Ghostwriters: out of sight and out of mind? Photo: Shutterstock.
What exactly is ghostwriting? What are the challenges and nuances of writing on behalf of someone else? ArtsHub speaks to two ghostwriters to demystify the craft of this specialised form of writing – a kind of surrogate authorship – and to clarify some of its more opaque elements.
Other experiences were less than ideal. Hutchinson tells ArtsHub: ‘Sometimes it’s like getting blood from a stone. One of my “subjects” died a week after I signed the contract, so I had to piece together his life story from a half-written manuscript, lots of notes, research and the memories of friends.’
Thuy On is the former Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
