InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com
Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Liza at Middle Passages, JH Moncrieff, and Jemima Pett!
October 7 question -
Many people are calling for writers who use AI to disclose it. Most who employ ghostwriters do not admit it - do you think authors who use ghostwriters should have to disclose that, too?
(Hopefully my post title humor translated. 👻🤖)
I still don't understand why writers want AI to take their job, but okay. Yes, if AI is the one writing the story, that should be disclosed.
With ghostwriters, to my understanding, there is a contract, NDA, payment, a resume of experience, etc. And, eventually, it usually does come out that a ghostwriter was used.
"Andrew Neiderman is an American novelist. In 1987, he became the ghostwriter for V. C. Andrews following her death in 1986."
There are a fair amount of people who will tell you that VC Andrews is their favorite author. But if they name books (beyond Flowers in the Attic), and most are by Neiderman ... who is the actual favorite?
"Andrew Neiderman is an American novelist. In 1987, he became the ghostwriter for V. C. Andrews following her death in 1986."
There are a fair amount of people who will tell you that VC Andrews is their favorite author. But if they name books (beyond Flowers in the Attic), and most are by Neiderman ... who is the actual favorite?
There's also a level between, where the author can't physically write with their hands (for example), but dictates to someone who turns the words into a book. Technically, it's ghostwriting. But it's also enabling a disabled author to "write" when they can't, to get the words from the brain to the page.
But there are also celebrities who can't string a sentence together, but want to make a pile of money from their autobiography- and don't want it as a biography where it's clear someone wrote it about them, no, they want readers to think they could do all this work, so they get a ghostwriter. (I know of at least one, because I knew the ghostwriter and happened to know what they were working on.)
To me, the big difference feels like consent.
See, a ghostwriter is a human who had to train to write, had to take classes and learn, the same as the rest of us. They're willing to write without credit for whatever reasons. They agree to this; there's paperwork; it's consensual. AI has been "trained" by monsters who destroy books to feed them into scanners and shred them. (https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BQ1mqZDGa/ Horror video.) The author, or estate of the author, is not asked or notified. Copyright laws do not apply to or protect any work. The AI is fed works and trained to behave as if that is its own ability. No one consented to this.
😱But OH, let us take a quick glimpse at HISTORY! How often were men published, known for their great works, but the "muse" left when their wife/maid/whore/sister/etc passed away? Because women were not allowed to be published authors, so someone else got the credit. And sharing that credit was not going to happen. It happened to enslaved people as well. Several Native American stories that I know of were stolen and passed off by non-Native-Americans.
I say history, but much of this still goes on. Nujood Ali got credit, but her father gets the money for the book. That's slightly a ghostwriter book, except the name of the "ghost" is well-known, and she helped to tell the story only enough that audiences could understand the plight of a ten-year-old child in a place where "religion and culture" encourage and normalize pedophilia. 🤮😡 And that book is sort of political, I guess, so I perhaps shouldn't mention it. But yeah, AI would probably get profits before that abused girl did. It's one more tool of repression to stifle inconvenient or unwanted voices. Honestly, I think we're asking the wrong question.
December 2026 Event Details
December 2026 Event Details
Buzzfest (All-genre Stuff Your Kindle Day / Book Blast event)
Dates: December 20–21, 2026
Format: 2-day promotional event featuring free or discounted ($0.99) ebooks across multiple genres for Kindle users.
I signed up Fractions of Existence.
It costs a fair amount of money to give your book away at such an event. I hope you'll check it out.
Please consider using a mobile device, because the website barely functions on a computer. 💻
Here's a real horror story. As a Native American, I am horrified.
📚💙 — J (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge
https://bsky.app/profile/jlennidorner.bsky.social My current favorite social media site.
🪐💙📚 #BookSky Author in Residence Spotlight featuring @jlennidorner.bsky.social J Lenni Dorner is a Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge international blog hop.
— the #BookSky account 💙📚 (@booksky.club) September 15, 2026 at 10:01 AM
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Please give ^ that post ^ a 💙like.
https://amzn.to/41QBB4P Author page on Amazon — please consider following and supporting this indie author!
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner I'm grateful for follows! https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
#AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website. Watch for special features!
I don't think transcribing for someone who physically can't write is ghostwriting. It's being an assistant. But I do agree that the ghostwriting is with consent. I work as a ghostwriter for a web marketing company, writing articles for my clients' websites. They're attorneys. I don't have any expectation of being acknowledged. And I totally agree with you that it's different if it's a celebrity book.
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't think celebrities should get all the credit. But there is a history of ghostwriting - a lot of HP Lovecraft's books were written by his 'students' and he adjusted them and put is name on them.
ReplyDeleteSeems we had similar ideas for our post titles :-) That tree being destroyed turned my stomach even more than the video of books being destroyed (I'd seen that before, so maybe I'm just a bit more immune to it).
ReplyDeleteRonel the Mythmaker
Celebrities who use ghostwriters but don't disclose that annoy me.
ReplyDeleteYou know, you're right. Stealing other people's work has always been a thing. Unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteSo, really, AI is just the rich males rolling back all the enfranchisement of the last three centuries.
ReplyDeleteIf I fed my ideas into AI and let it do the writing, then what would I do? Anyone or anything that does the actual work, should be credited. I don't see it as honest otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI think people who do the work should be credited. Even ghostwriters. If they don't want their name mentioned, then they should at least have it recognized that another human did most of the writing.
ReplyDeleteI heard about the tree and was horrified. But why are we surprised? These people have no concept of anything other than what they want.
ReplyDeleteGood points about ghostwriting. I definitely think that those whose works were stolen absolutely should get credit, but if a person was paid well and chose to ghostwrite, well, that's different.
You make some good points about what happened in the past, although the Brontes, and George Eliot, all took male pen-names and got published.
ReplyDeleteThe history you share reminds me of our ongoing commitment to fight back, to overcome injustice, to 'see' the reality that those in power don't want us to realize. AI may be different. Outside our human experience. Capable of taking forms and actions we may not anticipate. I'm not sure I'm ready for the future that's coming for us.
ReplyDelete