Neil Gaiman

I trust that you’ll get in touch with that person and let them know about rates of pay, then, which is what they were asking.

I write books by me. That’s what I know about. I suggested writing non-ghostwritten books, because I can talk about that. From my perspective, it seems easier and less likely to cause sorrow in the long term to write books you can tell people you’ve written.

I’m sorry my opinion hurt you. Perhaps if you ghostwriters talked more, and talked more loudly, about what you did and the joy you got from it, writers like me would find ourselves recommending it to young writers, rather than suggesting that, in the long term, they might be happier writing their own books.

Edit to add, Actually, if there are resources you can link to for ghostwriters, send them along and I will happily post them.  And note that my original comment was to someone who wanted to know how much to charge to ghostwrite a novel - not someone who wanted to help a celebrity with a biography, or similar.

And if you think I am not encouraging enough to would-be young work-for-hire writers… I’m not. I’ve known too many writers who were angry with their younger selves for signing work-for-hire contracts, or for writing books they could not admit to. I’ve watched writers getting fired off series they created and ghost writers brought in, and did not feel thrilled for the ghostwriters or for the fired writers.