Most people I meet don’t know very much about ghostwriting. They have some idea of what it is, and often think it’s completely unfair for one person to write a book while another takes the credit. Kind of like plagiarism or cheating on a paper. I even had a woman at a dinner party give me a hard time about how foolish it was of me to sell my art and voice in such a way. (I thought her stance was ironic because she was a graphic designer, but I just smiled and nodded and got away from her as fast as I could.)

Writers, especially, seem to tangle with the idea of writing something and then letting someone else get the credit. And readers often think less of an author when they’ve used a ghostwriter to do the writing (which is foolish, as far as I’m concerned, but that’s a topic for another post). It’s an odd–and at times polarizing–niche of writing, for sure.

In fact, I didn’t even really know what a ghostwriter was until I became one. My first “real” job out of college was working as a ghostwriter’s editorial assistant. I was like the ghostwriter’s ghost, which must be the lowest gal on the totem pole because I didn’t even get thanked by the clients. Though my boss, I’m pretty sure, loved me.

But that’s where I learned all the ropes of writing in someone else’s voice—working closely with someone who’d been doing it for a long time. And on my first day as her assistant, my boss asked me if I was okay, as a writer, with letting someone else take the credit, I said, “Sure, no problem.”

Why was I okay with it then? Probably because she gave me a job, and jobs were in short supply then too. Today, I’m still okay with it because the projects I work on are my clients’, not mine. They’re the ones who are passionate about the topics and who’ve done all the research and who have the experience to author the books. Not me so much–but I know how to write about it better than they can.

Everyone needs a day job, right? At least until I achieve literary stardom. But there’s more in it for me than a check. I get to learn about new topics, practice writing in the long form, and help others bring their dreams to fruition. So I’m not compelled to put my name on the books either, either.

All those things make me a happy ghostwriter. And when I’m old and gray, I want to look back on my career and know that I’ve put my name on MY books—the one’s I’m passionate about and come from my experiences.

What do you think? As a writer, would you be okay with not getting credit for writing a book?