Articles

Understanding the New Era of Ghostwriting

Monday, December 08, 2025 By: Kelsey Erin Shipman

With a history dating back to 1847, there’s bound to be more than a few ghosts lurking in the hallways of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM). Arlene Shaner, the historical collections librarian of NYAM, has worked in the nearly century-old building for 25 years. Though she has heard “stories about unusual occurrences,” she is certain that “if there is any spirit presence in the building, it is a benign one.”

Indeed, on a snowy Monday in January 2024, over a hundred “ghosts” gathered quite openly among the white tablecloths and leather-bound journals of NYAM’s library. These anonymous writers-for-hire gathered not to rattle chains or haunt the premises, but to discuss industry rates, authorship ethics, and the growing impact of AI-generated content—a conversation set to expand even further this fall, when the conference returns for its second year.

The Gathering of the Ghosts (gothamghostwriters.com/gathering-of-the-ghosts), organized by Gotham Ghostwriters and the American Society of Journalists and Authors, hosts awards, panel discussions, and a keynote lecture. Last year’s event came with more than a few groaners: “How many ghostwriters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” asked organizer Dan Gerstein. “We’ll never know because they all signed an NDA.”

Billed as the first conference exclusively for ghostwriters, the GoG unites collaborators from across the industry at a time when the profession is gaining increasing visibility—an odd reality for a vocation that prides itself on not being seen. By some estimates, up to 60% of nonfiction books on bestseller lists are ghostwritten.¹ From LinkedIn posts to celebrity memoirs, ghostwriters have been haunting the publishing world since the invention of the printing press.

The Long Shadow of Ghostwriting

Emmanuel Comte de Las Cases ghost-wrote Napoleon’s bestselling memoir The Memorial of Saint Helena in the early 19th century. Ted Sorensen is widely credited as having ghostwritten John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage. And Mark Twain had a heavy hand in the production of Ulysses S. Grant’s postwar memoirs. Ghostwriters, in other words, have long been the hidden hands behind some of history’s most celebrated works.

Christy Walsh, an American writer and Bath Ruth’s sports agent, coined the term “ghostwriter” in the 1920s.² He founded an organization of hundreds of ghostwriters to capitalize on the marketing potential of sports and write first-person memoirs of the star athletes he represented, like Lou Gehrig and Christy Mathewson. He was no fool to the essential role of the ghostwriter, though, and famously said, “Don’t insult the intelligence of the public by claiming these men write their own stuff.”

A Profession in the Spotlight

These days, the profession has seemingly no limit in terms of compensation, as evidenced by J. R. Moehringer reportedly earning a $1 million advance to write Prince Harry’s memoir.³ A long-hidden vocation dominated by former journalists and mid-list writers, it is highly unusual for details of a ghostwriter’s work to be released publicly. Ghosties don’t like to kiss—or, in this case, conduct interviews and carefully craft first-person narratives—and tell.

Three different collaborators—in this world, the ghost is known as the “collaborator” and the client is called the “author”—worked on Britney Spears’ memoir for which she was offered a $15 million advance.⁴ But like many ghostwriters, Spears’ collaborators presumably signed a nondisclosure agreement and continue to remain quiet on the details of their involvement. This is why a gathering like the GoG is both exciting and rare: It has never happened before.

Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts, who won an Andy Award at the 2024 Gathering of the Ghosts, says it was heartening to spend time with so many collaborators, many of whom she admires. An author working in virtually any genre across the publishing industry may seek the talent and expertise of a ghostwriter. “I really loved being in that space,” she says, with “people working in all different genres,” including fiction and children’s books.

Recognition and Representation

But it can be hard to break out of one’s niche, too. “The thing about being a ghostwriter that works primarily with Black authors is that you get pigeon-holed,” Lewis-Giggetts says. A writer can become the go-to person for a particular type of book and get fewer opportunities to collaborate on other kinds of projects. “There are still conversations to have around equity,” she says. It’s less about diversity, which she says does exist in publishing, and more about creating safe spaces for people to be fully themselves. These inequities within ghostwriting mirror the broader pressures of the publishing industry itself, where market demands often dictate which stories get told and who is given the platform to tell them.

More and more publishers want nonfiction authors, in particular, to come to the table with a pre-existing audience. Publishing is often a game of chance that relies on sales from popular franchises and a robust backlist, in addition to expensive celebrity memoirs that don’t always hit expected sales targets, leaving little leftover for books by unknown authors. Requiring an established author platform as a prerequisite for a book deal has created an ever-growing need for ghostwriters to channel the words of these authors, many of whom have huge audiences but are not necessarily writers.

Whose Story Is It, Really?

