Celeb authors taking all the opportunities?

[Wearethetwirl]

I am a wannabe novelist but recently I have become more and more jaded.

I write mysteries and could not miss the success of Richard Osman's "The Thursday Murder Club".

I've read his book, it's OK, not a groundbreaking masterpiece, but it is a record breaking success selling over a million copies already.

Everything I've read has praised him and there seems to be little or no debate as to the repercussions of this.

I also heard Fern Britton talk about how she became a novelist in a jaw dropping interview. She said she didn't really want to write a novel but was offered a book deal. She told the publishers she did not know how to, they told her they'd guide her and lo and behold she has 7 novels under her belt! This from someone who admitted she never set out to be a novelist in the first place!

I feel as though celebs are pushing out other debut writers and the space for unknown new writers is diminishing. Richard Osmans success probably means more celebs will be offered more fiction deals ( Bradley Walsh writing a crime thriller? Tess Daley writing a suspense novel? Phil Schofield writing a coming of age story?) and the opportunities for new writers will decrease.

Can anyone put a positive spin on this? Or tell me I have got it wrong?

[TFSRM]

Famous names sell books. I disagree with you about Richard Osman's book, I thought it was really good and I'm looking forward to his next one. Katie Price putting her name to ghost-written books is another matter but at least she is honest about it I guess.

[Neolara]

I was not keen to read Richard Osman's book because I'd assumed it would be utter rubbish and had been published because of who he was. But I read it over Xmas and really enjoyed. I thought it was clever and funny and different. I do however agree that some celebs seem to write utter drivel and miraculously it ends up published (Dawn French and David Baddiel, I'm looking at you). I can see how that would be very frustrating for aspiring authors.

[chipsandpeas]

less of a gamble by getting a celeb to write a book as they will already have some kind of fan base

[ClaudiaWankleman]

You only have to look at the thread running currently about ridiculous moments in books and things that turn you off reading, to see that many readers think there has been a general downturn in quality in favour of pushing out books for sale. I think the focus on celebrities is probably a symptom of this.

I seem to remember a similar phenomenon 10-15 years ago when suddenly there was an explosion in ghostwritten autobiographies. Suddenly every Arsenal midfielder and daytime TV host had one out all with various inspirational stories and hilariously kooky relatives.

[Fizbosshoes]

I was listening to the news last year (I think late summer) and they said it was a great day for book lovers and publishing as 600 new titles were being published on the same day (because of delays due to covid)
I felt it might feel really disappointing as a new or unknown author being up against that many new books , a lot by well known authors, and could potentially get "lost in the crowd".
It's the same for all sorts of book genres though - a famous name gives an opportunity to do it, and is familiar to customers, even if they have no expertise in the subject. Just off the top of my head
-Mylene Klass and Jools Oliver have done pregnancy /baby books
Holly Willoughby - baby weaning
Fearne Cotton - cookery
Ricky Gervais/Frank Lampard/Geri Halliwell - kids books
Carol Vorderman -detox dieting

[movingonup20]

Richard osmans book is pretty good, but yes I do know what you are saying. I have written a crime book and whilst it's still being polished by me, I suspect it won't be published!

[Magicbabywaves]

It’s maddening isn’t it? There’s a whole heap of crap written by ‘celebs’ out there. Funny they don’t use a pseudonym. Richard Osman’s book was ok I thought, but I won’t touch any of that baby help trash. written by the likes of Holly Willoughby, someone who knows no more than anyone else.

[themental]

I've read his book, it's OK, not a groundbreaking masterpiece, but it is a record breaking success selling over a million copies already.

Why do you think it needs to be a groundbreaking masterpiece to be worthy of success

Genuinely interested.

Why can't it just be good entertainment?

And I'm no expert but it's seemed to me like the publishing industry has always, always been like this.

Used to be middle class white women... now it's celebs...

It's never been POC or working class people, hence why a lot of them walk around the gatekeepers and go indie.

