I probably shouldn’t start a thread when I have been having to limit my on-line time, and so may not be able to respond in a timely manner. On the other hand, there may very well not be any comments, so why not?
The subject is: Being a “ghostwriter.”
The question is: Would you be willing to do it?
The brief history is that for 40 years, I have done songwriting, screenwriting, playwriting, the total $$$ earned from those endeavors is enough to by a couple of tanks of gas, depending on whether I want to fill up my old Subaru or Winnebago…Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had tons of fun along the way watching some plays and a couple of VERY indy-films being brought to life!
But I have made my actual living as a communications technician, the last 5 years as an independent sub-contractor…But Covid closed down all of the locations where I used to find work, so I had to go the unemployment route for half of last year.
By December, it had become clear that my technician career had come to an end, and at the gentle age of 65, I had to find a new career. If you believe in God, you can credit it to Providence. If you don’t believe in God, then you can credit it to blind-luck, I’m good either way.
Since late last December, via a third-party, I have been churning out 20,000 words per week while I write in someone else’s name. Unless your name is Robert George, 20,000 words per week is a buttload! I am paid per word, and under the terms of the contract, my weekly deadline has to be met, or there will be a slight reduction in pay…
And I can NEVER acknowledge who I am writing as…The lawsuits for doing that begin at $10,000. To get any question about the pay out of the way, if I get my submission in on time, I make $600 per week, which, if you can get down 500 words per hour, it comes out to $15.00 per hour for a 40 hour work week, which isn’t fantastic, but it beats the hell out of saying “Hello, welcome to Walmart.”
So here is the question: As an “artist”, would you be willing to accept the deal of a steady $30k per year to make sh!t up, according to the “clients” notes, knowing that no one, outside of a few family and close friends who are sworn to secrecy, will ever know you wrote?
Re: Client’s notes: Sometimes, a chapter’s worth of notes might be a paragraph. Sometimes a whole page…As long as I hit the “beats” I have free range of what I write, and via email through our go-between editor, I can ask questions, make suggestions, and after 7 months of this, I actually feel like I have a writing partner, even if he is the one who gets all the glory.
With the help of Google, I was finally able to figure out who he is…Don’t worry, unless you are into sci-fi comic novels, his name wouldn’t mean anything to you…The first three books in the six book series are now available on Kindle for $4.99 or Amazon, for 15.99. I can even see how many “stars” each book gets and read the handful of reviews that folks have posted, so that’s kind of cool!
Mea culpa for the long ramble, so let me repeat the question: As an artist, would you trade potential fame and fortune for a steady paycheck?
NOTE: A lot of folks start out as ghostwriters and eventually get their own work published, but they were a lot younger than I am when they started.
Thanks for reading this far. Curious to read any opinions. There is NO wrong answer.

Midnite

Satchel was right. Something is gaining on me.

The Shoebox & Dinner at Eight trailers available at:

http://www.twometer.com/Two_Meter_Studios/HOME.html