How lame do you have to be as a celebrity to not put the writer’s name on the cover of your book? I mean, everyone knows that celebrity books are ghostwritten, so “By Brittney Spears and Exapno Mapcase” isn’t exactly giving away state secrets. To not even publicly acknowlege the writer is just pathetic.
I can understand why big name writers don’t put the names of their “research assistants” on the front covers, because it’s about the brand, but surely celebrity memoirs aren’t harmed by putting the writer on the cover, are they?
The authors worked in complete isolation throughout the whole series.
The standard working of Stratemeyer and his successors was to use a single author for a series until that author could no longer do the work. At that point a substitute author was found and continued the series. I’m sure that out of the dozens of series that were done, some few can be found that had a rotating crew of several hands working on the books, but those were exceptions. And those still were a series of individuals who worked on individual books.
The series authorship should be thought of in terms of serial monogamy. They were not in any way like a harem. And they cannot be compared to any definition of committee that would be in normal use.
See how much changes when you know what you’re talking about?
If you’re talking about Spears, sure. But what if you’re a political candidate or a popular talk radio host or a self-help guru? The authority of your message could be undermined if your readers knew you didn’t write your own book.
