Are the majority of autobiographies ghost written?

Question

It's often hard to tell, because the real writer is sometimes not credited, or it's very hard to find a credit anyway.

Answer 1

They should officially be called biographies if they are written by anyone but the subject. The word autobiography means "story of one's own life", and as for credit..if they are ghostwritten..it should say somewhere as the writer is entitled to some of the royalties from the book.
There will be a section in the Writers and Artist Yearbook that deals with this question, I suggest you pop into your library find a copy and look into it, if you want it answering more fully.

Answer 2

Celebrity books are almost always ghostwritten unless that celebrity is in the communications industry (like George Burns). Usually the ghostwriter is credited.

Books that are billed as autobiographies (with the exception of celebrity books) are generally written by the subject with some light editing by the publisher.

Answer 3

Ghostwriters do no longer tidy up punctuation, syntax and grammar. Editors do this - or the author themself, frequently having had a beta-reader to be a 2d pair of eyes for them. it somewhat is real no count number if it fairly is a nicely standard guy or woman's autobiography or a on a regular basis guy or woman's first attempt at a singular. specific, many autobiographies of nicely standard human beings are ghostwritten.

Answer 4

No, just th eones where the person is famous for other things like sports, etc. rather than writing. Lots of autobiographies were written by the persons themselves. Read Cellini's or Gerald Durrel's autobiography.

Answer 5

As a general rule, a biographical work is written by another writer, but autobiographical, is written by the person whose life it is depicting.

Help with compilation and editing, doesn't afford copyright to the silent partner.

former trade and industry writer retired... now freelance writer.

Answer 6

I think the more famous people write theri own many choose ghost writers as they havent got journalistic/creative writing skills maybe so its easier for them to use a ghost writer maybe.

Answer 7

LOL yeah the persons ghost is bored so it writes an autobiography...

Answer 8

I imagine most are written by a ghost writer, can u imagine that Jade Goody could write her book all by herself?? she needs help writing her shopping list.

Answer 9

I don't know, and I suspect that you won't be able to get accurate figures on that.

For example, I very much doubt that Augustine's 'Confessions' or Goethe's 'Wahrheit und Dichtung' were ghostwritten, but I'd be less certain about contemporary celeb stuff.

Answer 10

Can you imagine David Beckham's auto in his own words? Arrrrgh!