Ghostwriting a billion yuan industry in China

Ghostwriting a billion yuan industry in China

Staff Reporter

2013-09-26

To facilitate their career development, growing numbers of Chinese officials are publishing articles ghostwritten on their behalf. The face-boosting tactic has led to a covert industry with an annual output value that reached 1 billion yuan (US$163 million) in 2009. Liu Qiang, 33, a technician at a government agency in the capital of Inner Mongolia, is a typical example. In July, responding to an annual company evaluation requirement from his agency for at least one published article, Liu secured secured the services of local magazine Digitalized Subscriber to ghostwrite and publish an article with his byline. Many people have made a profession from writing papers and arranging their publication for others, the Party-run China Youth Daily said.The demand for such services comes mainly from government officials and is connected usually with the annual personnel evaluation, which grades academic achievement, competence and job performance. High marks are critical for promotion.

According to China Youth Daily, an editorial staff member of the Digitalized Subscriber said the magazine offers a paid service for writing and publishing papers at a fixed rate of 300 yuan (US$49) for contract writing or 800 yuan (US$130) for running a work in the magazine. “Virtually every contract writer copies others, but it is tolerable as long as the copied parts don’t exceed 25% of the total content,” said the editor.

For the same purpose, the chief nurse of a hospital in Inner Mongolia recently paid a local health magazine 1,000 yuan (US$160) for an article.

A contract writer searches online for articles on the topic before boiling them down to the essentials and paraphrasing them, spicing them up with the occasional fresh viewpoint. The result is a borrowed masterpiece.

He noted that such a practice is an open secret in the field, including the government officials responsible for reviewing the articles.

Brokers have emerged in response to the demand, serving as a bridge between buyers, ghostwriters and companies trading in articles. The game is extensive, covering government but also graduate dissertations and academic articles. Publications offering such writing services are mostly professional, including magazines in the fields of medicine, agriculture, sci-tech and education, said the report. A magazine can run over 100 articles an issue and pocket 40,000 yuan (US$6,500) from the space set aside for paid articles. Depending on the frequency of publication, magazines set to make 500,000-1 million yuan (US$80,000-$160,000) a period.

The underground industry chain is extensive, involving trading firms, contract writers, brokers, professional websites and periodicals, said the report.