Why we Should Encourage Celebrities to Write (even) More Books

Have you ever looked at the books on the shelves that are published for big celebrities turned authors and thought, that’s not fair?

You will likely have recognised that the publisher has an easier job on their hands in reclaiming their investment in the huge royalty cheques that these celebrities receive as an advance for their books.

Let’s face it, these celebrities already have a huge following and have likely had one or more prime-time TV shows and maybe a few film cameos.

It can often feel as if every musician, actor and TV presenter hits the big-time and suddenly discovers they’ve got a book inside them – who would have known? You might ask yourself disparagingly. It is also known within the industry that many celebrity authors haven’t written their books themselves. Instead, they have employed the services of a ghostwriter who has listened to their life story and crafted it into an engaging read where the story elements fit naturally together to improve the story’s overall flow. You might have thrown your arms into the air crying, ‘They didn’t even write it themselves!’

Let us unpick that a little because I have felt exactly the same myself. Nowadays though, I would be far more likely to ask a celebrity, ‘Will you write a book?’ And here’s why …

Nowadays all authors have to do the majority of their marketing themselves, even if they sign with a big publisher. This is because the budget for the marketing necessary for a return on investment just isn’t there. There’s another reason too and I’ll come to that in a later blog: Why Are You the Best Person to Market Your Book?

Publishing has been squeezed in the last few years with supermarkets selling books at a cut-price, which has meant that high-street booksellers have had to compete with their own: buy one get one half-price deals. Alongside this, all of them are competing with and being squeezed out of the market by Amazon. There are also more big publishers than ever before. If you don’t believe me then just have a look at the imprint lists for the big publishers.

The self-publishing market is also huge and the ease with which a new author can launch themselves into the publishing arena has never been more accessible. More about that in a later blog too: What Are the Positives (and Negatives) of Self-Publishing?

All of this pressure has meant that publishers have had to cut their profit margins in order to achieve sales volumes for their authors and more importantly to allow them to invest in new authors.

It is also the reason why indie-booksellers have such a hard time and why you will see so few of them on our high streets. Is this also becoming an argument for supporting your local indie-bookseller and high-street bookseller? Hell, yes.

Additionally, it is also one of the reasons why you see so many celebrity books in the market. Without huge amounts of profit to plough back into publishing new books, publishing houses have turned to celebrity authors to help them publish more debut authors.

Publishing houses know that celebrity authors already have a huge following. People will buy their book(s) because they have already bought into the individual, their brand and their ethos. We follow them – the good stuff and the bad – and we can’t get enough of it. They inspire us either positively or negatively, but they inspire us. They give rise to conversation, debate and sometimes this also results in books about specific celebrities or the culture of celebrity.

Why is this important for aspiring authors though?

Well, because book sales from a successful debut author or a celebrity author puts money back into the publishing house coffers. It allows them to invest in more new authors.

I only recently had my own eureka moment with this when it was explained to me: that every successful debut author allows a large traditional publisher to invest in around another ten debut authors.

Imagine then how many debut authors are financed from the sales of a celebrity’s book?

This blog only scratches the surface with some of the reasons why we need celebrities to write more books, but I hope it has been a little demystifying.