I suppose it could be a book about ghosts, but if you are a librarian, “a ghost book” refers to a book that does not really exist, despite the fact that its presence has been widely reported and people want to read it.
How could such a thing happen? If an author has contracted for a series of books, sometimes those unwritten books are given names and entered into publisher’s catalogs or even advertisements in the back of books. If the author dies, those books are unlikely ever to be written, but there are fans out there clamoring for the title. I remember reading a huge, sprawling historical epic by Thomas Tryon called Wings of the Morning (1990). It was a magnificent tour de force set in early America, and had a follow-up title called In the Fires of Spring (1992) that ends with a huge cliff-hanger and word that another book would be coming soon. I can remember haunting bookstores in hopes of getting my hands on the next book, which I believed was going to be called Kingdom Come.
I waited and waited. The title appeared in forthcoming books catalogs, but it never appeared in libraries or bookstores. I ultimately learned that the author had died and the sad fact that Kingdom Come would never be published. Oh, cruel world! Kingdom Come was forever destined to be nothing more than a ghost book.
Another explanation for ghost books are titles that are mentioned in works of fiction, but don’t really exist. In 1924 H.P. Lovecraft wrote The Hound, which makes reference to a book called The Necronomicon, supposedly a text about black magic. For all the kids who get enchanted with Lovecraft’s work and come looking for The Necronomicon ….sorry, it is a ghost book as well.
One interesting twist on ghost books is when a publisher decides to take it out of ghost status and make it real.
The Love Dare is a bestselling book that was inspired by a journal that appears in the 2008 movie Fireproof. In the movie, a man is in a faltering marriage, but his father loans him a journal called “The Love Dare,” which is a series of challenges to help rekindle a relationship. Anticipating demand for “The Love Dare,” the producers of the movie commissioned a book with the same themes and challenges as presented in the movie. The Love Dare entered the NYT bestseller list at number 2, and escaped ghost book status.
Photo courtesy of ihave3kids