Not necessarily; my Norman Spinrad example had Spinrad’s name on the cover and title page, but Hitler’s on a second title page. But it should be somewhere before the story begins.
ERB was was just the transcriber of his uncle John’s Barsoomian stories.
Barney Stinson has written several books.
Then there’s Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America by Leslie Knope
FBI Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks also wrote an autobiography.
How about The Princess Bride by “S. Morgenstern”, does that count?
Jessica Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote has written a whole series of mysteries with co-author Donald Bain.
Similarly, romance novelist Felicia Gallant of Another World wrote a series of romance novels with a co-author.
“Joan Wilder” wrote the novelization of “Romancing The Stone”
See post 6, but yes.
If we’re including personas:
Let Me Off at the Top!: My Classy Life and Other Musings, by Ron Burgundy
BORAT: Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan by Borat Sagdiyev
Dame Edna Everage: My Gorgeous Life and Dame Edna’s Bedside Companion
and if you want to get meta:
Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host, by Garry Shandling
Stephen Colbert, I Am America (And So Can You!) and America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t
I think there are bunches of these.
And there’s also The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer.
Not a book, but an album: Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick was purportedly written by a child prodigy named Gerald Bostock.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman?
I suppose any number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches might count, but in particular I recall Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, or The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count, because its cover and title page explicitly claim to be “by John H. Watson, M.D.” The actual author, Loren D. Estleman, is identified as the editor.
Estleman even includes a prologue explaining the circumstances by which he came into possession of this previously unknown manuscript by Watson, which he now has the honor to present to the public.
The Seven Percent Solution by John H Watson, edited by Nicholas Meyer. When I read this as a kid I was confused about whether it was fact or fiction.
There are umpteen zillion books like this, but I don’t know of any that don’t have the actual author’s name on the cover. “As edited by” is transparency.
An earlier example is Ellery Queen’s A Study in Terror. That was supposed to be a novelization of the film of that name as written by Watson, really by Paul Fairman. That was too short and the publishers got Queen to write a frame story around it and used their famous name. That probably got Meyer thinking he could pull the same trick a few years later.
I came in to post about Jessica Fletcher, my grandma used to read her books.
I forgot about Felicia Gallant, Another World was my favorite soap opera for a while.
A musical example: Greatest Hits by Chris Gaines.
Also: The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. Each individual track is credited to a different fictional band.
Go Ask Alice, purportedly the authentic diary of a messed-up teenaged girl, was apparently written by Beatrice Sparks, the sole copyright holder.
The Seth books claimed to channel a spirit entity via New Age pioneer Jane Roberts.
I guess Bridey Murphy deserves a mention.
I think “Naked Came the Stranger” by Penelope Ashe would count. From wiki:
I read it my freshman year of college. It was terrible!