Celebrity Books

[Urien]

It seems a famous name can sell anything; now we have celebrities "writing" (mostly ghostwritten) novels. They outsell most professional authors. The article below is a good insight into how celebrity seems to trump everything:

Celebrity novels? I'm lost for words - Telegraph

I must confess to a sort of hollow despair on reading this. This was compounded by an advert for a well known UK store on TV that show cased their books for Christmas; all save one (Dan Brown) were celebrity written (ghosted) books.

 

[The Judge]

Do. Not. Get. Me. Started. On. This. One.

*sound of screaming*

It's bad enough the morons can't write their own f***ing memoirs, for pity's sake. That they should be paid for not writing their novels...

*sound of men arriving to cart the Judical One off to a nice quiet padded room*

J

 

[Ursa major]

* Wishes TJ a quick recovery. *


While I'm as dismayed by Sleb books as the next person, at least the book has to be written, which presumably means that a writer is able to make a (modest?) living from their work.

I assume that those who purchase these volumes would not buy a "proper" book and are only persuaded to part with their money because of the Sleb's involvement, so it could be bringing revenue into the publishers. Whether the revenue covers the advance, though, I can't say.


Having never purchased one of these books, I would also assume the standard is low; most of these books are going to be bought regardless of their quality, so the writers are not going to go the extra mile to make them the best that they can. (Or are they?)



EDIT: Having now read more of the linked article o), I see that some writers make more than a modest living from their efforts.

 

[Boneman]

Well, if ever you wanted to truly understand why publisher's are in business, that article sums it up perfectly... to make money, no other reason whatsoever.

Interested in getting published? All you have to do is to achieve fame (sic) ((or should that be? - sick!)) for the most tawdry of reasons and you'll be signed up quicker than you can say Jordan.

Coming soon - a book, ghost-written by Jade Goody. I kid you not, I read that her mother said she had contacted her from beyond the veil (just google 'Jade Goody Beyond...') no doubt the book will be out by Mother's day next year... if I can get a publisher interested. Now, where can I find a happy medium?

 

[Ursa major]

* Wonders if anyone can "channel" Jade G's "literary" efforts and get paid for them. *


Or does the fact that copyright persists for 70 years beyond the date of death have some legal impact in this area?


* Waits for The Judge to recover enough to answer this question. *

 

[j d worthington]

(A) This is hardly new. It has been going on for at least the last two centuries....

(B) It tends to come and go, like most popular tastes....

(C) It does tend to keep some lesser writers (and, occasionally, some better ones) fed, clothed, and housed... and sometimes considerably more...

(D) Yes, publishers are there for the money -- at least the major publishers are; some of the small presses are truly there for the love of the thing, though even those are rather scarce... but the better publishers also balance that with wanting to actually bring new good talent to the table, as the prestige of publishing such never hurts; and a few of them actually do care about the art of writing... but they also have to pay the bills and have money for the advances (don't forget that it is often the schlock writers who sell well whose sales enable publishers to pay advances on unknown or less popular writers' work)....

All that said... I still despise the damn' things, seeing them as seldom more than the lowest form of literary whoredom (unless, as happily happens now and again, you get someone who actually does write such a thing with wit, verve, and originality, in which case even this sort of nonsense can become a form of literary art... if a somewhat peculiar one)....

 

[Connavar]

When i worked in a bookstore i really hated going to the mainstream,non-fiction shelf to put in new books. Books by reality tv stars outselling other rated,real professional authors is old news but really sad.

I laughed at the idea of Katie Price outselling Booker prize nominted authors. Not that i believe too much in any literary art like that but there must be some quality authors among them who are worth better than be outsold by a ghostwriter.....

 

[Vladd67]

Talking of celeb books how about this?
Heat Wave: Amazon.co.uk: Richard Castle: Books
Now not only is this said to be written by a fictitious character (Rick Castle played by Nathon Fillion from the TV series Castle) but it is from a tv series which we can not even see in the UK. Personally I would rather read some of his Derrick Storm books.

 

[Ursa major]

* Wonders if one can pay with imaginary funds. (And if so, would it still be poor value?) *

 

[Rodders]

Whilst i'm not really one that has ever been into the cult of celebrity, i do have an SF novel by Peter Jurassic of B5 fame. I'd also be that there are a lot of us on these forums that have a William Shatner book or two.

 

[The Judge]

* Wonders if anyone can "channel" Jade G's "literary" efforts and get paid for them. *


Or does the fact that copyright persists for 70 years beyond the date of death have some legal impact in this area?


* Waits for The Judge to recover enough to answer this question. *

I speak to you now from my padded cell...

Never did Intellectual Property stuff, so this comes with all the usual legal caveats about seeking your own professional advice blah, blah.