An author’s involvement in the production of their book can vary, to say the least. Craig Borlase, the collaborator behind the New York Times bestsellers Finding Gobi and Counting the Cost, says “using a ghost [doesn’t] necessarily make an author a fraud, though I’m aware of some projects where authors don’t even read—let alone write—their books.” The British reality TV star Gemma Collins, for example, got into trouble in 2018 during the press tour for her book when it became clear that she hadn’t read it.⁵

Does hiring a ghostwriter make an author a fraud? There were a lot of raised eyebrows in 1994 when supermodel Naomi Campbell published her novel, Swan, later divulged to be ghostwritten by Caroline Upcher.⁶ A similar scandal emerged last year when TV actor Millie Bobbi Brown’s book was revealed to have been ghostwritten by Kathleen McGurl.⁷ Women, especially young women, are often attacked for not writing their own books. But few seem concerned that every US president since Calvin Coolidge has kept ghostwriters on staff at the White House, many of whom have ended up in hot water over exposure to classified documents.⁸

This controversy is nothing new to ghostwriters. “I certainly couldn’t run a large restaurant or run for national political office or headline a major motion picture, and accordingly, I’m not sure why anyone would expect any of those chefs or politicians or actors to be able to write a book entirely on their own,” says Elisa Ung, a former journalist and collaborator on Mango and Peppercorns, a memoir that won an award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Cookbooks are an area of the publishing industry that frequently relies on collaborators to bring book projects to life. Sally Ekus, head of the culinary division at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency based in New York City, says that it is because cooking and writing are two different skill sets. “It is very rare to find one person who can write a beautiful story, compel a reader [to] follow directions and have success making recipes,” she says. Good collaborators help an author’s core personality shine while offering essential industry insight throughout the book-making process.

Ung, whose collaborations span cookbooks as well as narrative nonfiction and memoir, says she begins every project by asking her clients what they need. “I’ve worked with several clients who actually don’t need me to be a ghostwriter—they write beautifully on their own.” Instead, these clients need an editor, project manager, or recipe developer while bringing their book to fruition.

“I actually prefer the term ‘collaborative writing’ because it more accurately reflects the teamwork involved in the process,” Ung says. Creating exceptional books requires a lot of work from authors, Ung says, even if they hire a team of people to help them. “I am just one cog in their creative process, helping them organize and amplify their story.”

But the culinary wing of publishing is not without its own ghostwriting scandals. Gwyneth Paltrow and Rachel Ray posted emphatic public denials⁹ after a New York Times article¹⁰ stated they had both hired ghostwriters to help complete their cookbooks. Despite collaborators increasingly receiving credit and gaining fame in their own right, the profession remains a touchy subject for some authors.

One industry insider with over three decades of experience said it comes down to “the author’s ego as to whether they are willing to share credit [with a ghostwriter].” Much of the public already assumes that big-name celebrities and politicians do not write their own books, and this is perhaps one reason why ghostwriters have become increasingly public about their work.

Training the Next Generation

These days, there are a number of ghostwriting schools that endeavor to groom up-and-coming ghostwriters and prepare them for the rigors of the field. Jeffrey Mangus, an eight-time #1 Amazon bestselling ghostwriter, recently launched the Academy of Ghostwriting to help “new ghostwriters look for longevity in their businesses.” Alex Cody Foster, a ghostwriter for John McAfee and author of The Man Who Hacked the World, runs Writers Block and offers a mini-class for free.

“There’s a huge pool now of really talented writers, and there’s probably an even bigger pool of up-and-comers,” says a senior figure in the industry who prefers to remain anonymous. It’s clear that the field of ghostwriting is not going away any time soon, and in fact, will become more competitive both due to the visibility of the field and the development of artificial intelligence.

AI and the Future of Ghostwriting

At the same time, more and more ghostwriting services are explicitly incorporating AI into their business models. Companies like StoryTerrace market “affordable memoirs” by combining algorithmic drafting with low-paid ghostwriters who are hired for just a few hundred dollars to polish AI-generated text with a “human touch.” It’s a far cry from the six-figure collaborations some ghosts are accustomed to: in a recent Gotham Ghostwriters survey,¹¹ one in three ghostwriters reported earning over $100,000 annually. The tension is clear—will aspiring authors forgo hiring a human collaborator entirely in favor of cheaper AI-assisted platforms, or will they continue to trust that only experienced writers can truly capture their voice?

This debate will take center stage at this year’s Gathering of the Ghosts, where two prime panels address AI head-on. “Make Yourself the Master of AI” explores how seasoned writers and editors are already using AI as tools to spark creativity and productivity rather than replacements. Later in the day, “The Future of Books and Writing in an AI-Dominated World” convenes to ask whether AI will accelerate creativity or reduce it to a commodity, and what standards might be needed to protect ghostwriters’ intellectual labor.

As one high-profile industry insider puts it: “Who knows how [the ghostwriting industry] will be affected by AI. I don’t think anybody knows yet. That is the big unanswered question.”

References

Kelsey Erin Shipman is a ghostwriter specializing in memoirs and cookbooks. She is the co-founder of Write Up, an online community supporting writers in the business and sustainability of publishing. Her background includes more than 15 years of experience as a writer and teacher, with work appearing in USA Today, The Austin Chronicle, and dozens of literary journals. Learn more at her website, kelseyshipman.com.

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