This article is about a ghostwriter, the type of writer. There is also an article on the children's television series Ghostwriter.

A ghostwriter is an author who writes under someone else's name, with their consent. A ghostwritten book is deceptive — the author on the cover is not the actual writer. On the other hand, the market for books written by celebrities is greater than the market for books written by unknown writers. The celebrity gets a book and the ghostwriter gets a paycheck. Finally, the book is better written.

Ghostwriters are often employed by celebrities to write autobiographies in situations in which the celebrities themselves may not be talented authors. Ghostwriters are also employed, often with proper billing, by authors whose names themselves will sell a book, such as Tom Clancy.

Sometimes ghostwriters receive partial credit, such as authorship attributed to "Famous Celebrity with Hardworking Nobody" or by "Lotta Glama as told to Guy in Green Eyeshade". Or credit may appear in a foreword or introduction for those who can read between the lines, such as "Thanks to English Major, without whom this book would never have been written".

Famous ghostwritten books

John F. Kennedy was accused of having the Pulitzer Prize winning work Profiles in Courage ghostwritten, mainly by his assistant Theodore Sorenson, but the two of them rejected such claims. (See Profiles in Courage for details.) Barbara Feinman was the ghostwriter for It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us by Hillary Clinton. Clinton later won a Grammy Award for a recording of her memoirs, Living History. William Shatner used a ghostwriter for his science-fiction books. H. P. Lovecraft served as a ghostwriter for Harry Houdini. The novelization of Star Wars (credited to George Lucas) was written by Alan Dean Foster.