On Ghostwriters
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00:00:04.500 | Stephan writes in to ask, "Pastor John, how do you feel about pastors who use
00:00:08.280 | ghostwriters to produce sermons, blogs, books, or other written content from
00:00:13.360 | their ministry in their name?"
00:00:15.420 | I don't like it. In fact, I'm against it. I think it's wrong, Tony.
00:00:23.140 | But let me define what I mean, lest--they mean something I don't mean.
00:00:28.620 | I don't want to accuse inappropriately.
00:00:32.280 | 99% of readers believe that a byline, my name under a book title, means I wrote it.
00:00:47.120 | Either I spoke it, like Spurgeon, and someone wrote it down, or I took a pen or
00:00:53.120 | a computer and I wrote it.
00:00:55.440 | That's what they assume, and therefore, it doesn't matter whether two publishers
00:01:00.320 | agree that's not what it means, or an author and an editor, "Well, we don't think
00:01:04.280 | that's what it means."
00:01:05.520 | Well, it is what it means, and you can't play fast and loose with people's
00:01:08.840 | interpretations that way. That's what a byline means, and I hope it stays that
00:01:16.280 | way. And therefore, I think to put your name on a book you didn't write is a lie,
00:01:23.000 | and the people would be shocked if someone got the idea that, "This is just
00:01:29.600 | your ideas." Like this person took a one-page set of ideas that they got from
00:01:34.840 | your sermons, they turned it into a book, and you put your name on the book.
00:01:39.600 | That's a lie. And God said, "Thou shalt not lie." God said, "Love the truth."
00:01:45.160 | We're pastors. We are people who serve the truth.
00:01:50.760 | Our standards for truth should be higher than anybody's standards for truth,
00:01:54.920 | not lower than anybody's standards. Now, I believe in editors, big time.
00:02:01.680 | David Mathis at DG is called Senior Editor. I sent off to him a book yesterday,
00:02:07.720 | or was it the day before yesterday, and I said, "Go at it, David.
00:02:11.040 | Help me avoid error. Help me not say things stupid.
00:02:16.640 | Help me get my grammar right." So he's going to send this back to me,
00:02:20.240 | and there'll be some blue, you know, highlighting in it.
00:02:23.160 | And if that editing process reaches a point where this is anywhere near
00:02:30.320 | substantially David's work, his name is going on it.
00:02:34.080 | So I put John Piper with David Mathis. Let me give you another example.
00:02:38.520 | A lot of guys do this, don't do this, and I think they should.
00:02:42.200 | People write letters for them. People write letters for presidents of schools
00:02:46.440 | and presidents of organizations. He just signs them and sends them out.
00:02:49.400 | I just think that's a lie. If Josh Edder, who's one of our directors
00:02:54.680 | at Desiring God, wants me to write a letter to ask our listeners to support,
00:03:03.640 | if he sends me the substance of the letter and it's written and I like it,
00:03:09.100 | and I tweak a sentence here and a sentence there, I say to Josh,
00:03:12.040 | "I'm not going to put my name on this without your name, period.
00:03:15.840 | Your name's going on there. You wrote this and I tweaked it.
00:03:19.640 | But if he sends me an email that's got five bullet points,
00:03:24.480 | please include these things in what you say, this statistic and that deadline
00:03:29.720 | and this condition of our budget and whatever, and I take those five things
00:03:33.720 | and I write it, I'll put my name on it."
00:03:36.880 | So I realized that we get help in what we do, and I think, frankly,
00:03:42.520 | we should be way more than eager to give credit where credit is due.
00:03:48.520 | So what I already wrote the forward to my book, I mean, the word to the reader,
00:03:55.160 | and I put in it, "Thank you, David Mathis, for this and that,"
00:03:58.080 | because he's already done work in helping me assemble the pieces
00:04:01.320 | that went into that book. So my answer, Tony, to all the fears
00:04:07.400 | of putting somebody else's name on your book with you is that God
00:04:11.880 | will honor that. Publishers don't like it.
00:04:14.200 | They don't want two names on a book. Well, tell them you're going to be honest
00:04:19.560 | and you wrote this with so-and-so, and then God himself will honor
00:04:25.600 | that truthfulness.
00:04:26.880 | - Yeah, and so for those who are not aware, apparently, from what I gather,
00:04:29.960 | this is a pretty significant problem in the publishing world.
00:04:34.720 | - Evidently. I mean, I don't know them, but I hear that that's the case.
00:04:39.760 | And in fact, there was a scandal some years ago where, I won't name any names,
00:04:46.480 | but a name of a well-known person who has become a leader in the homosexual
00:04:54.520 | movement was found to be a ghost writer who actually wrote the books for three
00:05:00.640 | or four very well-known Christians. And when I heard that, my heart just sank.
00:05:05.880 | It really sank. My estimation of those men's integrity sank several notches.
00:05:12.520 | And, you know, while I'm talking, Tony, one other thing comes to my mind.
00:05:17.920 | I believe that a book or an essay in a book is a craft. It's an art.
00:05:28.120 | When people appreciate writing, they're not appreciating just a nugget
00:05:35.560 | of an idea that have incidental words around it. That's not what's happening.
00:05:41.160 | If this book is well-written, people are enjoying the craft of writing.
00:05:47.600 | And who's getting the credit for the craft? The guy who did not produce
00:05:52.080 | the craft. And that's just wrong. It's wrong for people to be sitting there
00:05:57.040 | saying, "This is really good. This is effective. I'm pleased with this.
00:06:02.120 | I'm enjoying this." And they're thanking God for Pastor So-and-So,
00:06:07.520 | and he didn't have anything to do with that craft. That's just wrong.
00:06:12.520 | Yeah, thank you for that, Pastor John. Thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:06:15.160 | Please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:06:18.960 | At DesiringGod.org, you'll find thousands of other free books and articles,
00:06:22.000 | sermons, and other resources written by John Piper.
00:06:25.520 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.
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