United Ghostwriters

We all stand together

January 13, 2021January 13, 2021
by Ian Shircore

You know who’d make a very good ghostwriter, if he wasn’t busy doing something else? Paul McCartney. One of the highlights of the festive season, for viewers in the UK, was a long, meandering interview-cum-conversation between McCartney and the actor Idris Elba. If you missed it, you can still get it on the BBC iPlayer. McCartney has a lot to talk about. He’s 78 now and he’s been one of the most famous people in the world since he was 21 years old. He’s written songs ranging from Blackbird, Yesterday and Here, There and Everywhere to Silly Love Songs, Your

December 14, 2020December 14, 2020
by SpencerHonniball

Often, when about to embark on a ghostwriting collaboration, my client will want to know how the right kind of information is extracted from the interviews I’ll carry out. Well, the process normally starts like this: I’ll try and establish, prior to recording, what the spine of the story is, before scribbling down some questions pertaining to the text that will most fundamentally shape the manuscript. When answering, the client almost always segues into adjoining material that helps build the overall narrative. It’s a bit like walking backwards from a main road to the paths leading to it; and, from

December 9, 2020December 9, 2020
by CaroHandley

While this is definitely a year that most of us will be happy to forget, what many people are doing, as they wait out the seemingly endless days in lockdown, is looking back at their memories. As we have felt under threat and life has changed in painful and unexpected ways, there has been a shift in our collective values, away from the frivolous and material and towards what matters most – the people we love. And this has given rise to a longing, in so many of us, to write our personal stories. As a result, writing memoirs has

November 16, 2020November 17, 2020
by Ben Jeapes

“That text might have been plagiarised!” That was the attention-grabbing headline of a bit of spam that recently popped into the United Ghostwriters inbox. It was selling plagiarism-detecting software. “What are you doing to protect United Ghostwriters from the effects of unwanted plagiarism?” it went on. You’re preaching to the wrong choir, mate. We don’t and won’t steal from other people; we’re capable of writing our own stuff, thanks. But let’s talk about plagiarism. Call it what you will: plagiarism, passing off, idea theft – these are important issues and we take them very seriously. They can also be taken

November 10, 2020November 10, 2020
by Simon Rae

A few weeks back I opened my copy of The Author, journal of the Society of Authors. For the first time I could remember in over twenty years of membership, the magazine contained not one but two articles on ghostwriting. Talk about waiting for a bus. Not that I had been, particularly, in that although I have been a published author for three decades, I have only recently become a ghostwriter. Anyway, I read the articles by Tom Henry and Andrew Crofts with interest and much agreement. One stand-out question was: ‘Are ghostwriters real writers?’ The answer was a resounding

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