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[CCBC-Net] Celebrity Books
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From: Norma Jean <nsawicki>
Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 23:12:37 -0400
As a publisher, I raised a brow when a colleague wrote off an entire genre...as in, poetry doesn?t sell, science books don?t sell, books that are too long don?t sell, books for boys don?t sell, alphabet books don?t sell...blah blah blah...sheer nonsense but in some houses that ?nonsense? cannot be ignored...one sometimes encounters it in acquisition meetings and must engage in friendly/gentle arm twisting if not outright battle.
It is therefore disappointing to read the many ( not all, thankfully) postings that write off celebrity books....as if they are interchangeable, and as if none have merit. Celebrities do not have the corner on crummy books....crummy books have always been written and published. In 1913, Franklin K. Mathiews, who was the chief librarian for the Boys Scouts of America, addressed the ABA Convention ( the Association of Booksellers of America whose convention is today called BEA), in New York City and said...?In the last three years, 1,000,000 ( not a typo) books have been sold to the boy scouts, some bad, some perhaps very good, some not bad or good. The Scout movement must defend itself against the exploitation of these boys. I am not expecting that you gentlemen should stop the sale of all bad books but you can surely slow them up and increase the sale of better books.?
Off hand, I cannot think of a single publisher whose publishing program is weighted in favor of books written by celebrities....in fact, the number is small...often a single book per season. People should not make the assumption all of the books written by celebrities sell, they do not...not by a long shot. That a book is published, is no more than the beginning of a long process, a process that is often unpredictable, and one that can sometimes end in great disappointment for writers as well as for publishers...a disappointment that includes books published in every single category of book or genre. It is a dynamic that caused someone to say publishing is not a business, it is a casino.
The editor from HC who said celebrity books can ?pay for other books ? was exactly right. Some books always carry other books which is terrific for writers whose books/career may have a slow start. Writers have much in common as a community but each writer?s ?value? in the marketplace is different....and the ?value? is not determined by the publisher but by book buyers be they institutions or individuals.
Going beyond the ins/outs of publishing, why is it that in discussing Madonna as a writer her ?pointy bras,? as well as her singing and dancing are mentioned? Playing devil?s advocate...after a second trip to Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, Madonna met with the head of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, as well as others and subsequently founded Raising Malawi...an organization that is setting up Millennium Villages which provide maize seed and fertilizer to households, builds water and sanitation infrastructures, helps start schools, and makes medicine more accessible. Like pointy bras, that has nothing to do with Madonna?s writing but it does offer a fuller portrait of Madonna, a ?celebrity.?
As for blogs that contain badly written scenes, or sentences culled from books written by celebrities, one could draw from a variety of other publications...books, book reviews, journals, letters to and from editors, blogs, newspapers, magazines, and do the same. There is much worse around...and too, even the best writers commit faux pas.
>From the chair in which I sit, those of us who are passionate about
children?s books...and are book lovers in general, are cultural elitists, and it does not bode well for kids/children?s books if we do not take great care to avoid waving a finger, or turning up our noses at those who buy and want to read books written by celebrities. The point is to read. The parent who enthusiastically buys and reads to her/his kids a book by Madonna may not have bought a book before, or, it may courage that parent to buy other books. It does not help the cause of children?s books to be perceived by the general public as a closed and judgmental community. Growing up, my mother was a ferocious reader...of magazines about movie stars, and what was then called ?romance ? magazines. At age twelve, I began to read F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others of his ilk, and grew up to become, in the words of a long time close friend, ?a publisher of snotty books for snotty children?
...meaning terrific books for good readers. Be patient...there is indeed hope for readers of books by celebrities.....
Received on Sat 09 Jun 2007 10:12:37 PM CDT
Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 23:12:37 -0400
As a publisher, I raised a brow when a colleague wrote off an entire genre...as in, poetry doesn?t sell, science books don?t sell, books that are too long don?t sell, books for boys don?t sell, alphabet books don?t sell...blah blah blah...sheer nonsense but in some houses that ?nonsense? cannot be ignored...one sometimes encounters it in acquisition meetings and must engage in friendly/gentle arm twisting if not outright battle.
It is therefore disappointing to read the many ( not all, thankfully) postings that write off celebrity books....as if they are interchangeable, and as if none have merit. Celebrities do not have the corner on crummy books....crummy books have always been written and published. In 1913, Franklin K. Mathiews, who was the chief librarian for the Boys Scouts of America, addressed the ABA Convention ( the Association of Booksellers of America whose convention is today called BEA), in New York City and said...?In the last three years, 1,000,000 ( not a typo) books have been sold to the boy scouts, some bad, some perhaps very good, some not bad or good. The Scout movement must defend itself against the exploitation of these boys. I am not expecting that you gentlemen should stop the sale of all bad books but you can surely slow them up and increase the sale of better books.?
Off hand, I cannot think of a single publisher whose publishing program is weighted in favor of books written by celebrities....in fact, the number is small...often a single book per season. People should not make the assumption all of the books written by celebrities sell, they do not...not by a long shot. That a book is published, is no more than the beginning of a long process, a process that is often unpredictable, and one that can sometimes end in great disappointment for writers as well as for publishers...a disappointment that includes books published in every single category of book or genre. It is a dynamic that caused someone to say publishing is not a business, it is a casino.
The editor from HC who said celebrity books can ?pay for other books ? was exactly right. Some books always carry other books which is terrific for writers whose books/career may have a slow start. Writers have much in common as a community but each writer?s ?value? in the marketplace is different....and the ?value? is not determined by the publisher but by book buyers be they institutions or individuals.
Going beyond the ins/outs of publishing, why is it that in discussing Madonna as a writer her ?pointy bras,? as well as her singing and dancing are mentioned? Playing devil?s advocate...after a second trip to Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, Madonna met with the head of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, as well as others and subsequently founded Raising Malawi...an organization that is setting up Millennium Villages which provide maize seed and fertilizer to households, builds water and sanitation infrastructures, helps start schools, and makes medicine more accessible. Like pointy bras, that has nothing to do with Madonna?s writing but it does offer a fuller portrait of Madonna, a ?celebrity.?
As for blogs that contain badly written scenes, or sentences culled from books written by celebrities, one could draw from a variety of other publications...books, book reviews, journals, letters to and from editors, blogs, newspapers, magazines, and do the same. There is much worse around...and too, even the best writers commit faux pas.
>From the chair in which I sit, those of us who are passionate about
children?s books...and are book lovers in general, are cultural elitists, and it does not bode well for kids/children?s books if we do not take great care to avoid waving a finger, or turning up our noses at those who buy and want to read books written by celebrities. The point is to read. The parent who enthusiastically buys and reads to her/his kids a book by Madonna may not have bought a book before, or, it may courage that parent to buy other books. It does not help the cause of children?s books to be perceived by the general public as a closed and judgmental community. Growing up, my mother was a ferocious reader...of magazines about movie stars, and what was then called ?romance ? magazines. At age twelve, I began to read F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others of his ilk, and grew up to become, in the words of a long time close friend, ?a publisher of snotty books for snotty children?
...meaning terrific books for good readers. Be patient...there is indeed hope for readers of books by celebrities.....
Received on Sat 09 Jun 2007 10:12:37 PM CDT
