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I still believe it's only right to give credit to those who contributed. Movies have credits, why can't books? I think the way James Patterson does it is in the right direction.

This really feels like it was supposed to come out in October.

More Lindsay Ellis, please

"Yeah, this question is for the whole panel: What's your favourite type of ghost to write for?"

As a ghostwriter, I can say from my end it is both to further develop my craft and money. Because shock and awe, writing your own book not only takes time but you aint paid until you get a publisher. I need to eat.

Nothing wrong with collaborative writing, but when appropriate credit is not given, it *is* deceptive. As a consumer of fiction, I would like to know who participated in its creation, and in what way. Imagine making a film and only crediting the director, and not the dozens of people who contributed, from the actors to the costume designer to the make-up artist to... etc. No one thinks to do this, even if all those people agreed to not be credited, so why do people do it with books?

Lindsay Ellis is a national treasure

I have seen (and enjoyed) many of Lindsay's videos (I ATE THE WHOLE PLATE! THE WHOLE PLATE!), and this one about ghostwriting is the first video of hers I have seen that she wasn't credited as a writer or co-writer. (One of the co-writers writers of this video, Angelina M., is often her frequent collaborator though). I can't tell if Lindsay not being credited as a writer on this is intentionally meta or unintentionally meta. In any case, it adds a layer to re-watching the video.

Personal experience as a failed writer: if you don't have a name then you very likely won't get paid very much; however, if you have someone willing to pay you for pretending to be somebody else, chances are you'll get a bigger paycheck then you would by yourself. I wrote for Yahoo and was even awarded one of the top 1,000 writers of 2012, but my paycheck reflected that of a welfare case. I was new to writing at the time and too prideful to ghostwrite anyting; though in hindsight, I probably would have been paid better and potentially had steady work.

Not Animorphs! Next you're going to tell me Goosebumps wasn't all painstakingly crafted by R. L. Stine!

This subject is just a little too spooooooky for December...

One could make the argument that if the writing and publishing industry were more transparent and demystified, it would be a great help to art. Instead of focusing on a single author "brand," we could appreciate, and support, a more diverse set of authors with more unique voices. Even if those authors aren't as "prolific." This video, (while I feel is making a certain amount of rationalizations) helps with that, so that's good.

so happy to see Ellis producing for PBS now, with channel awesome scumbags in the dirt

"Isn't literature supposed to be the result of one person's agonizing need to create? Aren't books supposed to be the blood, sweat, and tears of the tortured AUTEUR?"....well, when you say it like that, it does sound a bit pretentious, doesn't it? But seriously, I find it fascinating that we can accept films, music, or plays as collaborative works, but not writing (or art, quite often). In the case of films, music, etc., credit is often given one person or a few people, often the 'celebrity' or director- and should we also pay attention to and appreciate the others working behind the scenes? Of course! But that doesn't somehow detract from the validity of the work and its impact and connection with audiences. I feel like writing has been painted as so personal, so intimate, we've forced it to be a solitary act. So ghostwriting has never really bothered me- the only situation I can think of off the top of my head that might make me uncomfortable would be a situation where the author presented events from the *ghostwriter's* life as their own- that, to me, would at least be disingenuous. But if it's your life, your story, your characters, and someone else's writing? Then I don't see how it's different than other collaborative works. Thank you, PBS, for more Lindsay Ellis! She's always very appreciated!

"It GHOST to show..." You did that on purpose, didn't you?

The real shocker is that so many of well-known authors, despite not using a ghostwriter, still owe a good deal of their literary success to their editors. Editors need more appreciation.

Lindsay Ellis is so great and professional. She really made a comeback with a bang.

Maybe part of why people expect books to be written by a single author in solitude is because that is how it's experianced by the reader. Music can and often is enjoyed be friends listening to a song together, and when you go to the movies you are watching a film with other people even if you go alone. But when you read it is just you and the book. Even if you are sitting at a table with other people reading the same book it's still a solitary activity. So the idea that more than one person is on the otherside can imbalance the relationship. Books are by their nature more intimate, and intimacy is harder in a crowd.

