Thu 27 September 2007 at 5.30 pm

Ghostwriting

OPUS event Thursday 27 September

Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane Campus

Step into the shadowy world of the ghostwriter, and look at the processes behind the creation of ghostwritten book projects. Is ghostwriting, as the Observer recently claimed, the ‘future of the book trade'? How prevalent is the practice of ghostwriting? What skills make a good ghostwriter, and how do publishers and agents manage those skills? To what extent is ghostwriting part of an editorial continuum, in which all editors routinely take part?

Addressing these questions are Sean Magee, publisher, editor and writer who has ghosted books for/with characters as diverse as Carry On actress Joan Sims and the famously uncommunicative champion jockey Lester Piggott; and Claire Squires, Senior Lecturer in Publishing at the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies. Her books include Marketing Literature: The Making of Contemporary Literature in Britain (Palgrave, 2007) and Philip Pullman, Master Storyteller (Continuum, 2006).

Drinks: 6.30 pm

Talk starts: 7.30 pm