Every bestselling author has a secret co-author, sometimes human, sometimes algorithmic.

The Truth They Won’t Tell You at Book Launches

You’ve seen the Instagram reels where a celebrity holds a freshly printed book, the camera zooming in, applause echoing, captions screaming, “My debut memoir is finally here!”

And as the flashbulbs go off, somewhere in a quiet apartment in Mumbai or Gurgaon, the real writer, yes, the ghostwriter, scrolls through that same post, smiles wryly, and returns to their next “confidential” manuscript.

Welcome to the underworld of Indian publishing: where invisible hands write visible bestsellers.

The Ghost in the Bestseller

Ghostwriting in India is not new. What’s new is how widespread and lucrative it’s become.

Behind almost every glossy book cover with a celebrity face is a ghost who’s done the heavy lifting: interviews, structuring, editing, tone-building, and sometimes even the entire manuscript.

You can safely assume:

1. At least 70% of celebrity memoirs in India are ghostwritten.
2. Around half of “business books” and “self-help titles” are co-authored with content specialists or speechwriters.
3. Even some Instagram influencers and politicians hire ghostwriters to “translate” their personalities into prose.

The ghosts stay invisible, but the royalties? Let’s say they don’t always haunt the right bank account.

The Politician’s Autobiography: Written by Committee

Let’s start with the power corridors. From A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s “Wings of Fire” (co-written with Arun Tiwari) to more recent biographies of politicians, most “autobiographies” are team efforts; carefully ghostwritten and fact-checked by speechwriters, aides, and sometimes PR agencies.

The truth: no minister has time to write 80,000 words between cabinet meetings and campaign rallies.

The prose that reads “I was moved by the farmer’s tears…” was likely crafted by a ghost with a deadline, three cups of black coffee, and a mandate to sound empathetic yet electable.

The Celebrity Chef Cookbook: More Than Just Recipes

India’s celebrity chef books are another deliciously ghosted genre.

Many top cookbooks by TV personalities are penned (and tested) by food stylists, copy editors, and culinary writers who remain uncredited.

From measuring salt to seasoning the tone, these ghosts ensure the recipe reads as beautifully as it tastes.

(And yes, most of those poetic intros about “grandmother’s kitchen aromas” were added in the final draft by someone who’s never met the grandmother.)

The Cricketer’s Memoir: Teamwork Off the Field

The sports shelf tells a similar story.

India’s cricket memoirs, from Sachin Tendulkar’s “Playing It My Way” (written with Boria Majumdar) to Sourav Ganguly’s “A Century Is Not Enough” (with Gautam Bhattacharya), are essentially ghostwriting collaborations.

Ghostwriters here are part interviewer, part therapist.

They listen to locker-room anecdotes, decode raw emotion, and then stitch it all together into elegant English.

The player’s words? Yes. The writer’s craftsmanship? Absolutely.

The Influencer’s Book: When Instagram Became a Publishing House

In the age of filters and followers, even books are now built for the ‘Gram.

India’s influencer boom has given rise to a new genre: “motivational memoirs” and “feel-good handbooks.”

You’ve seen those colourful covers, cursive titles, and pastel hashtags.

However, many of these “books by influencers” are actually co-written by content strategists and copy editors hired by agencies or publishers.

The influencer provides the vibe. The ghost offers the verbs.

The AI Co-Author: Ghostwriting Just Got Digital

Here’s the newest twist: ghostwriters now have their own ghosts.

AI tools like ChatGPT, Sudowrite, and Jasper are being used widely in Indian publishing houses to generate ideas, improve pacing, and even create chapter summaries.

Some editors quietly admit that early drafts of lifestyle or productivity books are often AI-assisted before being refined by humans.

In short, even the ghost has started outsourcing.

The Economics of Being Invisible

Ghostwriting in India can pay anywhere between ₹50,000 for a small project to ₹10–15 lakhs for a celebrity memoir.

The top publishing houses maintain confidential rosters of ghostwriters who sign NDAs stronger than nuclear treaties...No, really, trust me on that..

The perks?

1. You get paid upfront.
2. You get to write for high-profile names.
3. You (sometimes) get a quiet “thank you” in the acknowledgements section.

The catch?

You can’t tell anyone you wrote it. Ever.

It’s the literary equivalent of dating a celebrity who pretends you don’t exist in public.

The Irony of Fame

The funny part?

The ghosts often write better books than the “authors” they write for.

But the market loves names, not nuance.

As one senior editor from Penguin India told me (off record):

“Readers don’t buy books, they buy people. And our job is to make those people sound book-worthy.”

So Who Really Writes India’s Bestsellers?

If you look closely, India’s bestseller lists are like Bollywood credits; half the cast is missing.

There’s the author, the editor, the PR, the stylist; and somewhere in between, a tired ghostwriter holding a cup of cold chai, quietly smiling.

And as AI tools become better, even the ghosts might soon have their own AI co-ghosts.

Imagine: “Written by X, with assistance from Y, edited by Z, powered by GPT.”

That’s the new publishing trinity: Ghosts, Gods, and Gram.

Epilogue from a Ghost

If you’ve ever read a book by your favourite cricketer, politician, or influencer and thought,

“Wow, I didn’t know they could write this well!”

Now you know, they probably didn’t.

But somewhere, a ghost did.

And we’re okay with that.

After all, the best stories don’t care who gets the credit as long as they’re told.