First, this is not me being critical of Khloe Kardashian. I have nothing against her. This is me being critical of the people and publishers who make these celebrity books happen.
I don’t get it. There is not one celebrity (okay, Jennifer Lawrence is the ONLY one) who I’d want to read a book ‘written’ by. Not one. And yet we get so many of these books every year that I think there should be a new genre recognized. I’m not even joking. I’m sure y’all have heard that Pharrell is writing children’s books. You’ve probably read Lena Dunham’s book by now. I think Jimmy Fallon has a book on the way.
I have nothing against any of them, but there is nothing they could write that I’d be willing to spend money on. But that’s just me.
I’ve written about celebrity book deals before, but now I have a different question to ask. Are there any celebrities you’d like to see write books? My one and only is Jennifer Lawrence. Not because I think her book would be any more interesting or better than all the others written by celebrities, but because I’d love anything with her name attached to it. Fun fact: if she had a Twitter I think I’d only follow her and no one else. Cause what else would I need?! Sorry for the mini tangent.
PS: If I’d done enough to demand a seven figure book deal, I’d likely dip my hand into the publishing industry too.
On this day in 2014 I published Literary Characters who Should Die.
Johnny Reads 
What bothers me is that celebrities typically don’t write these books themselves, yet get all the credit as “authors.” And more often than not, the covers are a glamour shot of their faces. I don’t want a book with a giant photoshopped face on it.
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Exactly!
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I think the only people who expect these celebrities to actually write these books are 12-year-olds who don’t know any better. Anyone else and it’s just obliviousness.
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I think as long as a celebritiy is writing within there realm that is unique, I may read it. For example, Robert Redford would have something to say, if he talked about the art of film making. I believe that people would love to get their hands that.
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What exactly do you mean within their realm?
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I mean special tranning, or experience. or an insight they can share. Thanks for the reply back.
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Hm. Kind of like Stephen King writing a book on writing.
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Yeah, I got that book around here somewhere. Some of that book stays with me and I use visuals comparasions as I wonder through my writing life.
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I need to get it. I think I’ve been saying that for about a year now.
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I think what I like about it was, It’s an autobiography along with his advise for writers. I like the walks or the running Steven King does and thinks about his work and you develop this picture in your head of the area he lives in and he and his wife driving up to the gas station in the family Navigator. So these are the pictures I dream about instead of it being Steven King. I really like John Gardiner and the Art of fiction. Read about on the internet. Let me know if you buy them. Happy writing.
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You know, I think I’ve heard that about the book. And I think I’ve also been told about the other book you mentioned. Hm.
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I’d have to agree with you. The frequency of celebrity books certainly warrants a new genre to be recognized.
I’m not opposed to celebrity books, albeit the “celebrity memoir” is getting redundant. However, there is one celebrity I would like to see write books: Meryl Streep.
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Yep. Just call it ‘celebrity’ and give it a shelf and be done with it. Hm. Meryl Streep. I understand wanting to see her write a bit.
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Apparently what you and many authors don’t understand is the value of NAME. Name means instant audience, whereas an unknown author has NO audience. If said NO audience author does nothing to build author name recognition, said author’s book or novel will fail.
Publishers can give celebrities big advances because they know they will get a very large return on their investment. They don’t publish No name authors because it’s fairly certain that any advance pay them will not be paid out.
It is true that publishers sometimes take risks on new authors, but only if that author has the potential to key into a national mood to create a new genre. For instance, even though vampire lure had been explored by Ann Rice, Stephanie Meyer delved into the teen love aspect with Twilight. These novels were successful because Stephanie’s book clicked with a very large teen audience who were hunger for a different tale and what it would be like to fall in love with an immortal.
She cleaned up the fear of vampires by making them humble creatures who only sucked blood from animals instead of humans.
Then we have Hunger Games–teen audience, reality TV, and an apocalyptic setting.
Vampire lure novels created a new genre–everyone started writing them, many of them erotic. The same with Hunger Games and the apocalyptic sub-genre. Each novel created a franchise–big win for the authors and their publishers. Luck? Probably. These days with major publishing kinda on the ropes, you don’t see that kind of risk. It’s a shame. Now they mostly publish known money makers, like celebrity books. Do you blame them?
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None of your comment answers the question and a small portion actually pertains to the post. So this is all of the response you’ll get.
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I can accept memoirs. Novels and self help books by celebrities irritate me the most. Purely because there are so many people out there who put their life and soul, and not to mention years of their OWN effort, into writing these books only to have celebrities ghost write (most likely) really poor books that inevitably overshadow the efforts of actual writers.
And don’t even get me started with the plethora of Youtubers publishing bestsellers. It’s actually shocking what publishing has got to.
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I’m much more concerned with the people who are buying these books rather than those publishing/writing them. We all know why they’re published. Money. But the fact that there’s any audience is strange.
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I understand that publishing is a business. A fairly large business. But it’s a shame that we’ve taken away the art aspect of writing. The man above (martinbrownpubs) states that he can’t blame publishers for putting big names on books to make a fast buck. But I can! There have been SO many no-name authors make an enormous splash in the publishing industry. All of the most famous writers in the world were, at one time, no-names.
