: How much work does a (nonfiction) ghostwriter typically do? I just finished the charming short memoir from actor Cary Elwes, As You Wish, about his experiences while filming The Princess Bride.

I just finished the charming short memoir from actor Cary Elwes, As You Wish, about his experiences while filming The Princess Bride. The voice sounds very much like Elwes, but the cover clearly says "with Joe Leyden." Which says to me "ghostwriter."

It's reasonably common for someone who's not a writer to get a ghostwriter to help with a memoir, but Elwes is also a playwright, so it's not like he can't assemble a sentence.

So my general question is this: how much work does a ghostwriter typically do in a nonfiction piece, such as a memoir?

I realize that the answer can vary from "everything and the client waves at it" to "act as more of a heavy copyeditor," but I'm curious to know if there's an industry standard or expectation. I also noted What to include in agreement with a Ghost Writer. . . but that's more of a contract checklist question, not a "here's what typically occurs" question.

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@Kevin153

In wikipedia I read that Cary Elwes co-wrote a screenplay. I imagine that when you co-write a screenplay, the work might be just as collaborative, i.e. non-independent, as when you publish a book with your byline along with a "with" byline.

So it seems quite plausible that the ghost writer / co-writer of the Bride book played a substantial role. But I don't think heavy copy editors would be considered ghost writers. I think the ghost writer takes a more active role in structuring the work, deciding what's needed, eliciting what's needed, etc.

I'm basing this on having read ghostwritten / co-written books and having read these authors' descriptions of the process used. For example, Malcolm X and Alex Haley wrote about their process in writing The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

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: How much work does a (nonfiction) ghostwriter typically do? I just finished the charming short memoir from actor Cary Elwes, As You Wish, about his experiences while filming The Princess Bride.

More posts by @Debbie451

: How do I improve "beige" text? I have a tendency to write text that's on the "beige" side. I think it's the engineer in me that tends to write text that's very straightforward and strictly

: 1) Use the ellispses and emphasis, and tighten up the spaces. This man, this...monster...has done something despicable. There's no typesetting reason to have spaces on both sides of those

: If somone is bilingual how does it affect their daily life? I am bilingual myself but I don't think it affects me in any way. But I think that's because I am not in a position to speak

: Is the page after the title page numbered page 1 or page 2 in MLA7? When writing a paper in MLA7 with a title page as the first page, would the second page of the document be numbered

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