Why Celebrity Memoirs Rule Publishing: Article

Phaeal said:

The public does indeed get what the public wants, which to some extent is what the public is told it wants. This is why the public is in the state it's in. .

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This.

And it's not just books. People like to think that they have independent will, and while a person does, people don't. It's a pack mentality, which is why some incredibly stupid things all of a sudden become popular - dayglo trainers, shellsuits, twilight, mullets - they become fashionable items because the powers that be say they are the in thing, and so everyone suddenly wants one, regardless.

Marketing is a complex beast, but a huge amount of it is convincing people that they need or want what you have, and if you have good marketing, you can get people to want anything.

Anne Lyle said:

My husband (a non-fiction sales rep) refers to large advances as "willy-waving*" - i.e. displays of machismo to impress other publishers (and their own investors), rather than a real indication of the likely success of the book.

* He's Scottish, and therefore not exactly subtle

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I object to your accusation that Scots are not classy, and would correct the phrase to be 'dick-swinging' and yeah, I see a lot of that in the writing world. Mainly by people who are insecure and fishing for compliments. It gets tiring dealing with them so I just cut 'em off.

The people, not the dicks they're swinging.

I wasn't accusing the Scots of being unclassy, only blunt-spoken. Which is a generalisation, I know, and one that could be aimed at many English people as well.

I wasn't offended. I was being...Scottish.

Thank god I live in the states where classlessness doesn't exist

ETA:

shaldna said:

It's a pack mentality, which is why some incredibly stupid things all of a sudden become popular - dayglo trainers, shellsuits, twilight, mullets - they become fashionable items because the powers that be say they are the in thing, and so everyone suddenly wants one, regardless.

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From everything I've seen on the matter, the responsibility divided more or less equally between both public and marketing. As in, marketers scour the cultural landscape for emerging trends and try to jump on the bandwagon before it's even really going. Another chicken-or-egg thing. Then the marketers ride the trend to death and laugh all the way to the bank.

SPMiller said:

From everything I've seen on the matter, the responsibility divided more or less equally between both public and marketing. As in, marketers scour the cultural landscape for emerging trends and try to jump on the bandwagon before it's even really going. Another chicken-or-egg thing. Then the marketers ride the trend to death and laugh all the way to the bank.

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it's really interesting, and almost makes me wish i'd done something interesting in it at college.

i guess it's the right thing at the right time.

but, back to the topic of celeb books, I have found that the people i knwo tend to buy or receive them as gifts more than anything else. i've never read one myself to be honest.

I don't like half the stars who 'write' books about themselves.
I also hate it if they've had some sort of life threatening cancer that I cannot validate no matter how much googling I do.

Also, I refuse to be part of the public. I have so much better stuff to do than waist my time on some silly book that makes me edit every other line.

I'm actually more concerned about how some people came to be called 'celebrities' rather than the fact that their (auto)biographies are all over the market.

I know there are hard-working talented people out there, but ever since the music video was introduced and photoshop was launched, a lot of mediocrity have become rich and famous, and even worse, they've become role models for children and teenagers.

Most of the times, the book is just another vanity product, like their cosmetics and clothes' lines. It's the least of my concerns really. I don't think they add or deprive the literary world of anything.