Over the next week or so, I will be blawging about yet another dirty little secret in the publishing industry—an outright deceptive practice. I will be working from the following examples, which are hypothetical descriptions of the same book.
N.B. These are variations on a real book; the publisher, in my judgment, did it correctly. This time. It is a useful starting point, because that publisher does not always do it correctly.
| No. |
Cover Credit |
Title Page Credit |
Copyright |
| 1 |
X with A |
X with A |
X |
| 2 |
X and A |
X and A |
X and A |
| 3 |
X |
X with A |
X and A |
| 4 |
X |
X |
X and A |
| 5 |
X |
X |
X |
The starting point will be a nonfictional memoir of a public figure ("X") for which a substantial proportion of the writing was done by a professional ghostwriter ("A"). For the present, assume that there is a proper contract that makes A's contribution a work for hire by X.
