This may be a off my usual posts, but this is something I wanted to talk about. Just recently, I was shopping for books online for my sister and I noticed that Hillary Duff released a novel. Nope, it wasn't non fiction like Justin Biebers biography (lol, him writing a biography at that age is pretty far fetched even if he is famous) it was an actual paranormal novel. Then, a couple day's later I see another celebrity "Snookie" that wrote a novel and its fiction. I didn't know who Snookie was, but still...She is a celebrity. I assume there are plenty more of famous people that wrote books, but I noticed there were some very angry writers on forums that felt this quite unfair. Me, personally, I don't know if I find it unfair. Publishers know that the audience already knows these people, so they will buy the books. The books will make money. This doesn't mean that publishers and agents still don't accept great manuscripts from unknown authors. In fact this are completely the opposite.
At the very same time, when I used the look inside feature for Snooki's book, I couldn't imagine how it got published. It's not horrible, but it is extremely shallow and cliché. When I looked at Duff's novel, she wasn't the only author. That made me wonder, if she wrote the book herself. No, don't get me wrong. If I was a celebrity I would still probably write my novel and want it published. So when you put yourself in their shoes it's more eye opening. This doesn't stop us from being published and certainly, nothing stops us from taking the spotlight in our own lives. Go for it!
Cheers!
Wooow. I knew about Snookie's book, but for some reason paranormal fiction hits a little closer to home than some NJ version of Gossip Girls. I don't think it's wrong for celebrities to publish, no way, but a co-writer? Yeah. Why isn't her name on the cover?
ReplyDeleteHow much does this bother me? I don't know. I'm mostly in shock.
It reminds me of KFC's recent "Buckets for the Cure" Breast Cancer schtick. On the front of the ad it said, "every bucket counts" and said for every entire bucket of chicken you buy, you'll be "donating" 50 cents to Breast Cancer research, but when you read the fine print, it states that all of the buckets have already been paid for, and the donations will not exceed the price already paid. So literally, they just spent 1 million in Pink buckets so they could use "fight cancer" to promote their disgusting "chicken" and not lose a dime.
It's so beyond "where has all the common sense gone" that I just kind of...stare at it.
And in the case of the KFC ad, put it on my fridge to show to my husband when he gets home.
I hope those seem related to you...at all.
ReplyDeleteI was going for "Oh this thing sells as a singer, so let's sell it as a writer."
"This thing sells as crappy chicken, so let's sell it as a cure for cancer."
Because it is that different.
And yeah, if you put yourself in their shoes, you can understand some of the emotion but heck, I wanted to be published when I was 15. Thank goodness the industry would have shot me down like the terrible writer I was. It looks like the sieve is just a bit looser for some people.
Martinelli, I totally agree with you! Why is the other authors name not there? They are probably a ghost writer...LOL, KFC, hehe...
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