If you quote Ms Goody in her living incarnation. as it were (ie when she was alive), then yes copyright will attach to her drivel... er... writing etc in the normal way. Her otherworldly noncarnation (??) can't have the protection of copyright so whatever she says to you now, Ursa, is between you and your mental health. However, the real question is whether someone has been smart enough to trademark her name...

J

PS Forgot to add that if the thread hadn't made me ready for the nice white jacket with the long arms, Boneman's happy medium would have done it...

 

[The Ace]

Sorry, 'Intellectual Property,' 'Jade Goody.'

Somebody's yanking my crank.

 

[nixie]

The mind boggles, was stood in Waterstones the other day waiting in the queue to pay for my purchases of the five people in front one had some children's books the other four all had celebrity books.

 

[K. Riehl]

I remember the 60 minutes TV show about the "packaging" of a novel. Nicholas Sparks had been turned down by over 20 publishers for his manuscript "The Notebook". He included his picture in the 21st package and the editor thought that they could build an add campaign around him, "since he was handsome".
After more than 40 editing changes including entire chapter rewrites by the editor, and after spending almost a million dollars on an advertising, they got their "bestseller".
The TV show pointed out how stupid people have to be to be taken in by this "product".

Can you guess what happened in my store the next day?. People came in and bought every copy we had.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well, if ever you wanted to truly understand why publisher's are in business, that article sums it up perfectly... to make money, no other reason whatsoever.

I always wonder why people assume that publishing companies are somehow obligated to be more altrustic than other businesses. Of course they want to make money. I assume that everyone here who holds a job wants to make money, too.

That said, I don't like the practice either. I work for years on each of my books, pour everything I've got into them, and I'll never be rich ... while someone who is a celebrity only has to slap their name on a book and it's a bestseller.

On the other hand, as someone said, the person who actually wrote the book is making money, too. Probably not much, because work-for-hire contracts are generally pretty miserly -- but the authors don't usually put that much work into writing the books, either. These deals can, however, keep them afloat while they write their own novels. Possibly very good ones. Also to be considered is that some part of the book -- the plot in some form, or just the basic idea -- may well have come from the celebrity whose name is on the book.

In fact, the world is full of people who "have great ideas for books" and they are looking for someone to write them. Some of them join this website looking for potential authors to do this for them. (And usually leave pretty quickly when they realize that the writers here prefer to write their own stories, thank you very much.) The big difference is that celebrities can actually find people to do it for them.

So there are several sides to the question.

I still don't like it, but I'm not going to waste my energy being outraged by it.

 

[Urien]

This Christmas buy the book by the guy who was once in a background shot on The Bill... "Almost Nicked" by A. Nearlyis.

The UK seems excessively afflicted by all things celeb, I've never seen it this bad before.

 

[The Judge]

Sorry, 'Intellectual Property,' 'Jade Goody.'

Somebody's yanking my crank.

Yes, Ace, I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, the juxtapostion caused me to have a relapse...

Putting aside all questions of jealousy for a moment, it strikes me as being intellectually dishonest to tout Miss Celebrity as an author of a book she hasn't written, unless there is a clear note to the effect that the novel has in fact been written by X, the ghostwriter. I seem to recall that some people in the US tried to sue the publishers of a 'true life' story when it became apparent that it was almost entirely a work of fiction.** What we need is a disgruntled celeb-reader to sue the publishers here for deliberate misrepresentation, even fraud, by holding out that Miss Celebrity wrote a novel if in fact she did nothing of the sort. Let truth prevail! I'd cough up to a fighting fund.

J

** I think wasting time came into it somewhere...

 

[Ursa major]

* Resists the temptation to call one such "author" a front woman. *




I can't help think that if such a case could be made, TJ, it would have been made a long time ago. For weren't there some relatively well known series of books (e.g. The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew) that carried a single, fictional, author's name (in these cases, "Franklin W. Dixon" and "Carolyn Keene" respectively) written by a succession of unnamed ghostwriters?

 

[Urien]

"Ghostwriters in the sky."

Oh there's a short story in that riff on an old old song... if I get someone else to write it for me... I think the universe might...

TJ, is that you howling down the corridor? Or is just the wind moaning through the elevator shafts? I only ask because I think I'm getting messages from the future and it could be important.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

For weren't there some relatively well known series of books (e.g. The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew) that carried a single, fictional, author's name (in these cases, "Franklin W. Dixon" and "Carolyn Keene" respectively) written by a succession of unnamed ghostwriters?

Yes, and not only Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. There was a syndicate (we would call it book packager these days) devoted to turning out such series:

Stratemeyer Syndicate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was an avid fan of Nancy Drew, read some of the others, though without the compulsion to read every one as with Nancy Drew. Also some other series books, that may or may not have been turned out by the Stratemeyer Syndicat, but were probably produced in the same way.

And there is plenty of the same thing going on with book packagers right now. At least in terms of kids' books.