A ghostwriter is a person who writes books, articles, stories, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. The actual author may not be publicly known for various reasons and the ghostwriter's name appears instead on the work.
Ghostwriters might be employed by publishing companies in order to provide authors with text that meets their expectations and deadlines; they will typically do research and create an outline of the work before handing it off to the author. Many celebrities also hire ghostwriters so they can focus on other aspects of their careers while someone else takes care of writing their novels or songs for them. This can lead to controversy if there is a dispute over what should have been credited as being written by the celebrity themselves versus what was actually written by.