A quick look at the top-seller charts on both sides of the ocean over the past few years show they are replete with celebrity tell-alls and ‘biographies’; there is even an infamous “I didn’t do it but I could have done it” killer celebrity bio. Katie Price (AKA “Jordan” the model) also penned her bio – twice, in fact, inside two years – to great commercial success and has also benefited from the largess of publishers. As I write, Jessica Seinfeld (who, according to Jerry, clearly doesn’t need the money) is leading the pack on Amazon.com: Not that there’s anything wrong with that. 

On the other hand, perhaps there is something wrong with that from the standpoint of our elitist preoccupation with awards. In the UK, the Booker Prize was announced together with a scolding from the judges that great literary works are not adjudged properly or well by the gatekeepers of our awareness: That would be the newspaper reviewers. At least those that are still alive and critiquing (perhaps there are more in the UK than here). It won’t be long before there is a crisis of conscience over reviewing in the UK as well. In the US, the Quill Awards passed with barely a ripple – less than 50 citations in Google News as I write this. I get more than that. 

Awards don’t matter to the average reader and, while I will roll my eyes at Coleen’s book deal, the fact is that HarperCollins and the other publisher’s who solicit these deals are delivering content that the masses want, which the reviewers will pan and the award-givers ignore. And I guess so what? If there is any downside, it is that the amount of cash allocated to these celebrity titles doesn’t leave too much left over for those of us found lacking in the celebrity department. 

Posted by: Michael Cairns, Information Media Partners