Oh, to be a Ghostwriter…

by Eve, in Books and Writing (2 Comments)

There’s something exciting in the secretive sound
that a ghostwriter makes, when he’s ghosting around.

A bookshelf he haunts, with no obvious trace—
inaudible voice, incorporeal face.

You want something written, but can’t write it yourself,
or have no time to do so—you should hire someone else!

That’s the service a ghostwriter supplies (for a fee);
a good kind of ghost that I’d quite like to be.

A mimicking mimic, I’m a turner of phrase,
a worder of words and sayer of says.

I’ll read a dramatic Dr Seuss pantomime,
then breathe in his beat, and respire out his rhyme.

My craft be your credit, as my work becomes yours.
I’d write it, you’d own it—your name in bookstores!

And in addition, by my layout profession,
I’d craft covers and pages in simple succession.

For sketches you’d need to hire someone who draws,
because I can’t freehand to save my life or yours.

(Although in illustration I’m no virtuoso,
I am very skilled at compositing photos!)

Marketing, interviews, and book signings, too;
the things that books need, when all’s typed, set, and glued…

That’s all the minutiae that I’ll not be making;
if your name’s on the cover, that’s your undertaking.

A spectre of script.

A phantasm of text.

Yes, ghostwriting is what I would like to try next…