Page 13 - September USA 2017 Mag - Complete
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change revolution
THE TRUTH ABOUT USING GHOSTWRITERS
FOR CHRISTIAN BOOKS
PHIL COOKE
Today we live in an era of megachurches, major ministries, able option. And in those cases, there are many levels of
and global nonprofits. In some ways (both good and bad), working with professional writers. In my own experience, I
these large religious and nonprofit organizations have be- have written for clients who gave me original material like
come like international corporations, involving radio and sermon transcripts. In those cases, I was really “adapting”
television studios, publishing businesses, international con- their own thoughts and ideas into book form. In other cases,
ferences, educational outreaches, and more. And the big- I literally wrote it from scratch, with little more than a few
ger churches and ministries grow, the less time their leaders interviews, a sermon tape, or a conversation or two with the
have to actually research and write books – the very prod- pastor.
ucts which to a great extent help fund the organizations
and put them on the map. Plus, writing well isn’t easy. It’s a But in every case, I’ve never received credit. But that’s OK,
craft and art form just like music, painting, or filmmaking. and in some cases, it was rather funny. For one project, I
Writing well takes years of practice and experience, and actually wrote a book for a client and then he stood up
the discipline to sit for weeks or months in front of a com- on national television and described how he had “labored
puter screen. night after night writing without stopping, until his wife had
to beg him to get some sleep.” Yeah, right. In another case,
That’s why many pastors and ministry leaders hire profes- when a major newspaper reported that I wrote a television
sionals to do the job for them, which is a perfectly accept- special for a particular media ministry, the ministry office