If the words I am reading are credited to someone who did not write said words, the name that is actually credited is guilty of lying to me. It doesn't matter if the industry of mainstream literature has created a need for such practices, it is still a lie. A lie told to me as the consumer in order to trick me into buying a specific product, thinking I am getting one thing, but in reality I'm buying something completely different. It is false advertisement, no matter how people in the industry try to twist it around.

the clicking sound of every letter appearing on screen soothes me.

I'm really surprised that Virginia Andrews and Tom Clancy were not mentioned, for their cases are famous and very interesting. V. C. Andrews wrote seven books, started another and maybe planned the beggining of one, but when she died of breast cancer, her family hired Andrew Neiderman to keep writing under her name, so her planned stories could be completed. And now she has twenty six sagas attributed to her (when she just started two). Most of the fans still like the stories and don't mind the ghost writting, but a few years ago there were some movie adaptations for the Dollanganger saga and My sweet Audrina, and a prequel series for the former and a sequel for the latter were released. Most of the fans and critics expressed that it was disrespectful to her name to introduce new chapters to the stories that she did manage to write in life. And Tom Clancy is more of a cautionary tale that people seem to ignore by tweeting mean things to Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin: Clancy's novels were so popular that the demand exceded his time to write them, so ghost writers were hired, and wrote novels and movie scripts while he worked on other stories too. So, now you know: people can be irrational about their idols. And a bonus story is the non existent Penelope Ashe. Twenty four journalist wrote an intentionaly bad and nonesensical novel about sex to prove the point that the USA's standards were so low that any book with lots of intercourse could be a best seller. Every single chapter was written by a different person without talking to the rest of the authors, and some of them had to be edited because they were too well written. When it was revealed a year after its publication, sales just piked!

Lindsey Ellis is the coolest person PBS could get. That's why her show is called "It's lit"

Awesome video, I am glad Lindsey is becoming a big part of the channel now. I understand the need for ghostwriters but I think it would be better if they were credited and society as a whole accepted that books are a collaborative effort like other media. It makes me kinda sad that a lot of people could read a GWs work but the GW would never get recognition for it or help them advance their career. Of course if they don't want to be credited or publish their work under a pseudonym then that should be an option as well. I just feel like ghostwriters or collab writers should have more options to have their name on a piece of work similar to how people get credited in a tv show or film and for the idea of a "multi-authored" book to be more mainstream.

I mean, I do see how collaborative works being credited to a single person (and erasing the work of others who participated) might be deceptive. That'd be like if Henry Selick directed and spearheaded one of the most famous holiday movies of all time, and all his work was credited to Tim Burton cause Tim's name was on the cover :\

I don't view collectives of writers sharing a pseudonym as being in the same category as an uncredited writer's work being passed off as some other real person's work. (This comment was ghostwritten by my unpaid intern.)

I noticed that you yourself didn't write this episode. Is it possible that Lindsay Ellis...has a GHOSTWRITER?! No, wait, you credit your writers in the end credits, so we know exactly who they are, never mind.

You just ruined my entire childhood with the Animorphs reveal. Thank God you didn't desecrate Goosebumps. I SAID GOOD-DAY, MADAM!

It's a big leap to say the solitary author is a BS expectation therefore it's ok not to credit ghostwriters. Yeah, let's accept that most great things don't have one true auteur. But let's also credit those who made it!

I actually didn't give a book a go when my nan bought it for me, it admitted was the opposite of my taste (a soppy teen drama about people who hate their parents), but also because it was 'written' by Cara Delevingne. I'd much rather read fiction written by an aspiring author than with a celebrity name slapped on, especially when the buyer thinks they wrote it.

I just wish that, when a writer creates something I deeply enjoy, I’m able to give correct appreciation.

The interesting thing about Ann M.Martin and BSC is she has a very definitive tone that is not kept in all of the books, particularly the later ones. As a kid, I chalked this up to her writing a serial series, and it was just getting crappier as she went on, the same way a tv show usually goes downhill the longer it's on.

we need more Lindsay Ellis video essays!!

James Patterson will continue writing books long after he dies, mark my words

I'd imagine that one of the best ways to dispel to myth of the solitary author would be to credit ghost writers

*Warriors peeks around the corner* 👀

This caused my brain to remember the movie "Anonymous". *tongue click. *sigh...

