The website Pimp My Wry (written by Kim Ficera) coined the term “fauxthor” (faux author) on May 14, 2009. The term refers to a politician or celebrity who “authors” a book—that’s actually almost entire ghostwritten for the person whose famous name appears on that book.
 
Hillary Clinton’s book It Takes a Village (1996) was mostly written by ghostwriter Barbara Feinman. Sarah Palin’s book Going Rogue (2009) was also written with a professional writer’s help.
 
The term “fauxthor” was entered into the Urban Dictionary by Pimp My Wry on June 25, 2009.
 
 
Urban Dictionary
Fauxthor   
Someone, usually a celebrity or politician, who has a story to tell, but isn’t smart enough to tell it without the help of a collaborator or ghost writer. Often, a fauxthor neglects to thank his/her collaborator on the acknowledgment page of the very book the collaborator wrote, and that makes him/her an asshat.
For example, Hillary Clinton, so-called ‘author’ of the bestseller “It Takes A Village,” took all the glory that came with the success of that book, but she didn’t acknowledge her ghostwriter Barbara Feinman in its pages at all. That makes Clinton a fauxthor (and, by extension, an asshat).
by Pimp My Wry Jun 25, 2009
     
Pimp My Wry
May 14, 2009
Sarah Palin — The Next Best-Selling ‘Fauxthor’
So, Sarah Palin has landed a book deal with Harper Collins. She won’t write her own memoir — she’ll have help from a “collaborator,” someone capable of writing readable paragraphs — but she’s got a deal, nonetheless. And the moment the book is released next spring it will be a bestseller.
(...)
Why is it perfectly acceptable for famous people to be called “authors” when they’re not really authors at all, when they’re just popular people with notes and tape recorders — recognizable folks who have stories to tell but can’t tell them without a lot of help? Why is there a market for this phony-baloney practice in the writing world when it wouldn’t be tolerated in the music and art worlds?
(...)
Clinton is only one example, of course. There are thousands (tens, hundreds of thousands, perhaps?) of these ... these ... FAUXthors. And fauxthors is exactly what I’m going to call them all from now one, because artificial is precisely what they are.
 
BlogHer
Sarah Palin — The Next Best-Selling ‘Fauxthor’
by KimF
So, Sarah Palin has landed a book deal with Harper Collins. She won’t write her own memoir — she’ll have help from a “collaborator,” someone capable of writing readable paragraphs — but she’s got a deal, nonetheless. And the moment the book is released next spring it will be a bestseller.
(...)
Submitted by KimF (view blog) on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 2:23pm
 
Pimp My Wry
Fauxthor Sarah Palin’s Writing Tips, Letterman-Style
Sarah Palin’s memoir “Going Rogue” is set to hit bookstores in November, and I can’t wait. I’m almost as excited about it as David Letterman, who shared the fauxthor’s top ten tips for writing a book with viewers last night: (Video follows—ed.)