Perhaps, if said author is able to produce the whole book such that it can be copyrighted, find a way to publish it independently, and defend their copyright if

Perhaps, if said author is able to produce the whole book such that it can be copyrighted, find a way to publish it independently, and defend their copyright if a publisher likes the idea and gets something similar enough to not quite be considered the same thing ghostwritten. This may occasionally be feasible, although it does require considerable capital or the help of someone else who has it. At the end of the day, right now getting a good deal out of IP still requires finding someone to work with you that you can trust, or having a lot of money to start out with