Photo by Richard Stachmann on Unsplash

Is it a silly question? No, it’s not.

The social media platforms have confused visibility with creation. The term creator has been diluted and is often used to mean ‘someone who posts under their own name’.

It’s more of a platform-driven definition. The question is where ghostwriters fit into this ecosystem.

Ghostwriting is intentionally invisible. It is a thought about what creation really means and not just a label or personal branding. Branding of a ghostwriter is through their clients. He/she is also visible as a brand in another domain.

I did face this dichotomy as a researcher for three decades. You are invisible as a researcher when it comes to the evolution of the brand. But your identity is unshakable. 

The question reflects a professional issue, not born out of ignorance😊

The question weighs the relevance and significance of authorship against ownership, credit against effort, performer against the producer.

But creation has never worked that way.

A ghostwriter instigates ideas, shapes narratives, engineers voice and positioning, and builds influence they don’t publicly own.

They do it for someone who knows it is their creation, and the world knows that ‘they’ create for others. The underpinning bottom line is that people ‘know’ they are ‘creators’, and people hire them for this.

It’s a professional choice.

Many parallels can be drawn from songwriters, who won’t stop being creators because a singer performs the song. A screenwriter isn’t less creative because an actor gets the applause.

In short, visibility is a distribution choice, and creation is the intellectual labor. A ghostwriter is a creator who trades credit for leverage.

The divide is between a performer and a producer. And they both matter.

The question isn’t silly, the perception is!