The thing to remember is the publishing industry owes nobody favours and they're going with what they think will sell. They're businesses trying to turn a profit, and somebody with a platform is going to have a better chance of success than somebody with no platform.

If you want to be a novelist then stop complaining the game isn't fair and start researching how to build a platform? In the world of authorTube and bookTok and bookStagram, facebook reader groups with tens of thousands of readers, it has literally never been so easy than it is right now.

[Wearethetwirl]

Why do you think it needs to be a groundbreaking masterpiece to be worthy of success

I don't. But it's success seems to rely on his celebrity success rather than the book being unique or groundbreaking etc.

I am interested in what you say as you are a self published author. Couldn't you say you were pushed out of a traditional deal and had to pursue a career writing a back breaking one book a month (or 2 weeks) precisely because the celebs have taken over?

Why should a writer have to write half a million words a year and pour thousands of pounds into courses/advertising etc and become a marketing manager in order to sell books? Couldn't they just be writers?

[LittleRa]

David Walliams is the perfect example of this.

[Wearethetwirl]

Talking about Walliams, the Guardian did an article on this but focussed on celeb children authors. The issues are explored and how the average advance has dwindled:

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/12/famous-first-words-how-celebrities-made-their-way-on-to-childrens-bookshelves

[Wearethetwirl]

"The big advances are going to the people who least need them,” says Nicola Solomon, chief executive of the Society of Authors (SoA).

[OhTinnitus]

"David Walliams is the perfect example of this."

So true!

[lookhappy]

I think the stats are that authors are lucky if they make £10k a year. Celebrity authors are absolutely where the advances are going. Advances have shrunk enormously over the past decade. That said, journalists' fees have also shrunk. People are quite happy to pay for tech. Not happy to pay professional writers. Part of the issue (ahem) is websites such as this one with loads of free content, ditto Twitter, etc. We no longer expect to pay for writing...unless we 'know' the person. And how do we know the person? Though their celebrity.

[Wearethetwirl]

@lookhappy

I think the stats are that authors are lucky if they make £10k a year. Celebrity authors are absolutely where the advances are going. Advances have shrunk enormously over the past decade. That said, journalists' fees have also shrunk. People are quite happy to pay for tech. Not happy to pay professional writers. Part of the issue (ahem) is websites such as this one with loads of free content, ditto Twitter, etc. We no longer expect to pay for writing...unless we 'know' the person. And how do we know the person? Though their celebrity.

Really insightful post.

Maybe my awful grammar and I should get off MN.

[Curioushorse]

I have met a few celebrity authors (not the big names), and it is worth remembering that some of them are celebrities because they’re writers. Comedy writers, for example. They’re not the worst thing in the world and, as others have said, they’re a sure bet because of their names.

The problem is not their advances, but that they also get the marketing budgets. That’s not too bad for adult fiction, because adults make their own decisions. But with children’s it’s also the adults who are buying the books- even though they’re not the ones reading them. They want a sure fire name that feels reliable. The budgets that somebody like David Williams has had are absurd. Absolute rubbish that he’s written has been promoted and adults buy it because they assume it’s good.

There are some gorgeous books out there that nobody knows about because they just haven’t been promoted. I think this is likely to change- hopefully- because it’s been pointed out as a particular issue for BAME authors.

But, OP, the industry is very slow at the moment. Not much is selling. Hopefully that’ll change by the time your book is finished.

[Cluas]

You only have to look at the thread running currently about ridiculous moments in books and things that turn you off reading, to see that many readers think there has been a general downturn in quality in favour of pushing out books for sale. I think the focus on celebrities is probably a symptom of this.

What strikes me about that thread is that the people moaning about how crap 'books' have become (1) are talking almost exclusively about free Kindle stuff, chicklit, as if these define 'books' and (2) aren't alive to the irony that they keep buying the same kind of books by the same authors that they are complaining vociferously about -- so the market 'works'. The books don't have to be any better, or any better edited or copy-edited, if people keep buying the same old shit anyway.

