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Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by satvikpendem on Monday May 10, 2021 @04:20PM (#27110422)
Who says the ghostwriter is not an expert on the topic? The above is quite similar to a startup incubator, there is a demand in the marketplace that's unmet, one hires people to meet that demand and develop a product after which customers buy it.
Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by crucialfelix on Monday May 10, 2021 @04:30PM (#27110542)
$1000 says he isn't.
Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by Zanni on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @07:00AM (#27116537)
At 3 cents/word, not only is the ghostwriter not an expert, they probably aren't even a good writer. That's less than what a decent typist would charge for material that's already written (transcribing from audio or handwritten manuscript).
Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by satvikpendem on Monday May 10, 2021 @04:35PM (#27110589)
Maybe. Looks like the OP says his books are pretty good with high ratings and a high volume of ratings as well, so they must be enjoyable enough to the people who buy them.
Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by w0de0 on Monday May 10, 2021 @05:44PM (#27111242)
I’m sure we can trust the self publisher of a ghostwritten unedited cost-first keyword-selected book to never employ fake reviews. He’s only here to provide what’s best for his customer.
Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by satvikpendem on Monday May 10, 2021 @05:49PM (#27111300)
That's pretty disingenuous to say they employ fake reviews, regardless of whatever your opinions of self publishing are.
Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by chwitters on Saturday May 15, 2021 @03:21PM (#27168068)
Why is it disingenuous? They've literally described a process optimised to produce "passive income" with absolutely no quality control at all.
Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by dotBen on Monday May 10, 2021 @05:27PM (#27111078)
Selection bias. People who see OP's books in the search results and conclude it's a shitty book/something is off/etc are not going to leave a review (on a book they didn't buy) to say so. People who spend $10 and 4hrs of their time are inclined to not want to feel like they just wasted that and so will positively review something to reinforce.
Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by chwitters on Saturday May 15, 2021 @03:24PM (#27168099)
Since the person promoting the book has literally no interest in the content, it doesn't make sense that the writer would be an expert, nor that the book would be any good.

An expert ghostwriter would be undercut by a ghostwriter supplying copy-pasted material just good enough to get past the publisher. A publisher who actually cares about whether or not the book is worthless would outbid this publisher for the skills of the expert.

Re:Ask HN: What passive income investments exist to suppleme... by marmot777 on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @03:30AM (#27115279)
You hire ghostwriters through freelance sites so it’s possible but for sure not a given the ghostwriter will be an expert. It’s more likely the author would do a lot of web searches and cobble something together that’s most likely or some value but it’ll likely be a got-what-you paid for situation.