on Jane Friedman site:

Open by Andre Agassi is one of my favorite books I’ve read in the past few years. Agassi’s tennis memoir details his long emotional road from training as a child under the strict guidance of his father to his hardest-won achievements as a world-renowned tennis icon. Readers of Open are likely to miss one subtle interesting detail about the making of the book. It’s a brief story, buried in the acknowledgments section, about a disagreement between Agassi and his ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer.

Writing the memoir required multiple years of close collaboration between Agassi and Moehringer. As the book neared publication, Agassi wanted Moehringer to receive public credit for all his hard work. Agassi insisted that both their names should appear on the cover.

Moehringer pushed back. He believed Agassi’s name alone should be on the front cover: it was Agassi’s story, after all. All you have to do is glance at the book cover to know Moehringer got his way. But Agassi still wanted to give credit where it was due. This small story about their disagreement, along with a kind note of gratitude from Agassi, is the only appearance of Moehringer’s name in the book.

Sometimes the craft of writing is more important to an author than seeing their name on a book cover. Many successful authors maintain side writing careers, where they can exercise their abilities in a new medium. These side hustles receive far less publicity than their books, and often include less glamorous writing styles such as grant writing, copywriting, and ghostwriting.

Here are three of my favorite examples of authors with secret writing side careers: