This year, I attended the London Book Fair for the first time, peeking behind the curtain of publishing to see who makes the books on the shelf. This was no more true than when attending the ‘Shining the Spotlight on Ghostwriters’ talk which saw ghostwriters Dr Joanna Nadin, Lisa Bent, Mark McCrum and Selina Julien talk about their work writing some of publishing’s bestsellers. 

Ghostwriting is often embroiled in scandal, Millie Bobby-Brown’s ghostwritten novel Nineteen Steps not long ago receiving backlash (Creamer, 2023). Yet despite this stigma, the panel was keen to illuminate that ghostwriting is not something the industry should be ashamed of. Lisa Bent, co-author (as she prefers to be known) to Alison Hammond’s Black in Time children’s book, affirmed the process is ‘really collaborative’,  echoed by other panellists who pointed out the trust and partnership they had created with celebrities they wrote for. Ghostwriting, at its best, is not an exploitative practice, but a creative partnership. 

Yet, at its worst, ghostwriters still face challenges. They face an industry that suffers from a lack of transparency around using ghostwriters that would ensure fair standardised practice. Credit is crucial. The panel at LBF and wider debate on ghostwriting argues the credit required is dependent on whether the work is fiction or memoir (Lisec, 2024). Memoirs are generally accepted as ghostwritten, with Prince Harry’s novel Spare being a recent example where the ghostwriter was publicly open about his process (Moehringer, 2023). Fiction is literally another story; the writer does a lot more for content creation. There is also the problem of pay. The panel discussed how ghostwriters often earn considerably less with flat fees than through royalty payments. A contract offering one or the other varies considerably between publishers. 

Yet, there are those who are trying to change the status quo. 2025 saw the Society of Authors launch their campaign Ghosts Are Real (SoA, 2025), promoting guidelines on fair practice for ghostwriters of children’s fiction. Guidelines involve encouraging publishers to include the ghostwriter on the cover (SoA, 2025) and paying royalties rather than flat fees (SoA, 2025). Alongside panels like that of LBF, this shows ghostwriters are coming out of the shadows to demand fairer terms for their labour. 

Ghosts Are Real: Guidelines for working with ghostwriters of celebrity authored children’s fiction. (Lydia Monks, 2025)

This campaign highlights that ghostwriting is not a ‘dirty’ secret. Joshua Lisec, wrote in the Bookseller, ‘The author […] is more like a brand. You buy a Ralph Lauren suit not because Ralph Lauren personally tailored it for you but because you trust the name behind it.’ (2024). A celebrity earns customer loyalty that ghostwriters themselves may not be able to cultivate on their own. But how the industry treats ghostwriters matters. After all, are ghostwriters dissimilar to many in publishing? Each book exists not in a lone writer’s nook but as a mosaic of many professionals leaving their mark: ghostwriters, editors, marketers, publicists, production, designers. Attending LBF illuminated to me what it takes to place a book on a shelf. How many are behind the doors to the Olympia that make each book what it becomes? In the end, publishing is an industry made mostly of ghosts. Writers or otherwise, is it not perhaps time they get a little more of the credit they deserve?

Bibliography

Bobby-Brown, M. 2023. Nineteen Steps. London: HQ. 

Brown, L. 2025. SoA calls for transparency around ‘unsung’ ghostwriters behind celebrity-authored children’s books. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/soa-calls-for-transparency-around-unsung-ghostwriters-behind-celebrity-authored-childrens-books [Accessed 16th March 2025]. 

Creamer, E. 2023. Debut novel by Millie Bobby Brown reignites debate over ghostwritten celebrity books. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/14/debut-novel-by-millie-bobby-brown-reignites-debate-over-ghostwritten-celebrity-books#:~:text=Brown%20and%20McGurl%20then%20had,t%20think%20they%20really%20mind.%E2%80%9D [Accessed 14th March 2026]. 

Hammond, A. and E.L. Norry. 2022. Black in Time: The Most Awesome Black Britons from Yesterday to Today. London: Puffin. 

Lisec, J. 2024. Release the Ghosts. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/release-the-ghosts [Accessed 15th March 2026]. 

London Book Fair. 2026. Shining the Spotlight on Ghostwriters. London. 

Monks, L. 2025. Ghosts Are Real. Illustration. [online]. Available at: https://societyofauthors.org/resource/ghosts-are-real-guidelines-for-working-with-ghostwriters-of-celebrity-authored-childrens-fiction/ [Accessed 16th March 2026].

Moehringer, J. 2023. Notes from Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter. [online] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/15/j-r-moehringer-ghostwriter-prince-harry-memoir-spare [Accessed 15th March 2026]. 

Prince Harry. 2023. Spare. London: Bantam.  

Society of Authors. 2025. Ghosts are real: Guidelines for working with ghostwriters of celebrity authored children’s fiction. [online] Available at: https://societyofauthors.org/resource/ghosts-are-real-guidelines-for-working-with-ghostwriters-of-celebrity-authored-childrens-fiction/ [Accessed 16th March 2026].