Americans remain blissfully unaware of the talent of
Manchester United and England football player Wayne Rooney. On the football
pitch, Wayne has few rivals and he is a sports personality whose talent
transcends sport to media superstardom. Even as a better player than David
Beckham, he will never rival him as a star: He doesn’t have the looks, but he
will be big. On the other hand, his girlfriend/fiancée may become bigger than
Victoria Beckham and the glow of Wayne’s stardom has reflected on her since they
were engaged when she was 17. You see, 21-year-old Coleen McLoughlin has
reportedly just signed a five-book deal with HarperCollins. Admittedly this is
on the back of her successful autobiography Welcome to My World (Oopps, I almost typed
“Wayne” there…) but, without Wayne would there have been an autobiography at 20
years old?
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