[dazzlinghaze]

Youtubers writing books piss me off. There's a lot I'd watched for years and they barely mentioned reading a book never mind aspiring to write one then suddenly they announce they're releasing the first in a series of fiction novels?!

[Litthefirealready]

I’ve been feeling sad about this for a while, the last few years everything I’ve been to buy ds a book, the majority of authors for his age range have been ‘celebrity. David Walliams, Greg James, David Baddiel, Tom Fletcher, Simon mayo (at least his are good), Ben fogle to name but a few.

I feel really sorry for new, budding authors trying to break through.

[HollowTalk]

Why do you think it needs to be a groundbreaking masterpiece to be worthy of success

Bear in mind that Richard Osman got a seven-figure deal for that book (and presumably a sequel.) That's why it should be a groundbreaking masterpiece!

[Sheleg]

Late stage capitalism! It's about selling, not quality literature anymore.

[HappydaysArehere]

It is not only celebrity writers that sell books. Other well known writers often sell on past laurels. Adele Parks is discussed on other threads as an example of an author who is selling rubbish but used to produce entertaining books - 20 books in 20 years!!! Do their publishers accept anything in the assurance that her past works will ensure sales? By the way, really enjoyed The Thursday Murder Club.

[MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously]

I'm going to defend the lines of Ricky Gervais or Dawn French writing books - they are already writers of comedy. There's no reason why they couldn't write novels. Ricky Gervais is a genius - 'Afterlife' is an amazing piece of work.

[themental]

• I don't. But it's success seems to rely on his celebrity success rather than the book being unique or groundbreaking etc.
  *
  I'd imagine like every other book the success is based on the packaging and the marketing, both of which are of course helped by his celebrity status. I genuinely don't believe uniqueness or how much ground a book breaks has any more than negligible impacts on how well a book actually sells.
  *
  I am interested in what you say as you are a self published author. Couldn't you say you were pushed out of a traditional deal and had to pursue a career writing a back breaking one book a month (or 2 weeks) precisely because the celebs have taken over?
  *
  Well no because if it wasn't the celebs it would be the middle class white women or someone else. And I never actually thought of trad publishing being better. Just different. So yes you could say I was "pushed out" in the same way as I'd be "pushed out" of a party I had no intention of going to anyway 😂
  
  
  Why should a writer have to write half a million words a year and pour thousands of pounds into courses/advertising etc and become a marketing manager in order to sell books? Couldn't they just be writers?
  
  I mean you could say the same for anything, though? Why should a baker have to worry about customer service and bookkeeping and finding customers and serving customers and getting up at 5am to bake and working 12 hours a day to stock up their bakery? Why should they have to spend thousands of pounds on equipment? Why should they have to have an online presence, offer delivery, run a facebook page?
  
  Why can't they just bake whatever they want whenever they want to?
  
  The answer is they can! Nobody is stopping them. It's just the chances are they will never make any money and nobody will eat their cakes. 🤷🏻‍♀️
  
  I don't understand the expectation that the publishing industry has to be any different? Why should publishing be stuck in the past when every other business has modernised?
  
  Times have changed. My family DID actually run a bakery (my grandfather's dad) and he didn't have to worry about any of the other stuff either. He owned a basic shop on a street and everyone went there for all of their baked goods. There weren't any alternatives and I'd imagine it was much easier for the baker back then, who could basically bake all day. But you couldn't start up in 2021 with that same model. It's harder for the baker but better for some bakers who accept it's not all about baking cakes, and it's better for the customers too because they have more choice.
  
  
  
  
  
  Bear in mind that Richard Osman got a seven-figure deal for that book (and presumably a sequel.) That's why it should be a groundbreaking masterpiece!
  
  I still don't understand why that means it must be a groundbreaking masterpiece though?
  
  If the publishers gave a seven-figure deal then they must have been confident they could turn a profit on those seven-figures?
  
  They're not charities, they're just businesses trying to make money and often "groundbreaking masterpiece" does not equal money or profit.

[happygolurkey]

the publishing industry has always, always been like this. Used to be middle class white women
but not white middle class men though?