Here's a shocking revelation: Behind every celebrity book is an exhausted and often shell-shocked writer. Author Diane Clehane reveals some of the pitfalls of collaborating with a famous person on a book:

Lesson #4 "Collaborator" is a misnomer. You're a hired gun.

Only the most deluded scribes believe writing a book with a celebrity is a fifty-fifty proposition. You've signed on to do most - if not all -- of the work. Sure, they have to talk about themselves into a tape recorder. Not exactly heavy lifting.

In the case of celeb biographies or memoirs, the star does actually have to do a great deal of work. No getting around it. Hours of interviews. Digging out official documents in order to accurately tell their stories. Okay, that's their assistant's job - but still. It's up to you to ask the right questions, always dig deeper than the star wants to go to get the "good stuff" all the while cajoling the now almost always distracted star into staying focused and not blowing you off because they've now become bored with the process. Writing a work of fiction with (or for, which is always ghosted) is a far dicier proposition.

More here.