Ghostwriters Galore

I stumbled upon the Edward Stratemeyer Syndicate the other day. This was a book packaging company that put out thousands of children’s and young adult books from around 1910 to 1980. Books our parents, siblings, and children grew up with: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, etc. The books were published under a variety of pen names that Edward Stratemeyer owned. The authors, however, were ghostwriters who developed the stories based on specific formulas and series outlines provided by Stratemeyer who maintained final say-so on all manuscripts, book covers, and illustrations before publication.
 
Does this game plan sound familiar? James Patterson, Danielle Steele, Tom Clancy and R.L. Stine all admit to using ghostwriters, some credited and others not. An extremely profitable practice for established writers and their publishing partners. Ghostwriters also whip out their pens behind most political figures, popular sports players, and famous celebrities. It is acceptable and deceptive at the same time as few are willing to admit to using ghostwriters.
 
What I found most interesting about the Stratemeyer Syndicate is that public libraries banned their books for several decades. It was felt that the fast-paced, formulaic series were “junk-food” for children’s minds hampering intellectual development. The book series were mass-produced for profit from what was viewed as literary sweatshops (underpaid ghostwriters). Incredibly popular books but viewed as antithetical to true literature, they were removed from shelves.
 
While Nancy Drew has transcended to video games, library bookshelves are now littered with AI-generated volumes. Talk about junk-food for the mind and being antithetical to true literature! Librarians are scrambling to remove “AI-slop” from their shelves as it often includes untrue facts, non-existent sources, and sometimes disturbing illustrations.
 
Transparency is essential. It builds trust and enhances accountability in all human relationships, including the bond between writers and readers. Let’s draw back the curtain and advocate for laws requiring publications to provide authoring credit for ghostwriters and mandatory disclosure of AI use for editing or prose-generating. Then let readers decide if their want to open that book.