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[CCBC-Net] Celebrity Books
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From: Alixwrites at aol.com <Alixwrites>
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 08:08:25 EDT
In a message dated 6/9/2007 11:14:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, nsawicki at nyc.rr.com writes:
It is therefore disappointing to read the many ( not all, thankfully) postings that write off celebrity books....
I agree that one cannot lump all books by celebrities together. There is the occasional celebrity who can write and who also takes it seriously enough to learn. The latter really the key. Most (non-celebrity) writers, recalling their own early efforts, will likely cringe . . . though we may well have thought those efforts quite meritorious at the time. Most of us were forced by rejecting editors or agents to become better writers, or give up on the idea. Celebrity authors do not always have the learning opportunity that a rejection letter affords. Celebrity books can be published if they are didactic, written in bad verse, or really aimed at adults. And yet, some celebrities, like Jaime Lee Curtis and John Lithgow, do write good books. Others, like Henry Winkler, apparently realize they are not writers and get their story written by someone else.
Notably, both Winkler and Curtis started out writing about personal experiences about which they felt strongly (Winker about growing up with undiagnosed learning disabilities and Curtis about adoption). Perhaps this motivated them to do a better job, even though lesser efforts might have been acceptable. Their books and Lithgow's are fun and don't -- like so many celebrity books
-- seek simply to teach a lesson. In short, these celebrities seem to have done what all aspiring authors ought to do -- researched the market, seen what good children's books are like, and sought to write something which was unique, not merely because it was written by a celebrity, but because the celebrity in question actually had something to say, based upon his or her own unique experience and perspective -- something only that person could write. This is exactly what I advise all aspiring authors who take workshops with me to do.
I suspect that, probably, writers and other book professionals would be more tolerant of celebrity efforts if the celebrities in question could restrain themselves from making television appearances, stating that they had written a
children's book a) in ten minutes (We know, we know) or b) because there are no good children's books out there.
That said, a parent reading to a child is a good thing, and if it takes a celebrity book to get the parent into a bookstore or library, I hope that the parent might pick up some other books while he or she is there.
Best, Alexandra Flinn www.alexflinn.com
Beastly (HarperCollins, October, 2007)
"a delicious romance" --Annette Curtis Klause, author of Blood and Chocolate
************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
Received on Sun 10 Jun 2007 07:08:25 AM CDT
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 08:08:25 EDT
In a message dated 6/9/2007 11:14:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, nsawicki at nyc.rr.com writes:
It is therefore disappointing to read the many ( not all, thankfully) postings that write off celebrity books....
I agree that one cannot lump all books by celebrities together. There is the occasional celebrity who can write and who also takes it seriously enough to learn. The latter really the key. Most (non-celebrity) writers, recalling their own early efforts, will likely cringe . . . though we may well have thought those efforts quite meritorious at the time. Most of us were forced by rejecting editors or agents to become better writers, or give up on the idea. Celebrity authors do not always have the learning opportunity that a rejection letter affords. Celebrity books can be published if they are didactic, written in bad verse, or really aimed at adults. And yet, some celebrities, like Jaime Lee Curtis and John Lithgow, do write good books. Others, like Henry Winkler, apparently realize they are not writers and get their story written by someone else.
Notably, both Winkler and Curtis started out writing about personal experiences about which they felt strongly (Winker about growing up with undiagnosed learning disabilities and Curtis about adoption). Perhaps this motivated them to do a better job, even though lesser efforts might have been acceptable. Their books and Lithgow's are fun and don't -- like so many celebrity books
-- seek simply to teach a lesson. In short, these celebrities seem to have done what all aspiring authors ought to do -- researched the market, seen what good children's books are like, and sought to write something which was unique, not merely because it was written by a celebrity, but because the celebrity in question actually had something to say, based upon his or her own unique experience and perspective -- something only that person could write. This is exactly what I advise all aspiring authors who take workshops with me to do.
I suspect that, probably, writers and other book professionals would be more tolerant of celebrity efforts if the celebrities in question could restrain themselves from making television appearances, stating that they had written a
children's book a) in ten minutes (We know, we know) or b) because there are no good children's books out there.
That said, a parent reading to a child is a good thing, and if it takes a celebrity book to get the parent into a bookstore or library, I hope that the parent might pick up some other books while he or she is there.
Best, Alexandra Flinn www.alexflinn.com
Beastly (HarperCollins, October, 2007)
"a delicious romance" --Annette Curtis Klause, author of Blood and Chocolate
************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
Received on Sun 10 Jun 2007 07:08:25 AM CDT
