Who you gonna call? Samantha Fink and Nicole Panteloucos meet the unsung authors behind the bestsellers

Prince Harry’s infamous memoir Spare reminds us of something many publishing houses would like us to forget: just because you have a story doesn’t mean you’re the best person to tell it. With ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer’s million-dollar commission for Spare splashed across headlines, what was once the publishing industry’s “dirty little secret” is now frmly in the spotlight.

Matt Whyman, who has published twenty novels of his own, was frst inspired to pursue ghostwriting after reading an athlete’s memoir to his young son. “I gave it to him for his birthday and while reading it, I realised it was just terrible,” he says. “I thought, ‘I can do better than that.’ I felt like I’d given my son a poor, totally uninspiring book.”

Now as a seasoned ghostwriter, Whyman takes on somewhat of a public relations role with his ghost clients. He cites reporters chasing the woman to whom Prince Harry lost his virginity. After celebrity memoirs come out, journalists often dig around, hoping to reveal more than the book does. As such, Whyman encourages his clients to be as transparent as possible to avoid pushback from the press. “There’s always going to be a consequence,” Whyman says.

“When it’s my project, I have a responsibility to [my client] to say, ‘This is how it’s going to be perceived.’ I have to know where the bodies are buried.”

Well-known ghostwriter Andrew Crofts reveals that he frst got into the profession after writing several books for a wealthy businessman. “I was interviewing him for a magazine and he told me he had been commissioned to write a series of books but didn’t have time,” says Crofts. “He asked me to write them for him, which I did.” Since then, Crofts has ghostwritten a dozen Sunday Times number one bestsellers, some of them for victims of forced marriages, sex workers, orphans, and survivors of war.

“It’s a great chance to really get deep into someone’s life and someone’s world – someone who is well known and has made their mark but isn’t a writer,” adds Whyman. “My job is to come in with that skill, but equally, I know nothing about them. So I have to understand their world and what makes them tick. The responsibility is huge.”

Chloe Dootsen-Graube

challenges. According to Storr, ghostwriters are last on the publishing pecking order, and the job can feel like being an intern. “Nobody thinks about you very much,” he says. When a book he ghosted was shortlisted for a National Book Award, he wasn’t even told.

While clients naturally try to sell the best version of themselves in what Whyman refers to as “the varnish story that you’ve probably read a million times in the newspapers,” it’s up to the ghostwriter to pull out the hidden gems in their clients’ stories to deliver a compelling narrative. Echoing this sentiment, writer Will Storr says, “I wish more people had the humility to employ ghostwriters. I think books in general would get a lot better.”

The intimate process of obtaining stories from clients often requires ghostwriters to behave like therapists. “I [had a meeting] with someone based in Hollywood, and on our fourth Zoom, they said, ‘I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on therapy, and this is the best session I’ve ever had,’” Whyman recalls. In his view, this is because a ghostwriter has no agenda. Rather than trying to ‘heal’ their client, they help them make sense of their own life.

Hearing a celebrity word-vomit their life story may sound like a dream to some, but the job comes with its own unique set of

Timelines can be tricky as well. Ghostwriters may have as little as just a few months to turn a book around to make sure it stays relevant. In other cases, like one Storr is working on at the moment, an 18-month project can end up taking four years. “Occasionally I can have several [books] on but at different points in a cycle,” Whyman says. “So when I was debating taking on three at one point, my agent said to me, ‘If you screw this up, you’ll never work again.’ And she’s right. There’s a huge amount of faith placed in a ghostwriter to deliver to expectation.”

The expectations placed on ghostwriters can also eclipse their own creativity. In 2022, The Guardian published a piece about children’s book authors who write original stories themselves—but then paste hungry-for-fame celebrities’ names on them for the extra income they’ll amass. While a big name on the front cover means more money for ghostwriters, they are often paid signifcantly less than the celebrities they write for.

“A children’s book author should be able to be famous on their own terms and not have to just give their stories over,” says