Wednesday 7 October 2009

ghost writers in the sky

Okay, I couldn't resist heading this post with a feeble pun.

Today I read an article in The Age about the launch of a book by Mick Gatto, an autobiography. I think it's interesting that the launch featured three Mick Gattos; Gatto himself; the actor who played him in Underbelly, a recent televison series about gangland warfare in Australia; and, not least, the writer who ghosted the book.

The Australian says Gatto raced his story into print to get in before the producers of Underbelly produce a film about Gatto's life.

I think it's not often that a ghost writer is given a significant role at the launch of a book, even appearing as one of the major speakers.

Incidentally, the book was produced in only four months, according to The Australian.

Ghost writing must be a highly specialised skill, I reckon, because you have to write in another person's voice. For more information on this, there's a cross-posted report from the Edinburgh Book Festival on Hackpacker's blog.

2 comments:

hackpacker said...

I appreciated the pun, because funnily enough my dad used to sing ghost riders in the sky to us when we were kids.
I wonder whether ghostwriters have to do a lot of transcribing of interviews to get that voice right? I wonder if it would be a brush with fame that became too much after a while.

parlance said...

Hackpacker, I don't like writing profiles of people because I find remembering details (or note-taking) during the interview so laborious.

So I know I would hate ghostwriting!