Why Prince Harry used a ghostwriter for Spare

I get asked a lot of questions about how ghostwriting works, mainly to do with why ghostwriters exist in the first place.

Ghostwriting, or one ghostwriter in particular, is getting a lot of attention right now, because Prince Harry’s mic-dropping book Spare was written by arguably the best in the business.

JR Moehringer, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, ghostwrote the controversial memoir that is out today, and whose contents were extensively leaked last week after the book was accidentally put on sale in Spain.

But the Duke of Sussex is the author, and it’s his name that appears on the cover of Spare.

Moehringer is the writer behind Andre Agassi’s bestseller Open and also ghostwrote Nike founder Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog. Ghostwriter agent Madeleine Morel says Moehringer is “the pinnacle,” of the profession, according to a piece in The Observer on Sunday.

He’s also written his own memoir, The Tender Bar, which was made into a film by George Clooney in 2021.

How did Prince Harry work with JR Moehringer on Spare?

We now know a lot about Prince Harry’s life, but we know little about the process of writing Spare.

While Prince Harry has done several media interviews about the book, Moehringer is remaining silent which I expect is his preference, as well as being in his contract.

But his role will have been absolutely critical to how the story has been told.

I imagine he will have gently, and sometimes firmly, asked Prince Harry to talk about his feelings about certain topics, as well as his version of what happened.

Emotions, vivid descriptions and details are what bring stories to life and ghostwriters are masters of helping their authors get all of those things on the page.

A professional ghostwriter can steer someone to talking more emotionally and can help them uncover patterns - like therapy

Think about the stories written about Spare so far – the fight with Prince William that Prince Harry says ended with him landing in the dog’s bowl, or the details of Prince Harry losing his virginity which might feel like too much information but are certainly memorable.

These details help readers imagine those scenes in their minds.

And, Moehringer will have overseen the book's structure, opening with the moment Prince Harry was told about the death of his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 2021.

He may have come up with the name Spare, too, given the success of Agassi’s book, with its single-word title that has more than one meaning.

Why do people use ghostwriters? Can’t they just write a book themselves?

It’s generally because they don’t have the skills to write extensively about their own lives, even though they may have plenty of stories to tell, and/or they simply don’t have time.

People also use ghostwriters to help them work out what their story actually is, in a similar way to how a journalist instinctively understands what's interesting about a set of events, or digs under the skin of a topic by asking questions.

Of course a memoir's author has lived their life so they know it best, but a professional ghostwriter can steer them to talking more emotionally about events and can help them uncover patterns in their life that they hadn’t identified before – a little like therapy.

Ghostwriters also help their subjects work out how they’ve changed or what they’ve learned, which readers love to hear about.

I went to a talk by an eminent non-fiction author who ghostwrote a memoir for a British celebrity. The celebrity thought his story was about how he’d got to the top of his game through hard work, but the writer helped him also talk about his relationship with his father, who died in his thirties.

Those details helped the book become a bestseller.

Ghostwriters can bring threads of life together under different themes, and work out when to jump back in time to an extended anecdote, or structure a memoir to make it gripping.

No-one wants to read a book that's so chronological it's like a Wikipedia entry.

Ghostwriters also help their subjects work out how they’ve changed or what they’ve learned, which readers love to hear about.

Who else has used a ghostwriter?

Many big names. Michelle Obama credits several writers in her book, Becoming, while Hilary Clinton worked with Barbara Feinman Todd for It Takes a Village.

How does the ghostwriting process work?

When Moehringer helped Agassi write Open, the process took two years.

They lived close to each other in Las Vegas and would meet and talk over breakfast, according to a piece in The New York Times last week.

Moehringer laid out pages on a long table, which would help him with the book’s structure, according to Agassi, who is quoted in The Times piece.

When I helped entrepreneur Sophie Trelles-Tvede write her memoir, 100 Million Hair Ties and a Vodka Tonic, we spoke for about six days in person, over three trips to Germany where her company’s head office is.

We would sit in her office, her home, or car, or we’d go for a walk, and she would tell me her story.

I would ask questions to make sure I'd understand what she'd said, to try to simplify complex subjects or to uncover emotions.

I asked: “How did you feel?” many times, such as when she described her products being copied, or suspended from Amazon, or when she talked about her Chinese factory being closed down without anyone telling her about it.

Sophie had a good idea of how she wanted her memoir to start and end, and she also wanted it to be a useful business book, so I suggested having three short bullet points at the start of each chapter explaining what she’d learned.

She was also very sarcastic and funny, which made talking to her and helping her craft the story a joy.

After each meeting, I would write several chapters and send them to Sophie in batches. While she reviewed them I'd start on the next set, based on agreed deadlines and wordcounts.

I worked on the book part-time for about six months, and after Sophie submitted the first draft to her publisher it was about another nine months until it was published.

Sophie kindly credited me inside the book, which may or may not happen depending on the contract, or the wishes of the author or ghostwriter.

How can I find out more about ghostwriting?

The prolific ghostwriter Daniel Paisner, who worked with Serena Williams on her autobiography, has a podcast, As Told To, about how writers help people tell their stories.

Paisner interviews writers from Danelle Morton, who has worked with Jane Fonda, to Charles Leerhsen, who wrote a book for Donald Trump. You can find the podcast here.

Madeleine Morel is one of New York’s top agents, matchmaking ghostwriters with authors. Her website explains how to find a ghostwriter.

If you need help with a writing project, email me at [email protected]