Ghostwriters

[Krystal109]

Should books with a ghostwriter have the names of non-associated creators/developers listed in the author spot?

For example: http://www.goodreads.com/series/48301...

On her website, this is said about the series:

"Stefan's Diaries" / "Damon's Diaries" etc...
Not written or inspired by Lisa at all. All written as TV-tie-ins, with the names L.J. Smith, Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec on the front. Written by an anonymous ghostwriter hired by Alloy Entertainment, Inc.

Note: Lisa has nothing to do with the TV-tie-ins: Stefan's Diaries. General Rule of Thumb: If a book has several names on the cover or says "Created By L. J. Smith" you could be sure that L. J. did not write it."

Basically, should the names be attached at all if the creator had nothing to do with it? It says based on the novels by L.J. Smith and the other two names on the cover are the tv series developers.

I can see them linked through the series list to the original series of books, but should those three names be in the author spot if none of them had anything to do with the book?

Also, how do you deal with the "author" spot if it is a ghostwriter?

[vicki_girl]

In the "Stefan's Diaries" case there are no other credited authors according to Worldcat. Therefore, the current way of listing it is proabaly the best we're going to be able to do. In cases where the ghostwriter is known, they can be listed as an additional author. Example:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25...

For these series, I would add the information from your post to the series description.

Some additional info on Ghostwriters can be found starting with message 29 in this thread:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...

[Krystal109]

Thanks.