:00:00. > :00:00.unfamiliar, it makes people think, it is not word. But they always use.
:00:00. > :00:13.That is the key. It is time for Meet The Author. Andrew Crofts is a
:00:14. > :00:19.hugely successful author. He has sold millions of books, but you may
:00:20. > :00:25.never have heard of him, but most of them were written under someone
:00:26. > :00:30.else's name. In Confessions of a Ghostwriter, he reflects on his
:00:31. > :00:47.career as a literary gun for hire. Andrew Crofts, let's start with the
:00:48. > :00:52.obvious question. Most writers are in it at least in part for the
:00:53. > :00:58.kudos, they want their name on the cover. You rarely get it. The fact
:00:59. > :01:02.that you? No, actually. It is a matter of expectations. If I wrote a
:01:03. > :01:14.book assuming it was going to come out and cover in glory, but if you
:01:15. > :01:23.are hired like that from the beginning, and the speech got a
:01:24. > :01:29.standing over `` `` ovation, you would not get hurt. You would just
:01:30. > :02:14.think job well done. You are not doing it for a
:02:15. > :02:17.very fast. Not having to do all the marketing that comes with all of
:02:18. > :02:23.this. I still covered in glory this! Thank you Nick. But you do all the
:02:24. > :02:30.interesting bits. Whether it is a palace, or a brothel, or a private
:02:31. > :02:35.eye somewhere, you get absolute access. Then you can go back to your
:02:36. > :02:42.little garret and do what writers do, and Hideaway writing the actual
:02:43. > :02:48.story. With most writers of any kind, you are uncommonly business
:02:49. > :02:56.life. You are much more in control of the project. I found that I have
:02:57. > :03:01.done every type of writing in my career, life down the lack of
:03:02. > :03:04.control very ill of dictating. This is the same in all creative
:03:05. > :03:09.professions. We have to wake to the phone to ring, though you don't like
:03:10. > :03:14.that. I wanted to find a way that where stories would come to me. I
:03:15. > :03:18.started by putting a little ad in a trade magazine, ghost writer for
:03:19. > :03:23.hire. I thought that I would have the adventure and then come back
:03:24. > :03:27.home and write the book. Now the Internet does it. They come to you.
:03:28. > :03:32.But you do not take on all the projects that comes you. What are
:03:33. > :03:36.you looking for? Makes a good potential ghost project? I get two
:03:37. > :03:39.or three people a day, so I could not take them all on. What you are
:03:40. > :03:44.looking for is something that will make a book shape. A lot of people
:03:45. > :03:50.have exciting stories, but they are good for an article, good for a film
:03:51. > :03:57.script. They do not fit a narrative arc. You need some thing that is
:03:58. > :04:01.going to come out at 60,000 to 100,000 words. You need to keep
:04:02. > :04:05.people turning the page. Is there enough to fill a book? That is the
:04:06. > :04:13.first thing. The second thing is is it interesting to spend two or three
:04:14. > :04:18.of my life in southern else's head? If it is something that I know
:04:19. > :04:23.nothing about, it is likely to attract my attention. Ultimately,
:04:24. > :04:29.can it be made to work as a business venture? Can we sell it to a
:04:30. > :04:34.publisher, or is this going to self publish? You have written an
:04:35. > :04:38.extraordinary range of books for an extraordinary range of people. Your
:04:39. > :04:44.bestseller is a book around. Marriage. That was about 20 years
:04:45. > :04:49.ago, and I still get e`mails today from people who say they have just
:04:50. > :04:53.read it, and it is their favourite book of all time, and what happened
:04:54. > :04:57.to the characters? That is a sign of a strong story. It was sold by Zane
:04:58. > :05:21.Musson. `` Zane Musson. but it is a story that really
:05:22. > :05:29.appeals to young women. How do you as a middle`aged posh bloke get
:05:30. > :05:34.inside the head of someone like her? Allen I was not quite as aged then
:05:35. > :05:44.but still posh! It is like a plate. If you have three or four
:05:45. > :05:51.characters, one who is slave trading and one who is Agarkar, you know a
:05:52. > :05:55.narrative. You know words that would be used. Things that they would or
:05:56. > :06:00.would not be interested in. It is like writing an extended monologue.
:06:01. > :06:09.You have the voice in their head. You know it great when it sounds
:06:10. > :06:11.wrong. You have written biographies Ling autobiographies for
:06:12. > :06:22.businessmen. One of the charges that must be laid
:06:23. > :06:26.at you from time to time is that you are an apologist bought some not
:06:27. > :06:32.very nice people. How do you justify that? How do you square that with
:06:33. > :06:37.your constant? I think I probably have the same defence as a
:06:38. > :06:45.barrister. I have no defence that I find every one really interesting,
:06:46. > :06:53.whether they are at dictators or enslaved child brides. It is really
:06:54. > :06:57.interesting. It is nice to go to both ends. I honestly think I
:06:58. > :07:04.believed that everyone should be allowed the right to express their
:07:05. > :07:08.views. Free speech. If you cannot write a book yourself, and you want
:07:09. > :07:14.someone to help you, I think that's OK, just like ring Abe barrister to
:07:15. > :07:17.plead your case in court. There is going to be another barrister on the
:07:18. > :07:23.other side putting their case. You are not in that situation. Gayle but
:07:24. > :07:29.once the book is out, everyone person the discreet is going to say
:07:30. > :07:34.it firmly. As you know. The book is out there, and then people are free
:07:35. > :07:39.to say what they like about it. They can say in this lives just that they
:07:40. > :07:44.can say it is lies and rubbish, or that they do not like the person. I
:07:45. > :07:57.think we should listen to everybody. Thank you very much.
:07:58. > :07:58.Good evening. First they started relatively quietly, but