It is the case, though I still see a lot of differences - I do know more about Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and The Babysitter's Club writing than I do the others, but in the case of ND and HB, the ghostwriters were (I believe) given a plot outline to stick to before writing, and the original writer of the BC went through and edited the ghost written books for that series, to my understanding. So...I can see some similarities, but I see this new thing as still being different. Mainly because of the actual terms involved...maybe I'm just being too picky, but I wouldn't call this ghostwriting. More, we'll let you play, but if it's a good idea we'll take it and use it and you get screwed. I'm going to cut myself off here, before I keep rambling about the writing of my childhood favorites. The problem for me has never been that Amazon is offering to let people play in existing works. It's that they're taking advantage of people that don't know better.
(Personally, I believe that any work for hire in an existing universe should be vetted by the people who own it before publication (as in the case of ghostwriters). This new thing is some strange half step between official and fanfic, and I'm uneasy with how it's being implemented.)
(Is it a bad sign that my first thought was "The man's 88, would it really be an early grave?" I feel bad, I do have a sort of admiration/adoration for him.)
no subject
It is the case, though I still see a lot of differences - I do know more about Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and The Babysitter's Club writing than I do the others, but in the case of ND and HB, the ghostwriters were (I believe) given a plot outline to stick to before writing, and the original writer of the BC went through and edited the ghost written books for that series, to my understanding. So...I can see some similarities, but I see this new thing as still being different. Mainly because of the actual terms involved...maybe I'm just being too picky, but I wouldn't call this ghostwriting. More, we'll let you play, but if it's a good idea we'll take it and use it and you get screwed. I'm going to cut myself off here, before I keep rambling about the writing of my childhood favorites. The problem for me has never been that Amazon is offering to let people play in existing works. It's that they're taking advantage of people that don't know better.
(Personally, I believe that any work for hire in an existing universe should be vetted by the people who own it before publication (as in the case of ghostwriters). This new thing is some strange half step between official and fanfic, and I'm uneasy with how it's being implemented.)
(Is it a bad sign that my first thought was "The man's 88, would it really be an early grave?" I feel bad, I do have a sort of admiration/adoration for him.)