Meet the anonymous ghostwriter of OAKDALE CONFIDENTIAL, a tie-in novel celebrating the 50th anniversary of AS THE WORLD TURNS. He/She has a new blog where he/she talks about the wonderful world of ghostwriting and tie-ins (and no, it’s not me). What’s unusual about this particular tie-in is that the book itself has become a plot point in the show:
…the characters of fictional
Oakdale USA are going to be all up in arms, wondering who wrote this
scandalous, sexy, anonymous novel. The story will play out on air for
weeks, and eventually lead to many complications in the lives of
Oakdale’s favorite couples. I know who really wrote “Oakdale
Confidential.” But it’s doubtful I’ll ever get the chance to jump up
and down yelling, “Me, me, me, it was me, send the kudos this way!”I
don’t mind. I knew what I was getting into and I’m proud of my work as
well as the show it’s associated with. But a nameless, faceless writer
needs some forum in which to blow off the steam of keeping their
identity a secret…[…]In addition to ghost-writing "Oakdale Confidential," I am also blogging as Katie, the on-the-show writer, on Amazon.
[…]And when I’m not being Katie, I am blogging as Luke, a sixteen year old boy agonizing over how to come out to his parents, the show’s supercouple, Holden and Lily Snyder.
This is one busy ghost.
I hope this ghost-writer isn’t being paid in ghost dollars.
What ATWT is doing with the book tie in is not new (though not that common, either).
One Life to Live, which I worked on a few years ago as a writers’ intern, did it first, with a book called “The Killing Club” that the Marcy character wrote, based on the people (OLTL characters) she knew. Of course, she ended up revealing secrets about them and it got her into a whole lot of trouble.