perfect' crimes are their controllers/clients.
Demand-networking operations are a continuous interference that feed ghostwriting activities and cause reactionary crimes of violence; often, the ghostwriters are not visible to their victims, or can be easily transported to evade identification.  The word 'earnings' is perceived to be the impetus for such offensive strategies that also generate propaganda and use companies such as International Paper as claimed backers with reference to the phrase "freedom of the press" as rationale.   beadtot66.217.68.90 (talk) 20:10, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  ghostwriting 

message: Scientific American article, Feb. 4, 2010, By Katie Moisse     
"Ghostbusters: Authors of a new study propose a strict ban on medical ghostwriting"
RE: The opinion that a scientist who takes credit as an author on an article secretly written by a pharmaceutical company should face punishment like any other plagiarist
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ghostwriter-science-industry
DonL (talk) 19:30, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Scientific American article on proposed medical ghostwriting ban

message: Who owns the copyrights, the ghost writer who actually wrote the whole book or the person the book is said to be written by?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.226.156.150 (talk) 06:02, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copyrights 

message: Why is this legal? Shouldn't it be the same as lieing or false advertisement?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.94.251.190 (talk) 04:25, 16 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Legality 

message: I will remove the reference to John Barry and Monty Norman:
"John Barry claims to be not only the orchestrator, but also the original composer of the James Bond Theme, which is credited to Monty Norman, possibly due to a ghostwriting assignment or a "work-made-for-hire" contract.[28]"
as in many news stories, and Wikipedia's own Monty Norman page, it explains how Norman has won two libel actions to prove that he was the writer of the 007 theme, against John Barry's claims. It's not a good example for this page. SpaceHistory101 (talk) 21:28, 9 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  John Barry / Monty Norman  

message: There is so much wrong with it, from formatting and style to bias...citation needed tags, inconsistent linking to other wiki articles... It often reads like more of a guide on how to hire ghostwriters, with unsourced price schemes instead of information thats useful...I just think at this point, it would be better to discard all or most of it and start over. 74.132.249.206 (talk) 06:58, 30 September 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually quite a lot of work has gone into the article. It is slowly improving...OnBeyondZebrax (talk) 00:47, 21 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  I dont think this article can be fixed. 

message: There seems to have been a very short edit war around 1 June 2012 about "Theodore Feldman", the result being that his description stayed in the article - I've added some citation-needed tags to the section he's mentioned in as I can't find anything on the net of any substance about him. Any reason not to remove this altogether?
173.247.201.168 (talk) 06:31, 31 August 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree and have removed it, although the article needs a great deal more guff removed. Pinkbeast (talk) 14:11, 2 September 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Theo Feldman 

message: This addition is being edit warred over. It looks to be adequately sourced. What are the objections to it? --NeilN talk to me 19:24, 11 April 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: It would appear to be a reference to a business the person attempting to include it is associated with. I don't see that it adds much to the article.—Kww(talk) 20:47, 11 April 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: That whole section is replete with primary sources (which I've just removed). At least this one appears in a secondary source. --NeilN talk to me 23:14, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

text: Maybe propose specific text with sourcing? --NeilN talk to me 18:52, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Manhattan Literary 

message: Recent edits have added a huge section about essay mills, pointing out how hard they are to detect, how they're not illegal, and naming one supplier. Sound iffy to anyone else? Pinkbeast (talk) 15:38, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Academic 

message: Interested in knowing where the building is?  here it is.  It's been changed since the show was taped.  VegasCasinoKid (talk) 09:57, 16 November 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Where's Hurston? 