I kind of feel like that a stable of ghostwriters that are working on one continuous project are much like scriptwriters for a show underneath a show creator.

This series keeps getting better and better!

Side note- loving the dramatis personae of your actual presence, though your cutout art version is totes 'dorbs!

Wooh wooh! Always love an update from it’s lit. I think it help Lindsay talk about books in a way that isn’t about movies or tv directly.

Thank you PBS for giving us high-budgeted Lindsey videos. 😁

I watched Bojack Horseman, so I actually like ghostwriters.

Heh. The comic book brain in me is reacting to "Ghost Writer" and thinking instead of the Spirit of Vengence (aka Ghost Rider). :-)

I'm surprised you didn't mention editors. Even non-ghostwritten books can be heavily modified by people other than the credited author, correct?

Then you get the rare exception with Trump who had like no real input in anything but takes all the credit while his ghost writer says no you were an idiot, I wrote it, and I regret it.

I never used to think about this until someone online complained that it was unfair for reality tv star Lauren Conrad to "write" a book, get all the attention and money, and legit authors spend their whole lives unable to get their books published unless they ghost write for all the Lauren Conrads of the world. The community I was in came in fast, but politely explained that ghost writing is usually a good way for authors to get into the publishing industry and make money since making a career as a writer is really hard. Also, celebrities like Lauren Conrad keep the book publishing industry alive since their fans will buy the books, and that kind of money gives publishing companies the freedom to take a risk on signing an unknown author.

This is not unlike my many forays as a painter's assistant. Hella jaws drop when I tell the story of making other people's paintings.

I'm do a type ghost writing for doctors. I've also ghosted an autobiographical novela that had a short-term publication. Let me tell you, the skills you pick up are absolutely indispensable. You learn so much about interviewing and reading people.

Loving this series! More Lindsay please!

Lmao Lindsay being all spooky and dramatic reminds me of Elisa/Maven of the Eventide

My favorite ghost-writer is Diane Nguyen.

Started this hoping for an Animorphs reference, was not disappointed! Surprised to hear about the Hardy Boys though my grandparents collected those and were my go-to reading when staying there

Something that I'm surprised didn't come up is that recognition is not an end in itself to many creative people, but a means to perpetuate their craft. A lot of people genuinely don't have an interest in notoriety or the performance involved in being a public figure, or they have some vulnerable element that makes them uncomfortable in that harsh lense. Attribution is really important of course, but if you have alternatives... Some people prefer not to be there. We don't all want to be the center of attention always, and especially nowadays in this land of obsession with auteur and personality branding, it's work. I guess in the end, just like how some people can have a story but not be writers, a lot of writers aren't marketers.

Lindsay you did a great job with this! Perfect delivery.

I'm an artist and I applied this to my field, I think that ghostwriting can be seen as an artist making a comission, the person who hires the artist gives the idea of the piece, and sometimes if they stipulate all the rights of the illustration or whatever it's theirs, you don't usually see big companies giving credit to the person who made their logos or mascots, I think that if you view it in this perspective it seems really normal and logical

This needed more on how "normal" authorship is not the sole, personal creation of a single author: authors get feedback when writing, often as part of a formal or semi-formal writer's group; they write in genres defined by tropes and conventions not of their own making; and so much of what goes into a book--especially fiction--is the outcome of a culture at a particular place and time that one or more people are just positioned to give a voice to.

I once got roped into a ghost writing for my job, I wasn’t aware it was expected of me until shortly after I started the job... it’s honestly a terrifying job if you’re not prepared for it.

This is fascinating as someone who is interested in ghostwriting, and has actually done a little!! Fantastic!

I see it is fitting that if you read the credits you find that Lindsey Ellis did not write this video.

My father once handed me something to edit for grammar and flow. Two months later I'm in a doctor's waiting room reading a magazine. The article seems familiar, so I check the date. It's brand new. I keep reading and come across a specific phrase Dad and I had gone back and forth on. As an officer, Dad apparently had done this type of work often for senior officers who didn't have the time (or literacy) to fulfill a press request.

