There's a spectrum. From writing and publishing yourself, o having it edited by the publisher, to having a co-writer, to having it written "as told to", to unacknowleged collaborator, to putting yor name on a book entirely written by someone else.
General Rule: if the other guy's name is on the cover, he's a co-writer.
To say that this means Paula Broadwell isn't a writer is to say the same about Tom Clancy (where did all these worms come from?)
When I ask if she isn’t a writer, I mean a professional writer. I had heard her say this biography was an extension of her thesis paper. Can I assume, also, that she hasn’t published before? That brings up the question of what it is she was doing before, besides going to school, and why it is she got a book deal if she is an unknown and had a ghostwriter.
Obviously having a ghostwriter doesn’t mean you’re not an author. I didn’t imply it did. But there’s an obvious reason whysomeone would publish a Tom Clancy no matter who actually wrote what’s inside. His name sells. My question is why this woman was published, and if she didn’t write it what she does. Maybe she wrote some or mist of it, and the ghost merely helped. The question of why she’s being published and whether she is an actual writer or some sort of interloper remains.