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For the Wales international footballer see Andrew Crofts (footballer)
Andrew Crofts | |
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| Born | 1953 (age 71–72) |
| Occupation | Author |
Andrew Crofts (born 1953) is a British ghostwriter. [1] In 2014, he published a memoir, Confessions of a Ghostwriter (The Friday Project). Although the book contains anecdotes about the ghostwriting profession, The Daily Telegraph noted that "when it comes to famous clients, he is as silent as Jeeves".
Crofts was born in 1953 in England and educated at Lancing College.[ citation needed ]
He moved to London at the age of 17 and took a variety of jobs to support himself while establishing a career as a freelance writer; this included a stint running a modelling agency in Bond Street. During this time, he submitted work to various magazines and publishers. For a number of years, he worked as a freelance business journalist and later as a travel writer, spending time in the Far East, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific.
In 2006, his name was linked to a book by the Big Brother winner Pete Bennett, who wrote about his childhood and Tourette syndrome in Pete: My Story (HarperCollins).
In 2007, the thriller writer Robert Harris quoted Crofts's ghostwriting book at the start of every chapter of his bestselling novel The Ghost . The book was subsequently adapted into a film by Roman Polanski, with Ewan McGregor playing the ghostwriter. Crofts commented that The Ghost was "a gift from the gods. Harris did us all a huge favour." [2]
Crofts's ghostwriting career has involved writing for dictators, politicians, arms dealers, and billionaires, as well as visits to palaces and tax havens in Monaco and Bermuda. His experiences led to Secrets of the Italian Gardener, a novel set inside a dictator's palace during the Arab Spring, narrated by the dictator's ghostwriter. The same character features in a second novel by Crofts, What Lies Around Us. In this sequel, the narrator becomes embroiled in the American celebrity political scene when paid a million dollars by a Silicon Valley billionaire to ghostwrite the autobiography of a Hollywood superstar.
Crofts's fees are substantial, reputed to average six figures. [2] He has said that because a ghostwriter has no need to invent plots or do lengthy research, "it is perfectly feasible to produce four books a year." [3]
Pete Bennett caused controversy at the time of his book's publication by admitting to a journalist for The Guardian that he had not read the book he was supposed to have written.
Speculation has circulated regarding other titles and the extent of Crofts's input in their creation. This was particularly noted after Robert Harris's book The Ghost was widely presumed to be based on Tony Blair; Blair has always stated that he did not use a ghostwriter for his own autobiography.
Through his blog, Crofts has been a vocal champion of electronic publishing for authors and self-publishing for those who need their books published privately. He was one of the first ghostwriters to launch his own website. [2] In 2012, he joined the Management Committee of the Society of Authors.
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