It’s common knowledge now that Michael Gruber has been ghosting Robert Tanenbaum’s legal thirllers… because Gruber is telling everybody about it. This week, Gruber is interviewed in Publisher’s Weekly, the industry trade magazine, and discussing his ghosting days in detail.
Gruber and Tanenbaum’s mothers are sisters and raised their sons in New York
together. Tanenbaum went on to become a successful trial lawyer, and when one of
his cases became nationally famous, the publishing house Franklin Watts (now a
division of Scholastic) asked him to write a novel about his legal adventures.
Knowing his cousin could write, Tanenbaum contacted Gruber. "He called me up,"
Gruber remembers, "and said, ‘I’ve written a hundred pages. Would you have a
look at it?’ " Gruber hesitates before explaining his reaction to Tanenbaum’s
hundred pages. "It was the kind of novel by somebody who doesn’t know anything
about writing novels," he says diplomatically. "So I called him, and I said,
‘This is unsalvageable. It’s not a novel, it has no characters, no plot,
nothing.’ He said, ‘What should I do?’ I said, ‘Look, for half the advance, I’ll
write your novel.’ On the basis of that we got another contract, for a lot more
money. And so I went into business."
In the acknowledgements of Tanenbaum’s bestselling "Butch Karp" novels, he always thanked Gruber, who ghosted over a dozen novels for his cousin. The partnership began to fall apart when Gruber tired of sharing the cash and not the credit.
The cousins became "somewhat estranged" when Gruber said he wanted to have a
relationship with Tanenbaum’s publisher (previously, Gruber didn’t interact at
all with any editor or publisher). This didn’t go over well with Tanenbaum, and
when, thanks to Gruber’s pressuring, Tanenbaum revised his contract so that it
would have Gruber’s name in it, Gruber had to agree that he wouldn’t make any
claim for copyright, and tensions increased."It’s very sad," Gruber laments. "You can imagine, being a writer, you write
all these books, but you never experience the life of a writer." He lays out one
scenario: "You’re at a party, and you say, ‘I’m a writer.’ Someone says, ‘Oh,
have you been published?’ ‘Yeah, I have seven million books in print.’ ‘Really?
What’s your name?’ ‘Oh, I don’t publish under my own name.’ "Resolved, published in 2003, was the last Tanenbaum book Gruber was
involved in (though Tanenbaum continues to publish books, the most recent of
which, Hoax, received mostly tepid reviews). Their relationship now?
Gruber answers, "Zero."
Gruber’s first novel under his own name was TROPIC OF NIGHT, a thriller that has sold 300,000 copies in hardcover and paperback. His new novel VALLEY OF BONES is getting a big push from his publisher (hence the profile in PW and full page ad) and a 100,000 copy first printing. Alerting the fans of Tanenbaum’s books that they were actually written by Gruber can’t hurt his sales, either. Although the publisher decided not to refer to Gruber’s relationship with Tanenbaum in any of their publicity material, that didn’t stop Gruber from making sure word got out.
Personally, I think Gruber should have kept his mouth shut. He made a deal with Tanenbaum to ghost his books and was paid handsomely for it… to reveal the arrangement now seems malicious, self-serving, and unprofessional to me. Everybody loses… Tanenbaum, his readers, and Gruber, who comes off as a jerk.
I wonder who is writing Tanenbaum’s books now…. heard any rumors?
I’m surprised, as candid as Gruber was in telling his story, he didn’t go into further detail over what actually caused the estrangement–I’m guessing he shopped what became TROPIC OF NIGHT first to S&S and Tanenbaum didn’t like it.
Personally, I don’t think Gruber comes off like a jerk. Unfortunately, I think this story is a bitter illustration of the perils of mixing professional and personal relationships. The repercussions don’t just extend to the two cousins here, but likely to a whole host of extended families.
Hopefully they’ll make it up before one of them dies.
Why should Gruber have kept his mouth shut? I only wonder that he went with this scheme for so long. He writes the books, he’s due the credits, in my opinion. In his stead I had cancelled this relationship after the first two or three books sold well, and had told the publisher that it was me who wrote them, and then had started to write under my own name. If Tanenbaum did nothing but give his name and negotiate the contracts, he should have come clean then as well and started to act as his cousin’s agent. For me the shame lies on Tanenbaum’s side for exploiting his cousin’s talents for so long. I hope that Gruber – the real talent – will sell many books under his own name.
kete
Gruber knew exactly what he was getting into when he made the deal with Tanenbaum. He was being paid to ghost the novels under Tanenbaum’s name.
Gruber wasn’t exploited. No one forced him into ghost writing servitude. Rememeber, Gruber suggested the arrangement to Tanenbaum in the first place. To go back now, and claim credit for the work is unprofessional and, in my mind, aimed at humiliating Tanenbaum (which is why I think Gruber comes off as a jerk in the article).
I know several ghostwriters and the number one rule is never, ever, take credit for work you were paid NOT to take credit for. That’s the deal.
I know a ghostwriter who has written all the novels for a someone who is considered a hugely successful mystery writer…and he has never taken credit and never will, certainly not as long as the “author” is still alive. To me, that is professionalism…at least on the ghostwriter’s part. Obviously, I think the hugely successful mystery author is a fraud and a clown and can’t believe he actually goes to signings and does interviews talking about how hard it is to write the novels…
To learn more about the life of a ghostwriter, I heartily recommend Donald Bain’s lively and entertaining memoir “Every Midget Has An Uncle Sam Costume.”
