lorazepamproblems t1_ixarce7 wrote on November 22, 2022 at 1:14 AM

Have you seen the Seinfeld episode where J Peterman didn't have enough interesting stories for Elaine to write his biography so he bought Kramer's life stories to put in his book as his own?

And do you ever have clients who won't reveal enough about themselves to you to make an interesting book? If so, what do you do to pad the book? Do you ever have to resort to public sources? And finally, do you ever have celebrities who can't be bothered to read the book that they couldn't be bothered to write? Meaning they put a biography about themselves out into the world and don't even know what's in it.

GlitterGhostwriter OP t1_ixasjv9 wrote on November 22, 2022 at 1:23 AM

Haha I’m afraid I haven’t watched Seinfeld!

But that’s an excellent question. Thankfully my clients usually come to the table pretty open. As we get to writing there may be things that felt too vulnerable that we redact. Though it does take some interview skill sometimes to tease out things they wouldn’t think to say. I can honestly say I’ve never padded a book except for with details that were real that they didn’t tell me. And by that I mean they might tell me they watched a tv program, not tell me anything about it, but I’ll go watch it and try to fill out the experience. So far all my clients have approved and know every chapter.

Not to say that it doesn’t happen or has never happened. I’m sure somewhere there was a very famous celeb who pushed a book out with minimal oversight. But it definitely hasn’t happened to me and my working relationships with my clients have always been pretty tight and collaborative, particularly in non-fiction/memoir.

Where you’re more likely to see padding would be in a researchable topic like business books or self-help, maybe. Again, I haven’t padded those genres much either though except with very appropriate amounts of research.

I do talk to my clients friends and family members though sometimes. There are incidents where a family member knows more about a specific event than my client does. My client still approves it and knows about it long before publishing though.