This is one of the reasons why this modern times are so intriguing. This has never been a problem in previous centuries and ages. In ancient times, few could afford the luxury to learn letters. To have a surplus of supply and unending demand for literature that creates this situation is intriguing.

I could quite literally listen to her talk about Animorphs for hours and be riveted. That series was my life as a kid.

That finnishing sentence was top. Excellent work Lindsay!

The sound effects in these videos are so so satisfying...

I am loving watching this series.

i love this series so much, please keep it going! yay lindsay!

Always nice to see a new Lindsay video (and I guess because she's done two of these series lately I know why she hasn't been able to do much on her own channel).

Beautifully produced and scripted video, thank you! :D

Dear Lindsay, For some of us, ghost-writing is a living. Ciao! Please, continue publishing excellent work.

Wow great halloween vid in december, but honestly love your videos

im always so happy to see lindsay here ❤

To explain the spooky theme. This episode was released on Halloween on Facebook, their youtube channel is being slow.

I honestly thought with this being for PBS that a 90s "Ghostwriter" reference would be slid in!

Loving the spooky Halloween aesthetic in December XD

Nostalgia Critic: Don't get me wrong... Lindsay Ellis: You may be asking yourself...

How is that Lovecraft writing for Houdini hasn't been fictionalized into either a drama or horror series? I feel like that'd be a goldmine for outlandish historical fiction!

I see this episode has been ghostwritten by... (dramatic pause) DARK NELLA! (thunder)

😍 Always a good day that starts with Lindsay Ellis video essay.

I feel like you've hit your stride with this series.

Wait wait wait... Are you saying the members of Motley Crue didn't write their own book? I'm flabbergasted!

I agree with those who say we should give everyone credit, like we do with movies, TV shows, computer games, or other forms of collaborative art. If multiple people worked on it, give multiple people credit like we do in other media.

Loving the new video :) also I want that top!

K. A. Applegate and her husband Michael Grant started as ghostwriters of '90s teen books before starting Animorphs, and ultimately using ghostwriters to write about half the books, cos especially after having kids they couldn't keep up with a book a month schedule. So kind of went full circle.

As someone who was made to analyse a lot of literature in school in reference to the author's personal life, it would be so interesting to me to see how much our understanding of writing is still instinctively connected to the idea of the author. Imagine, after decades of making comparisons between Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's experiences with WWI, finding out that he had a ghostwriter heavily involved in the themes and story - wouldn't it completely turn many interpretations upside down? I'm not against ghostwriting per se (but as a writer myself I have my own hangups about it) but I would really love to explore how the proliferation of ghostwriting affects literary theory and analysis!

It’s Lit: * uploads * Me: OH HELL YEAH

Ain't nothing scarier than those Animorphs book covers...

That awkward moment when the Halloween episode comes out in December

I love this show so much

this is such a lowkey savage video and i'm so here for it 😂

Lindsay is doing such a great job delivering these visual jokes! great video, interesting way to look at ghostwriting

You could do a video about the pros and cons of fanfiction. And about graphic novels and the relationshiop between comics and literature

My favorite book is "Awoken" authored by Serra Elinsen. Please don't tell me its Ghostwritten!

Ghost writer, what a trip!

I really like what you're doing with this brand. It's almost like a separate identity from your channel

what a great way to celebrate October

Depending on the form of ghostwriting, it can quite clearly be a form of exploitation. Somebody's talent, time, effort and maybe even resources are taken advantage of at the expense of, not only their due acknowledgement, but even their propper share. It's famous people exhausting other people's input for their own gain.

I actually think the last line of this video inadvertently showed why people dislike ghostwriting. People do not like the idea of more importance being attached to a name than the work.

Lindsay is MY QUEEN. I love this series!

I strongly disagree that we're uncomfortable with ghost writers because we're too obsessed with author celebrity. I think it just feels inherently unfair: for example, this would never fly in visual arts. If someone commissions someone to draw for them, even if they provide an ellaborate original description, the artist is still credited as the creator of the piece. It'd be much healthier and transparent if there was a convention of crediting both the writer and the initial idea creator. Like they do with comic books, you credit writers AND the illustrator, not just the illustrator.