美國前總統歐巴馬出版了一本名為《A Promised Land》的新書，美加第一天面市就出售了將近89萬本，似乎可能成為最佳銷量的前總統自傳。
這則消息讓我想起以前我買的一本柯林頓自傳。由於相隔很長一段時間了，我祇記得他當選總統和宣誓就任的片段，其餘的文章就是流水帳，我都是趁觀看紀錄片的時候隨便亂翻就翻完整本書了。簡單來說，這些聘請影子作者幫前首長寫的所謂自傳，其實不算精彩。以前我翻過南非前總統曼德拉的自傳，情況也是差不多。
若說政治人物的傳記，最精彩當屬英國歷史傳記作家Anthony Seldon。我讀了好幾本Seldon有關英國前首相布萊爾的傳記，記事之詳盡、敘述之精彩、英式英文之優雅，實在讀得過癮。說穿了，英式英文還是更勝一籌。
由於文案寫作的市場上還是會出現影子寫作的機會，想要接案的影子作者若不知道如何拿捏寫作方向，大可參考美國出版的自傳，因為美式英文還是比較簡單，影子寫手比較容易上手而且讀者也比較容易閱讀。
Former US president Barack Obama published his memoir A Promised Land, which was sold for nearly 890,000 copies in US and Canada on the first day. It seems like it is going to be the best selling memoir of a former US president.
This news reminded me of a Bill Clinton’s autobiography that I bought many years ago. I can only remember the stories about his winning of presidential election and taking the oath of office. Subsequent chapters were only day-to-day accounts during his years in office. I was skimming through the pages while I was watching documentaries. To put it simply, the so-called autobiographies most likely written by ghost writers are actually not interesting. I had skimmed through autobiography of former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela and the dull reading experience was about the same.
Speaking of biographies of politicians, the greatest writer is Anthony Seldon, the authority in writing British political biographies. I read several Seldon’s books on former British prime minister Tony Blair. I really enjoyed his works for the detailed records of how things unfold, the narration of the stories, and the elegance of British English writing style. Which shows that British English is still better for reading.
Opportunities to ghostwrite are available in the copywriting market. For ghostwriters who wish to take up the projects but are unsure about the writing direction, they can always take autobiographies published in US as a reference. Writing in a style similar to US English is easier for writers to learn the writing style and for readers to read.
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