message: The company Acad Write has been manipulating this article more than once. The same has happened to the German article "Ghostwriter", proof and the German discussion: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskussion:Ghostwriter
In this article it says: According to media reports, ACAD WRITE, one such international provider of ghostwriting services, claims to have ghostwritten more than 230,000 standard pages of academic content[25] and sold over 8,500 academic papers (including BA-, MA- and PhD-theses) since 2008,[26] with an 80 per cent increase in sales in the period from 2013 to 2014.[23] 
Apart from the fact that this is hidden advertisement for a Acad Write, I have a big problem with the cited sources. 
[25] is leading to the German website of a paper mill and does not provide this article with any information.
[26] is a press release written by Acad Write.
[23] is an article in which surprisingly only Acad Write is mentioned as ghostwriting company.
I thought Wikipedia was an encyclopedia and not an underground advertisement network for paper mills.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Malomata (talk • contribs) 11:22, 30 March 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Manipulation of the article for advertisement purposes 

message: I don't disagree, it was probably ghost written, but to quote another user who reverted an identical section in different article, all that's currently being integrated is: "[a]n egregious misrepresention and misquoting of the source".
Couching the language a bit more, and linking to the book's acknowledgements itself maybe? I'm going to revert it for now.
Gdryke (talk) 22:47, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  What Happened and Potential Ghostwriter 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The following is unsourced and was moved here per WP:PRESERVE.  Per WP:BURDEN please do not restore without finding independent, reliable sources, checking the content against them, and citing them, and ensuring that this content has appropriate WP:WEIGHT in the article overall.
;Roles==
Ghostwriters may have varying degrees of involvement in the production of a finished work. Some ghostwriters are hired to edit and clean up a rough draft or partially completed work, while others are hired to do most of the writing based on an outline provided by the credited author. For some projects, such as creating an autobiography for a celebrity, ghostwriters will do a substantial amount of research. Ghostwriters are also hired to write fiction in the style of an existing author, often as a way of increasing the number of books that can be published by a popular author.
Ghostwriters will often spend a period from several months to a full year researching, writing, and editing nonfiction and fiction works for a client. Ghostwriters are paid either per page, per each word, total word count, with a flat fee, with a percentage of the royalties of the sales, or by using some combination thereof.
The division of work between the ghostwriter and the credited author varies a great deal. In some cases, the ghostwriter is hired to edit a rough draft of a mostly completed manuscript. In this case, the outline, ideas, and much of the language in the finished book or article are those of the credited author. If it is agreed upon, for example in a signed contract, the ghostwriter will sign over all the rights to everything he or she adds into the work that is not otherwise copyrighted to someone else. In many cases, a ghostwriter handles most of the writing, using concepts and stories provided by the credited author. In this case, a ghostwriter will do extensive research on the credited author or their subject area of expertise. It is rare for a ghostwriter to prepare a book or article with no input from the credited author; at a minimum, the credited author usually jots down a basic framework of ideas at the outset or provides comments on the ghostwriter's final draft.
For an autobiography, a ghostwriter will typically interview the credited author, their colleagues, and family members, and find interviews, articles, and video footage about the credited author or their work. For other types of nonfiction books or articles, a ghostwriter will interview the credited author and review previous speeches, articles, and interviews with the credited author, to assimilate his or her arguments and points of view. Most of this work can be done over email via the Internet, through postal mail, phone or video calls, and other methods of instant communication.
Also, ghostwriters may work on accompanying documents, such as treatments for screenplays. Often, ghostwriters will work on related projects beyond the scope of professional ghostwriting, such as marketing, promotions, sales, publishing, or other related services for pay, in order to procure more clients and increase the total amount of their business.
-- Jytdog (talk) 23:38, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  unsourced seciton on Roles 

message: Does WP has policies on ghostwriters? SpinnerLaserz (talk) 17:57, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia policy 

message: Yo joginder thara bhai joginder nagar 103.87.28.154 (talk) 13:21, 8 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Yo joginder thara bhai joginder 

message: office s paise niklwane ko pm ko letter 103.70.43.53 (talk) 02:00, 5 June 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pm ko letter 

message: How.to enjoy life 2400:ADC5:16F:2600:95E1:AA1A:21F4:E13C (talk) 05:05, 10 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  How to enjoy life