A reluctant author of bestsellers

I write a lot on the net. For myself, for clients, for websites. Anything for a few bucks. Most of it is ghostwriting. Meaning I don't get the credit. Only the money. What happens if something you ghostwrote becomes famous and a best-seller? Well, I just read the story of Leslie McFarlane, better known by the pseudonym, Franklin W. Dixon, author of the Hardy Boys novels. He only got money for ghostwriting. $100 per book, books which sold and are still selling millions of copies across the world.

"During that time, he saw an advertisement for a children's book ghostwriter, placed by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Among other best-selling series, it produced the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and Tom Swift.

Under the pen name Roy Rockwood, McFarlane subsequently produced seven novels in the syndicate's Dave Fearless series, then moved on to write more than 20 Hardy Boys novels.

For most of these, he was paid a flat fee of $100 per book and, although the novels sold many millions of copies and were translated into 50 languages, he earned no royalties.

"In his diaries," Brian McFarlane said in an interview last week, "my father talks about having to write another of those cursed books, in order to earn another $100 to buy coal for the furnace." " - Globeandmail.com

Absolutely heart-breaking. Especially if you're a writer. A ghostwriter. Just think about it. Millions of dollars, all that fame. And he can't say or do anything about it because he was given a 100 bucks for each book.

It would take an especially kindhearted and gentle soul not to harbor any bitterness over such deals. Until today, I was kindof proud whenever I saw my writing on the web. Not this blog, but things I've ghost-written. Gave me a secret pleasure that the site owner was posing as an expert on the subject, and it was me that wrote it. Not anymore. Now I know that it's ok to be a good ghostwriter. But it's not ok to be a great ghostwriter.