I've found several sources of info about this widespread practice (one article suggests it comprises 40% of what you read) which seems always to be defended as both legal and ethical but alway by people who have something to gain from the practice. Their arguments read like rationalizations not explanations. They stress that no one is harmed since there is a contract between the publisher, "author", and ghostwriter. Apparently, the consumer, who is the clear target of the deception in hopes that some will buy a book which they otherwise would not buy, is of no concern. I was hoping to find and report here some specific court cases that established legal precendence for the practice but I have failed. I'll have to defer this to some future law students who I hope to ask some day.
A victimless crime? I don't buy that for a moment. Twenty bucks spent on something which is not what it was advertised to be is simple fraud. I don't care whether someone else thinks it was a good product or not. And I don't care if authorship attribution is a modern trend which some think is "nice" to have but which isn't really important. Sorry, but if it's a lie done with the intent to deceive others for monetary gain then it's fraud IMHO. Not much harm? I could easily imagine the damages to an individual consumer might not be small. Well-known literary critic Sally Bigwords from the NYTimes writes a column about well-known author Joe Blowhard and in it she writes at length about the progression of Blowhard's literary style over the years culminating in his most recent work "The Big Bang." After Sally's column appears in print it comes out that Blowhard has Alzheimer's and that "The Big Bang" was written by a teenaged ghostwriter from a middle school in the Bronx. Sally is now a public fool, loses her lucrative job, and begins her new job delivering pizzas door-to-door. If I was Sally, I would want to sue the pants off of Blowhard, his publisher, the on-line vendor who sold the book, and anyone else involved in the deception. It would not surprise me if something like this has actually happened.
The bottomline is that I'll be more careful about what I buy. Tally another reason for having limitless faith in mankind. I'm hoping for a new species soon!