I can certainly blame publishing companies for only wanting to make money. It shouldn’t be about that. It should be about the art and talent of writing. The pleasure that people get from reading creatively written books by someone with a passion for writing. It should be about love of the art and craft and not just filling pockets. But sadly, money is all businesses think about nowadays. And isn’t that just pathetically sad?
Chances are, most of these celebrities don’t have a passion for writing. They also probably have a passion for making money and keeping themselves in the limelight. That’s sad.
Forgive the rant…
As for your question: Is there any celebrity’s book I’d read? I’d probably read a book by Peter Jackson about his memories while filming Lord of the Rings. Or anyone from that cast, as long as the book is about the filming of those movies. Ditto on the characters/actors/directors of Doctor Who. Other than that, I can’t really think of anyone else.
Sorry for the long comment.
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But everyone knows why they publish these books. There’s not even a debate to be had over the money side of it. The question I’d rather ask is why people are interested in reading these books at all. It’s one thing to follow on social media, but it’s different to buy and read a book written by them. That’s all I’m wondering. Anyway, I think your choice of the LOTR cast is pretty great.
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People love celebrities, always have an always will. That’s just who we are. Would I buy a book by any one of them. No. Why? Because I find them pretentious. But there are millions of people who will buy anything that’s written about them or anything they write. Does that make it right? The simple fact is that people just don’t really care what we think. I know that comes as a big shock, but it’s the bitter truth.
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I accidentally bought one of Jamie Lee Curtis’ childrens books (bought for the book itself, not her name). As for someone I’d fan girl over and buy it if they wrote something…. eh. Not so much. I’m too picky about my books đŸ™‚
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How’d you accidentally buy it?
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I loved the story— didn’t even notice it was her name on the cover. So I bought the book itself on purpose, it just happened to be by her đŸ˜‰
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Hmmm. And did you think of it any differently after the fact?
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Nope, it’s called My Mommy Hung the Moon… and at the time, it was one of the only stories I could find that had a mom with a sone (actually, I don’t think the child is given a gender identity). But my son thought it was about the 2 of us, Team Deaver, so it will always have a place in my heart for that.
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Forget everything I’ve said about celebrity books. Cause obviously there are some with great messages.
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It’s like you said in reference to Jennifer Lawrence, you’d buy anything with her name on it. That’s how a lot of these books are getting bought. If you love one thing someone does, you think you’ll love the other things as well, so you pick up their books. And even if the celebrities themselves don’t write the book, their name and style is attached to it, which is really what draws the audience in.
I don’t think there’s anyone whose book I’d buy just for the name. The subject matter of the book needs to intrigue me. But the fact of the matter is, I’m more likely to hear about the celebrity books and be able to determine interest than a lesser-known author’s book. That being said, I’m not sure when I last read a celebrity book.
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You’re right. I guess I just assumed that most people (especially adults) don’t have minor, healthy obsessions with celebrities. đŸ˜³
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There are some celebs I might want to read a book about, but no one I can think of who I’d want to read a book by. Now if there’s a celeb who’s a writer first, or too, I’d consider it.
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But you likely wouldn’t even know if they’re also a writer cause actors or singers are known for the songs or movies they release or star in. I’d assume most celebrities have hidden talents that no one knows about. I bet writing is exactly that for a number of them.
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Not many,though.
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But we don’t actually know. Unless it’s thrown in our face all the time.
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I do not understand how people like her end up writing a book…I don’t understand how writing a book, or reading a book for that matter, became such a mainstream act. The books are becoming more and more shallow with people like her writing, that is if she wrote it herself at all…Point is, the reputation of writing and reading books is coming into a decline! People expect you to read commercial and books written by famous people, when in fact you have a different, better written ( language is very important, which is something i think such books lack) books with a much better moral.
I think i’d read a book for a celebrity who has a certain experience, or memoir that could inspire us to move forward in our lives, or could use in our current/future careers, he/she wants to share, and not because of extra fame or money.
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I don’t dispute anything you you said. But we both know why people like her wrote books. Money. I have no issue with that because publishing is a business before everything else. My main issue with people who buy these books like they’re the greatest things ever just because they have a name attached to them.
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Celebrity books are one of my pet hates, one that I’ve ranted about on my blog before, and very nearly ranted again when I heard about the Pharrell thing. (Even worse, there seems to be a growing trend for celebs to write children’s books – and a cynical part of my can’t help wondering if that’s because their shorter and perceived to be easier to write. Kids deserve better.) (OK, I admit it, the fact that I’m writing a children’s book myself is another reason it annoys me.)
I can honestly say that I can’t think of any famous person whose book I would buy just because their name is on it. Unless, as others have said, it’s a memoir or something they have recognised expertise in – so non-fiction – but I mainly read fiction. And the best qualified people to write fiction are actual writers who’ve sweated and strived to develop their art, not celebs who’ve decided to write (or have ghost-written, probably more often) a book for a quick buck or because they think it’s a nice thing to do.
That said, occasionally a celeb comes along who decides to make writing their main activity and turns out to be quite good at it. An example in the UK would be David Walliams, a TV/comedy start who started writing children’s books a few years ago. He undoubtedly got his first writing contract because he was already famous, but his books have been well received and are actually good. But even then, there will be a lot of writers who have remained unknown whose books would have been just as good or even better. And If I buy one of his books for my kids now, it will be because I know he’s a good writer, not because he was previously famous for something else.
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This is something you’ve thought about. I have nothing to add. You said it all.
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