I received some great feedback on my last blog–
https://paulemcmahon.org/2025/01/04/why-i-didnt-use-an-ai-or-a-ghostwriter-to-help-write-my-book/.
One of my readers sent me the following comment:
“I think there is a difference between a professional editor and a ghost writer. A professional editor just provides comments and suggestions on what you wrote whereas a ghost writer takes your ideas, ramblings, and streams of consciousness and puts those into words where you get all the credit.”
I agree with this comment.
Another reader who is also an author said,
“I understand why you didn’t go for a ghostwriter or the use of AI. However, I use a ghostwriter… to write according to a book structure designed by me… I want him to write in an entertaining way… I then review, add, remove and correct… I make sure what I want to be said is said…with this process I get a book telling my story as I want to tell it…”
This comment resonated with me. It describes an effective way for busy people to– as the reader points out– get a book telling their story the way they want to tell it while using their own time efficiently.
However, what struck me as I read these comments was the fact that the kind of “ghostwriter” I am using is different from what both of these readers are pointing out. This is why in my last blog I said, in reference to some of the blogs my ghostwriter wrote for me, that in the interest of transparency and full disclosure, when I post these blogs over the upcoming weeks/months I will make it clear that I didn’t actually write these blogs.
With that thought in mind below is a link to one of these blogs that I didn’t actually write. Note that the byline seems to indicate that I am the author.
https://penzu.com/p/59c82eacf64ccf9f
The actual author (ghostwriter?) of the blog has taken ideas from my book and turned them into a step-by-step approach to build resilience.
First, I want to make it clear that I actually like this blog! I found it interesting and I learned something by reading it!!
However, developing a step-by-step approach to building resilience is something I intentionally did not do in my book. I even cautioned readers up front in the book against using my life lessons as a recipe for resilience.
Rather, I made it clear in my book that my 35 life lessons are lessons that worked for me in achieving a degree of resilience in my life. I did not want to tell readers “how to” use my lessons because I felt it would be more effective to challenge the reader to think about the lessons within the context of their own life and then decide for themselves which ones might be beneficial.
The author of this blog (ghostwriter?) took the ideas I shared in my book and came up with their own 7 step approach to strengthen resilience. When I first read this blog I was concerned especially because it went beyond what was in my book and at first I even thought it was counter to the message in my book. But after reading the blog a second time I started to feel differently about it.
Although it seemed to indicate from the byline that I was the author, it was clearly written from a third person perspective. It was also clear to me that whoever wrote this blog had not only read my book, but had understood my key points well enough to provide examples that could be understood by a much wider audience than just runners. This was exactly what I hoped readers would do!
I said up front in the book that if you are a non-runner, it is the idea I hope you take away and find a way to apply to your own life. The author of this blog had done exactly that. They had taken my ideas and added their own 7 step approach to strengthening resilience. Not only that, I actually found myself liking the 7 step approach!
After reading the blog a third time it occurred to me that the approach being advocated might be very useful for those who needed a little more help on how to transform my life lessons into an approach they could use to help build their own resilience.
I finally concluded that the author of this blog not only understood the key points in my book, but had built on those points to create something new and potentially useful to others. And that is exactly what I hoped readers of my book would do.
Maybe ghostwriter isn’t the right word we should be using here. Afterall, it isn’t really ghostwriting when you take an idea and build on it to create something that potentially can help more people. What do you think? Feedback is encouraged.
P.S. If you’ve been thinking about purchasing my book in the ebook format, there will be a limited time special price deal starting soon on Amazon.
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