The lesson of Kristi Noem: don’t blame the ghostwriter for factual errors

In South Dakota governor Kristi Noem’s new book No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward, she describes her meeting with a dictator: “I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all).”

State Department experts and congressional staffers suggested that, given North Korea’s pariah status among nations, such a meeting could never have happened secretly, and there was no public record of it.

Soon enough, Noem backtracked (no going back?). Her spokesman said the inclusion of Kim’s name in the list of world leaders she met with was an error. Noem, in an interview on CBS, said, “This anecdote shouldn’t have been in the book, and as soon as it was brought to my attention, I made sure that that was adjusted.” Her spokesman said she had alerted her ghostwriter and editor, implying that the ghostwriter was responsible for the error.

Ghostwriter or not, the author is responsible for a book’s content

This incident is a good opportunity to clarify who is responsible for what when an author and a ghostwriter work together on a ghostwritten book.

The ghostwriter’s job is to reflect the author’s vision in the book. In some cases, that means working from a variety of sources and building the book the author would have wanted (as Ted Sorensen apparently did for John F. Kennedy in Profiles in Courage). In others, the ghostwriter basically takes content or dictation from the author and polishes it into a coherent book. There are all sorts of models in between, with various kinds of contributions from the author and the ghostwriter.

But it’s the author’s name on the book. And that means the author must carefully read everything in the book, make sure it accurately reflects what they want to say, and correct anything that’s in error.

Fact checkers can compare what’s in the manuscript to known and published facts and quotes. But whatever the author recollects from undocumented first-person experiences, the ghostwriter must take at face value. Only the author can confirm the truth of such statements.

In the end, factual errors are ultimately the responsibility of the author, not the ghostwriter. Ghostwriters must strive to accurately reflect what the author believes, but they are not infallible. If the ghostwriter introduces an error due to misinterpreting the author, only the author can catch it.

If you’re not willing to carefully review the work of a ghostwriter, don’t hire one.

Speculating about what happened with No Going Back

In the CBS interview, Noem said “As soon as it was brought to my attention, we went forward and have made some edits.” This makes it sound as if the book was constructed without much input from her, which is odd, since it is, for the most part, a memoir.

Unless the unnamed ghostwriter speaks — which is unlikely, due to confidentiality agreements — we’ll never actually know how Kim Jong Un got into Kristi Noem’s book. But we can guess.

Did the ghostwriter invent this incident? That would be very strange. Ghostwriters work from conversations or communications with the author and other sources. They don’t invent things out of whole cloth. That’s not what authors pay for.

Did Noem actually remember an imaginary meeting with Kim and tell the ghostwriter about it? That’s certainly possible, although it would be very odd. Such a meeting would have been quite memorable.

Did Noem secretly meet with Kim? That’s utterly implausible. She was in Congress. What purpose would Kim have in secretly meeting with a member of the House?

Did Noem describe her attitude about meeting with dictators, including “staring down little tyrants,” and include Kim in a list of dictators? Did the ghostwriter misinterpret that as Noem actually meeting with Kim? Misinterpretations like this do happen in ghostwriting situations, so this scenario is certainly possible.

Because of such misinterpretations, authors must carefully review the drafts that ghostwriters create, well before publication. Ghostwriters are not mind readers. Even if they get nearly everything right, there are going to be errors.

What this means for ghostwriters

And if you are a ghostwriter, like me, here are some things you can do to protect your manuscript’s accuracy, and yourself.

If your author says something that seems implausible, or wrong, get a more detailed explanation. Verify your understanding.

If the author says something that seems factually wrong, check it. I’ve often found errors and erroneous recollections in what authors have told me, and they are grateful to be protected from those errors getting into print.

If the author says something that is going to make them look bad — for example, that they shot a puppy — make very sure that they actually want that in print with their name on it.

And make it clear that you are not infallible, and that the author must verify the accuracy of everything about them in the book. I actually put this in my contract: that the author is responsible for errors, and I will not indemnify them for damages. This protects me, but it also signals to them that accuracy is, ultimately, their responsibility.

Throwing an anonymous ghostwriter under the bus isn’t a real excuse. If the book is wrong, the blame will fall on the author. And that’s how it should be.

Note added May 7: It’s come to my attention that Governor Noem is the narrator of her audiobook. This means that she read the entire book out loud — including the remarks about staring down Kim Jong Un.

So the idea that her ghostwriter misinterpreted her comments about Kim and put them in the book is unlikely. She surely would have noticed that in reading the audiobook.

So we are left with two possibilities: Either she knew it was a lie and didn’t care, or she hallucinated a meeting with Kim Jong Un.

Neither reflects well on Governor Noem.