Uh, Lee. Jessica Fletcher is a fictious character. I already knew her books were ghost written. 🙂
—Gruber knew exactly what he was getting into when he made the deal with Tanenbaum. He was being paid to ghost the novels under Tanenbaum’s name.—
But he probably couldn’t know, when he offered his help for half the advance, that the novel would be so successful that he would have to write on and on and on – whithout ever being able to take credit. So, I think it’s understandable that this frustrated him later on. I don’t know what his RL job is/was, but most likely he didn’t dream of a career as a ghostwriter.
—Gruber wasn’t exploited. No one forced him into ghost writing servitude. Rememeber, Gruber suggested the arrangement to Tanenbaum in the first place. To go back now, and claim credit for the work is unprofessional and, in my mind, aimed at humiliating Tanenbaum (which is why I think Gruber comes off as a jerk in the article).—
Well, we don’t know what went on between the two cousins. If Tanenbaum behaved like the author you describe, going to book signings and complaining about creative stress, then I can understand that this might have annoyed Gruber very much.
—I know several ghostwriters and the number one rule is never, ever, take credit for work you were paid NOT to take credit for. That’s the deal.—
OK, you have a point here, I admit. That’s why I would have severed the bond after the first two or three books and started my own business. Under these circumstances the publisher would have been the only one who had to know about my authorship and one could have left the initial ghostwritten books well enough alone.
—I know a ghostwriter who has written all the novels for a someone who is considered a hugely successful mystery writer…and he has never taken credit and never will, certainly not as long as the “author” is still alive. To me, that is professionalism…at least on the ghostwriter’s part. Obviously, I think the hugely successful mystery author is a fraud and a clown and can’t believe he actually goes to signings and does interviews talking about how hard it is to write the novels…—
I wonder how idiotic one must feel signing books one hasn’t written. I mean, I can understand using a ghostwriter writing for someone who has nothing to sell but his/her famous name – but going on to do so for a string of novels…? Very bad style, in my opinion.
—To learn more about the life of a ghostwriter, I heartily recommend Donald Bain’s lively and entertaining memoir “Every Midget Has An Uncle Sam Costume.”—
Thank you for the recommendation.
kete
I guess the industry pretty much accepts the ethics of ghosting.It is a deceit, however. Nobody minds, thouhgh until someone loses their eye. This Gruber-Tanenbaum thing illustrates the line: O what a tangled web we weave, etc.
Im sure lots of series switch ghostwriters in mid-stream but maybe they are more of the pulp fiction genre where it’s easier to pick up the style.
Gruber evolved quite a unique style and also–particularly appealing to me–a growing interest in mysticism thru the Lucy character. The plots were getting a little far-fetched–the hillbilly gang and the
Muslim terrorists for example. But the characters and believably corrupt world of Manhattan legal politics made up for it. I’m going to miss Lucy, though I enjoyed Gruber’s first novel under his own name.
How do you find out how many copies of a book are sold? I’m wriitng an article on the tanenbaum thing for a local paper’s book page and I’d like to chart the sales of the karp series, especially if sales declined with Hoax.
Part of Gruber’s contract all the way back to No Lesser Plea was that he never signed a gag clause, thus allowing him to speak freely about being the writer.
Keep in mind that tannenbaum had everybody thinking he wrote these books. It wasn’t very pleasant. Let’s just leave it at that.
I don’t see why there has to be some “moral necessity” for a ghost writer to be silent, can you? I mean, if there is a legal necessity, that is different. When a person writes a screenplay, just because someone else may take the screen credit for a “rewrite” doesn’t mean that the original story writer can’t go “Yes, he got the credit, though I did get paid to write the script.”
The ghostwriter is an employee of the person he ghostwrites for, but every contract is different, and so is every partnership. Sometimes I imagine these things must go by very smoothly. “I will pay you $50,000 to write my next book.” Happens all the time, who cares.
However, in the Tanenbaum case, where he was not only lying about having written the books (I agree with kete a couple posts back that this is unscrupulous) to his fans and the talk show circuit, but to the editors and publishers?! Give me a break. Also, this isn’t like a one hit thing. Gruber wrote for RKT for fifteen years, and was apparently never mentioned to the publisher or editor.
In a more professional relationship, the ghost writer is treated with a slight inkling of respect and is allowed to have dialogue with the publishers and editors, at least for the sake of the quality of the book!
Michael Gruber is Robert Tanenbaum, the Sequel
Jules Older writes in San Francisco Magazine this month that he was a huge fan of lawyer-turned-novelist Robert Tanenbaum’s thrillers, often re-reading favorite passages again and again. But Older was more than a little shocked to discover the author he
I disagree with those who think it’s ok for Tanenbaum to pretend he wrote all the Karp books.
Someone goes out and spends twenty plus bucks for a new Tanenbaum hardcover they have every right to expect that they’re purchasing the author who wrote all the marvelous preceding Karp books. It’s fraud anyway you look at it.
Amazing how easily people give dishonesty a pass.
Billy Miles
The Witch’s Boy by Michael Gruberwas my favorite book because it is a fantasy novel that also includes many kinds of fairy tails in it.