Is the Andromeda Strain good? I have heard about it.
The movie isn't bad either.
I'd definitely skip reading anything newer than Lost World. Like Tom Clancy, at some point (and $) you lose the fire to write.
See "The Art of the Deal". He says he wrote it. He genuinely believes he wrote it. Some people think talking to the ghostwriter, giving them the broad strokes and signing off on the final work, constitutes 'writing a book'. It is not that different than saying "I built a hotel".
She vehemently denies it. Quoting an interview at https://www.goodreads.com/interviews/show/608.Danielle_Steel :
> Goodreads Author Patti Roberts would like to know if you work with a ghostwriter.
> DS: It's a shocking question. I've been asked by my fans, "Who writes your books? Does someone help you?" And I said something to my editor not long ago, "It's so insulting that people would even say that." She said, "Yeah, but you are one of the few authors left who doesn't use somebody." There is a very, very famous best-selling author who has apparently eight writers. He writes the outlines, gives them chapters to write, and doesn't write his own books—I was so shocked. And there is not just one. I don't know if the public knows that or not. Maybe I'm the last idiot on the planet, up until 4:30 in the morning typing my own work. It's just incredible. Then you are not a writer; you are some sort of scriptwriter. Nobody writes my stuff. I find it a shocking concept. It's different if a celebrity wants to write their memoirs, and they have no writing ability. OK, then they use a ghostwriter. Otherwise it's like becoming a tennis pro and having a stunt double. What's the point of that?
She's also well known for her decades-long habit of spending 20 hours a day working on a book.
This comment: "at some point (and $) you lose the fire to write."
I had noticed the same thing with another author. And at the time I was working with Jerry Pournelle[1] helping him with things he didn't need or want to do with his BYTE column. I asked Jerry about it. His response was fairly enlightening so I share it here.
Jerry said that writers were arrogant, and in their arrogance they despise editors because editors tell them what they wrote doesn't read well, or isn't necessary for the story, or has the wrong character point of view and demand that the writer rewrite it. When a writer is young and hungry, they do this because they have to, if they don't they won't get published. But if they become successful, they get more sway with the publisher. At some point they have enough sway to override what the editor says and have them publish it the way they wrote it. And that is when you find out if they are a good writer, or if they are only a good story teller and without an editor their writing is sub par.
That made so much sense to me at the time and it was also the basis for Jerry's oft used phrase which was the secret of good writing was re-writing.
Were they the main component of success? Or simply the most visible participant?
My rationale has always been that writing (or art in general) is hard. And that people are lazy. And that few people able to afford not working hard are still willing to pursue it with the same dedication.
But I really like your idea too. "The invisible team" makes a lot of sense.
Extant (2104-2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3155320/