Ghostwriting

by Andrew Crofts

Ghostwriting is a thriving, secretive industry . As a ghostwriter you can create best-selling books for film stars, footballers, pop singers, presidents, business tycoons, gangsters, gurus, spies, mercenaries, courtesans, four-star generals, royals and anyone else with an interesting story to tell. This book reveals all the essential secrets of how to turn ghostwriting into a successful and lucrative career .
Andrew Crofts has ghosted more than forty books, many of them international bestsellers , including Sold by Zana Muhsen (nearly 4 million copies sold), The Kid by Kevin Lewis, Heroine of the Desert by Donya Al-Nahi, Kathy and Me by Gillian Taylforth and Crocodile Shoes by Jimmy Nail.

Genres: Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2004

About the author

Andrew Crofts is an author and ghostwriter. He has published more than 80 books, around a dozen of which have been number one bestsellers.

His name first became known amongst publishers for the stories he brought them by the otherwise disenfranchised. Travelling all over the world he worked with victims of enforced marriages in North Africa and the Middle East, sex workers in the Far East, orphans in war-torn areas like Croatia and dictatorships like Romania, and abused children everywhere.

The enormous success of these books brought many very different people to his door; first came the celebrities from the worlds of film, music, television and sport, and then the real elite in the form of world leaders and the mysterious, powerful people who finance them, arm them and, in some cases, control them.

Invited to pubic and private palaces all over Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and tax havens from Monaco to private islands in Bermuda, Andrew listened as they revealed their secrets, gradually piecing together the truth of who really runs the world and how they do it.

The opening lines in Robert Harris’s thriller "The Ghost", (later made into a film with Ewan McGregor as the ghostwriter)' quote Andrew from his book, "Ghostwriting";

“Of all the advantages ghosting offers, one of the greatest must be the opportunity that you get to meet people of interest.”

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting even to a layman.

Picked up after finishing Robert Harris’s The Ghost.

[Ian Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The advice is fairly basic, at some points feels made up on the spot, and not written from the position of someone with years of experience. The Kindle edition also has a ton of typos.

[Ernst · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tries to provide a guide for people who want to ghostwrite professionally. And in that sense it is a good book. However I was looking more for guidance on the craft aspects of the trade, and for that it came up a bit short. So it missed my expectations, but I guess it delivers on the authors ambition.

[Daniel Rosehill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of ghostwriting and the author/ghost/publisher dynamic. Written from a slightly outdated context, but the fundamental advice offered is still relevant today — despite the fact that much ghostwriting work is now undertaken on behalf of those self-publishing.

[Rosa Macpherson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy and interesting reading.