From William Schaberg's Writing The Big Book, Page 317-318:

Getting Stories From Akron

The Personal Stories section was supposed to make up at least half of the book, and with the majority of those recoveries living in Ohio, it was essential that they be written and sent to Bill as soon as possible so they could be added to the growing manuscript. By way of setting a good example, Bob Smith wrote his own story; however most of the Ohio members were simply not willing to take the time or make the effort to commit their recovery stories to paper...  

It is almost certain that [a] small handful of personally written stories were among the first sent off to Bill in late October 1938. But most of the Akron members just could not be moved; they had no intention of participating in the book project. "There was quite a bit of argument about [the stories] as I recall," Sue Smith Windows said, and Dorothy Snyder confirms this, claiming that the fall of 1938 was a "time of real serious contention" in Ohio. "There was so much controversy over the book,: she said, and such direct opposition to the entire project by a significant number of people, that there was a real fear that "the whole Akron group was going to break up over" the argument.

Dr. Bob Finds a Writer to Produce More Stories

According to Dorothy, Dr. Bob was "in great grief" over this major disagreement and completely at a loss over what more he could possibly do to move the stories project forward. Then Smith got a lucky break that he quickly turned to his own advantage. He "found a bum down on Akron skid row who had been a newspaper man and quite a famous one in his time - Jim Scott." ... [Dr. Bob] felt if he could "only straighten Jim up, he would really be able to help" him geet the personal stories written; stories that, by now, Bill Wilson was constantly nagging him about...

Over the nest few months, if your name was on Bob Smith's list of targeted writers and you had not yet submitted your story, he would, as one Akron veteran put it, send Jim Scott over to sit down and "listen to you recite your story", after which Jim would go back home and "write it up for you." If the Akron drunks weren't willing to take the time to compose their own stories, then the version produced by a well-informed professional writer would just have to do. Dr. Bob was at first unsure whether or not this ghostwriting arrangement would be acceptable to Bill, but when he told him about the plan, Wilson approved of it. He was in favor of whatever it would take to get the stories actually written and mailed off to him in New York.

Jim Scott was "always careful to leave the flavor, the character of the person" in the stories he was writing. At times this must have been a real challenge, because even this "easier, softer way" of getting things down on paper was not without its share of serious problems. Some people were still so categorically opposed to the whole project that, according to one early Akron member, the ghostwriting often involved Jim Scott having to "drag it out of these poor fellows" before he could get enough material to create a coherent narrative.