When I worked with Clancy in the 90’s he absolutely was writing his hardcover releases himself. And, as others have pointed out, when he did use other writers the books were published under a different brand.
Actually, I’m not. But it just wouldn’t serve my purposes. That is to say, it wouldn’t do me any good, and might prevent my ever doing such a thing again, and I kind of enjoyed the experience. (Not to mention the money.) My best friend has not gotten it out of me, so don’t hold out any hope for a big reveal here.
I was wondering whether you know of other cases like yours and how frequent or how rare they might be.
Au contraire. I have it on very good authority that the world-renowned author Travis Tea actually writes by committee.
An admission to those in the know. But surely intended precisely to be sufficient of an admission as to not be actionable, while insufficient of an admission as possible, so as to tread as close to the line of deliberate deception as the publisher believes it can get away with.
Not so much committee but a case of serial monogamy with the book. Ask Chuck.
Similar cases include Naked Came the Phoenix, Naked Came the Manatee, Naked Came the Stranger, The Floating Admiral, and The President’s Mystery Story.
I know of one other case. I don’t know who the author was, but the writer got twice as much as I got, and it’s apparently a regular thing for this writer. (By author of course I mean the Big Name, as opposed to the writer who actually wrote it.)
I think these cases are pretty rare. I do know a book doctor/editor who make a pretty good living off of mostly best-selling authors, because the midlist writers can’t afford her. And I’m sure there are more like her.
Of course. However, the apostrophe-s convention is not limited to Clancy or to a specific publisher, and you don’t need to be involved with the publishing industry (I’m not) to be “in the know”. It’s something every voracious reader gets burned by sooner or later.
It is very commonly used when some popular author dies, and the publisher tries to squeeze every last dime out of their name recognition by going through their wastebasket, picking out any scrap of paper containing a few words which could be considered a plot outline, and then having another (typically unknown) author write the book and marketing it in a way that suggests that the Big Name left behind a mostly-complete manuscript which just needed a few finishing touches.
I bet you write those dictionaries that define a word with the word itself, right? Just because the author on the cover says “Clancey” doesn’t mean squat. Any military-type fanatic could be writing under his guidance.
Yeah…I often wondered about Mitchner, too. And, there was another dude around that era who wrote westerns. Each one is named for a US State. But, I wager his books were “canned”, like a template. For me, you’ve seen/read one Western, you’ve seen 'em all (IMHO).
What you say about Clancey may be true… it is known in the business as “recycling” an idea, I believe.
I understood runner pat’s response to mean that Clancy doesn’t bother perfecting his manuscripts, thus making the process a lot quicker. But I may have misunderstood.
This brings to mind author Alex Haley and the discussion of possible plagiarism in his book Roots. Haley eventually admitted that parts of his book had been lifted from Harold Courlander’s The African, and paid $650,000 to him in an out-of-court settlement back in 1978. What particularly bothered me at the time (although it’s not in the Wiki articlwe) was Haley’s claim that “one of his researchers” did the copying. What? I thought. Didn’t Haley write the thing himself? By claiming that someone else was responsible implied that Haley did not, himself write that passage. That bugged me a lot. It’s not as if Haley was an incredibly prolific writer who didn’t have the time to do this himself.
Walter James Miller, in several of his books, claims that Louis Mercier/Mercier Lewis, responsible for the (generally bad, but widely reprinted) translation of Jules Verne’s works frequently used “ghost translators”, whose presence explains the wildlu vacillating quality of those works.
I read a number of suspense/thrillers and romances when I worked night shifts in a hospital, and that’s what was left in the break room. They’re easy to write quickly because they’re extremely formulaic, generally prioritize chugging through the plot over style, and have characters and settings that are interchangeable.
Clive Cussler does this loads.
As for writing by committee, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were all written by teams of authors, and then sold under an individual name.
Is it wrong to be so annoyed when people don’t bother to read threads before they post? And then don’t even get it right?
Maybe e-logic read the thread and his ghostwriter submitted the post.
This brings back a memory-a few years before he died, Mitchener was interviewed aboiut his career. he (Mitchener) related that while a younf writer, he was asked to edit some of Sinclair Lewis’ last writings (long after Lewis died). He related how a lot of Llewis’ writings borrowed from other authors-then i noticed-Mitchener had lifted a lot of phraseology from Lewis-and used it in his own novel “HAWAII”. I suspect a LOT of authors (maybe subconciously) borrow from other writers. The temptation to use somebodie’s materail must be strong-especially if the writer in question is dead.
In the non-fiction world (particularly the history genre), there are also brand name writers who use research assistants to compile all of the source material and lay out the basic outline of their book. Most if not all celebrity books have ghost writers, even though they are often not acknowledged. This applies not just to autobiographies but books of political commentary by broadcasters and things like the Cosby books. FWIW, I have been a ghostwriter for two non-fiction books. My authorship was not acknowledged in either volume, and the contracts prohibit me from acknowledging my work for a fixed period of time.
Also, I want to throw William Shatner’s name out as a “brand name” author. AFAIK, he didn’t actually write any of the sci-fi books that bear his name.
Maybe I’m naive, but does anybody believe in this day and age that celebrities write their own books, fiction or nonfiction?*
Well, I suppose there must be some, given the kind of responses we see even here on the Dope, but anybody who does believe will not be shaken by a mere “with” credit on the cover.
I’ve been assuming that this discussion was of “real” books by “real” authors. That celebrity books are ghostwritten I thought was a given.
I’ve ghostwritten a book myself, but I did get my name on the cover. Why not? I did all the work. And I do mean all.
- Yes, there are a few exceptions. There are always a few exceptions, and the proper response to those few exceptions is: so what?
Churchill comes to mind. In the World Wars he himself wrote much of the source material the research assistants gathered and the stamp of his own superb style permeates every sentence he ever wrote in book form.