How different is a ghostwriter from a normal writer

When I first heard the word ghost writer I thought of a mysterious sort of writer with some kind of ghostly ability. Yet I was mistaken, thank Goodness. In reality, one of the very few times I was happy to be mistaken. And it turns out that ghost writing is different from normal writing mainly that a ghost writer is working for someone else and is not taking credit for the completed piece of work. A regular writer should. A typical writer can even become a ghostwriter if they work for someone else and don’t use their own name as the book’s publisher. Is it nice to be a ghost writer?