(no subject)

[swell.livejournal.com]

Anyone else think KA has a 'start a series, write some books, get bored and ditch it off to ghostwriters' complex? It irritates me and it always has.

Comments

[scottique.livejournal.com]

I have nothing to add, except that the phrase "Monster of the week" automatically summons my Rita Repulsa icon. Please disregard.

[koulagirl666.livejournal.com]

Disregard? But that's an awesome icon!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_sapphiredreams/]

If I were a writer I cold never just give up my series to other's like she did. You create and love a character, how can you do them the injustice of letting the quality slide?

Do authors still use ghostwriters today?

[awkwardscilence.livejournal.com]

Perhaps! I only ever knew her to hand off writing responsibilities to other writers with the Animorphs series. But finally understanding that half the entire series was ghost written by complete strangers was a big disappointment as i thought i'd been reading from her unique perspective the ENTIRE TIME.

So yeah, i guess i am a little irritated. What other series has she started and lost interest in? It seems so... unethical. Like here, let's get the ball rolling, then hand the work off to my lackies so i can sit back to basque in all the glory. Like she reeps the benefits of other writers who barley recieve any credit.

[perpetual-poet.livejournal.com]

She stopped writing Remnants after book 4, FYI. So to answer the OP, I say that it certainly seems so! She may have a reason, though. It's her brain where all this is going on.

[digipacopr.livejournal.com]

Remnants sux so much ass. I, personally, would have never stopped writing Animorphs to write that piece of garbage.

Now, Everworld, thats another story...

[perpetual-poet.livejournal.com]

Aw. I like Remnants. =( Something about the constantly-dying cast appeals to me.

[themindofcrayak.livejournal.com]

Yeah it is kinda sad that she does that. And I mean she didn't even think enough to write the last 5 books all together she wrote the last 3 and only 35 of the 64 books! And then Remnants started and it didn't do much. Then she wrote a kids picture book and what is she doing now?? Does anyone know?

[kleenexcow.livejournal.com]

Aren't she and her husband running some promotional company now? Politicial ads and some such? I remember reading about that back when there was that big stink about former Animorphs fans finding her husband's blog and him freaking out about it because "kids" (nevermind that many Animorphs fans are now in their twenties) were reading it.

[ichthyosaur.livejournal.com]

I...kind of didn't know she used ghostwriters.

:( ?!?

[vishywishylvr.livejournal.com]

For like every series..

Ghostwriters aren't necessarilly bad, a lot of writers use them for big series if they get too busy for a certain installment to be finished on time or if they've started other projects, etc., and if used correctly/sparingly they aren't HORRIBLE..at first for Animorphs it wasn't that noticable, at least for me, the writing styles were sorta the same, it was all good, but then later you could really tell the dialogue changed and the writing style definitely changed and yeah, you could definitely tell she pretty much wasn't writing her own series anymore =\

'start a series, write some books, get bored and ditch it off to ghostwriters' complex'
You've stated it perfectly right there~

[janinedog]

Personally, I don't blame her. Having to write an entire book every single month is definitely not an easy task.

[speciesof1.livejournal.com]

While it disappoints me, I don't resent her for it or think she did anything blameworthy. To do so reeks too much of egocentric self-entitlement.

We need to remember that ghostwriters are hardly unheard of in book publishing, and it's pretty common in other media like TV or comics for the writer to pass the baton, so the speak. While it's unfortunate for us fans, I respect the writers' right to do so, as would I hope anyone else who has their priorities straight.

[kattwoman2.livejournal.com]

I don't know about her earlier works, but supposedly one of the reasons she allowed her Animorphs series to be ghostwritten is b/c she had a son and a screaming newborn in the house can be very distracting ;). Not that I would know from experience, but I have a lot of friends with babies now and it's hard for them to find time to even say "Hi".

It did say somewhere that she did write the plots and such, it was basically up to the ghostwriter to put it all together. Granted, I think she does it quite often, and it does cause the quality to slide b/c K.A. is a really talented author, but I can see why she does it and it sometimes gives people opportunites to get recognize in the writing biz.

However, yes, I agree with you that she is suffering from that potential complex ;).

[box-life.livejournal.com]

While the ghostwriting and sliding in quality is rather disappointing, as I understand it, as with many juvenile/young adult series, KAA was contracted to have a book in a certain period of time. I definitely know that for the duration of the Animorphs series there was a new book every month. That's got to put some serious pressure on the writer, with or without screaming baby. Unlike the majority of authors, who could take a break if they got sick of it, or if didn't have any creative fuel left, she had to keep on trucking. So, I can't really bash her for ghostwritten or "monster of the week" books.

[aibyouka7.livejournal.com]

She has the opposite problem that I have. She gets lazy about the endings. I get lazy about the beginnings. But in any case I can identify. Though, I'm not a professional author, so...