More Old Media Hypocrisy on Palin’s Book Deal | NewsBusters.org
More Old Media Hypocrisy on Palin’s Book Deal
Having a fair amount of experience in the celebrity ghost-writing biz - I’ve written five books that have Bill Shatner’s name on the cover, as well as a couple more ghost cum book-doctor jobs I can’t even admit to by name - the notion that some lefty ass-wipe is sneering at Sarah Palin for openly using a ghost shows just how stupid and biased these “news reporters” actually are.
With vanishly few exceptions, no well-known folks who aren’t writers in the first place actually write their own books. They just don’t have the ability, or the time, or the knowledge, to do so. And so they don’t.
Heck, I even know of some well-known writers who’ve had ghosted books published under their own names that they did not write. (No, forget it, I’m not telling).
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They’re just mad because she didn’t use their preferred ghostwriter.
A reporter who just slams out a few paragraphs of BS at a time has no clue what it takes to write a book. Except for a small handful of Asimov types, it’s agony.
I often get asked at technical conferences about writing technology books. My suggested guideline for a first time writer is 2 to 2 1/2 hours per printed page. Now multiply that out to a 400 page book and you’ve got six months of full time work. (Experienced writers can do better, but I’ve never gotten below an hour per printed page. First time writers may do even worse, depending on their native writing talent and previous practice writing other things.)
I would expect other types of writing to be in the same ballpark. Sara Palin does not have six months to stop being governor and write a book, even assuming she is good enough to be a first time writer. Any reporter in touch with reality ought to realize it.
Billy, your numbers assume familial support. Working at the computer looks an awful lot like goofing around at the computer, therefore it is goofing around at the computer, therefore you should stop goofing around and watch the baby or drive the boy to piano lessons or … Same goes for programming, remote consulting, or education. To the sufficiently obtuse observer, it’s all goofing around.
Anybody who starts writing a book without complete, full-disclosure buy-in from the family is nuts. Writing a book basically means a period of time abusing your family. You might manage to keep that time down to a few weeks of the most intense work, but I’ve never know anyone to completely avoid it.
I don’t think Tom Clancy has written a book by himself since Red Storm Rising, and I don’t think he’s actually written anything at all in the past six books under his name.
I may be wrong, but the style differences between his first couple and the later works are so vast, the conclusion seems inescapable.