The tension in the room becomes nearly unbearable as Lois Duncan, her face etched with grief, utters the words her publisher is clearly dreading: "I can't write anymore. Not after Kait."
Lois has been a bestselling young adult author for decades, making her publisher millions with book sales and optioning the film rights. But now her daughter is dead, killed by exactly the type of man she writes about. It’s too real. She can’t do it anymore.
As Duncan pushes away from the conference table, her editor exchanges a worried glance with the publisher.
"Lois, wait," the publisher calls out, a note of desperation in his voice. "What if... what if we could keep your stories alive? We could find someone else to write in your style, under your name. Your readers—"
Duncan whirls around, her eyes flashing with a mix of pain and indignation. "You want to hire a ghostwriter? To pretend to be me? After what happened?"
The publisher doesn’t respond, but the look on his face says everything. The money was all that ever mattered.
That might sound like a scene straight out of a novel; it is, as far as I know, a work of fiction. But given the publishing landscape, I wouldn’t be surprised if some variation of that conversation happened.
No matter how old you are, you have likely heard of Lois Duncan. If you’re female, and over the age of 30, you have probably read most or all of her books. But you may not know why those books—universally loved and many adapted to film—just… stopped.
Lois Duncan's career of writing girl-in-danger thrillers ended after her daughter, Kaitlyn Arquette, was murdered in 1989 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This tragic event effectively ended Lois’s desire to write about young girls being targeted for violence.
Instead, she devoted her life to solving her daughter’s murder, writing two nonfiction books: "Who Killed My Daughter?" (1992) and "One to the Wolves: On the Trail of a Killer" (2013).
She continued to write and update her non-fiction work about her daughter's case until her own death in 2016.1
Though her works continued to be adapted to film and television, I can’t imagine her publisher was thrilled at missing out on all the money they might have made from her, had Lois—or a pale imitation of her—continued to pump out thrillers.
Ghostwriter as Hired Gun?
What exactly is a ghostwriter in broader landscape of the literary community? Obviously, we know what a ghostwriter does, but what does it mean to be one?
In a [manufactured] Twitter spat with ghostwriter Joshua Lisec, Jack Posobiec had this to say about the Lisec’s brag of being the world’s most famous ghostwriter:
Imagine being proud of being known as essentially a staffer for more important and successful people. Like being the world's most famous chambermaid.
Again, this was all ginned up to publicize their upcoming book, but as a ghostwriter myself, the sentiment isn’t far off when it comes to how the industry—and readers—view ghostwriters.
They’re viewed, at best, as a marketing tool, a necessary evil to profit off a big name that can’t produce quality writing themselves.
At worst, ghostwriters are viewed as mercenaries to be called upon as a last resort.
This is because there’s often a sense of betrayal when readers find out that they’ve been reading the work of a stranger.
“What do you MEAN V.C. Andrews died in 1986? And who the hell is this Andrew Neiderman guy?” - Obsessive Flowers in the Attic fan, probably
There’s also the issue of a drop in quality (real or perceived) from the readers, as was seen after Tom Clancy’s death in 2013:
“The estate is farming out his name to hack writers to earn money, the quality of the books have collapsed.”
“I have read all of Clancy’s books, more than once for most. I love HFRO, The Sum of all Fears, and Rainbow Six. … I haven’t made it through a single one of the post-Clancy novels. I read four pages and go “this is so not Tom Clancy” and I’m over it. Imo they are trash” (from r/books)
To make the Clancy situation worse, it was several years before the publisher started putting the names of the actual authors on the books. It’s easy to miss the announcement of an author’s death, even a high-profile one. It’s normal for some readers to feel misled if it's not clearly communicated that the books are written by other authors.
Then there’s the issue of exploitation. Did the author make advance arrangements (as did Wheel of Time author Robert Jordan) for another writer to continue their work? Or was this a decision from the publisher (or the author’s estate manager)?
Even in the case of authors like RL Stine, who are still alive but simply put out more books than a single human can produce, is that fair to the reader?
Is it ethical in general?
For some readers, the story is all that matters. They don’t care who wrote it or whose name is on the cover. Maybe even the majority feel this way.
In most cases, that’s how I feel as well.
But sometimes a book means so much to you that it makes you think you know the author, that this person understands you. This is a parasocial condition that sometimes results in the consumer feeling a sense of ownership over the art.
Thus when the art is being “corrupted” by an intruder—the ghostwriter—the consumer can react badly.
This isn’t a judgment, just an observation, and it’s one publishers and the descendents of well-known authors should be aware of.
Yes, you can just hire someone to keep writing that popular series.
Yes, you can hire a blogger to keep pecking away at your dead dad’s website so the fans still feel like they have a piece of him.
You can do all these things to keep that money machine going.
But should you?
That’s for every author or artist to decide. And even if your books aren’t exactly doing gangbusters right now, I’d advise you to plan for your eventual demise.
Do you want your art to die with you?
Or would you like someone like me to engage in skilled mimicry, ensuring your characters live on well after you’re gone?
Best to decide now. And be sure to put it in writing.
If you think you would like to become a ghostwriter, Paid by the Word will teach how to create a writing services business. It is now available wherever books are sold.
It's largely being acknowledged that Kaitlyn’s case was botched from the beginning. The police never followed up on leads and suspects that should have been interviewed never were, and the case was cold for 30 years. Lois Duncan continued to hire private investigators and basically did her own investigation into her daughter's murder until her death in 2016. In 2021, a man who had been identified by Lois and the private investigator she hired as one of their suspects, came forward and confessed to a few murders in the Albuquerque area, including that of Lois's daughter Kaitlin. Lois never lived to see her daughter’s murderer brought to justice. (From r/TrueCrime)
One of my all-time favorite films is “Roman De Gare," which incidentally centers on a ghostwriter. It’s in French with English subtitles, so maybe that’s why I had to watch it twice in order to fully appreciate it. However, I’ve since watched it numerous times, picking up a new tidbit with each viewing. The title is French slang for Trashy Novel.
“In the still of the night, three lives are about to cross…a woman abandoned, a stranger awaiting his chance and, a best-selling author who imagines the thriller of the year. Deceptively layered and intriguingly misleading, this highly anticipated new film from Oscar-winning director Claude Lelouch (A Man and a Woman) stars Dominique Pinon and Fanny Ardant as an unlikely pair caught up in a game with high stakes – and deadly consequences.”
That's so heartbreaking to learn what happened to Lois and her daughter... Ghostwriting is a hot topic and I'm so glad you posted this.