The so-called ‘celebrity novelist’ has been on the rise in the past couple of years, from Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series, to Hugh Laurie’s The Gun Seller, and most recently, Keira Knightley’s debut novel, I Love You Just the Same. The numbers don’t lie either; celebrity fiction has shown a rapid increase in the past couple of years, with only one title by a celebrity author being included in the 2018 top 100 paperback fiction bestsellers in comparison to eight titles (five of them in the top 20) in 2023. But the question arises; in an increasingly digitalised world that has transformed the way we consume literature, does the rise of the celebrity novelist endanger or promote literary engagement?
For Evelyn Waugh, the novel is “an exercise in language;” it is the work of celebrities in creative fields such as film, theatre, and music performance that allows for the production of stimulating literature drawing from past creative experience. Autobiographies and memoirs like Pamela Anderson’s Love, Pamela: A Memoir and Britney Spears’ The Woman in Me have given us an insight into life behind the glamour. While fictional literature has been informed by the creative work that celebrities undertake in their everyday life, whether its Lana Del Rey’s lyrical poetry book Violets Bent Backwards Over the Grass or Patti Smith’s memoir inspired by her life of music in Just Kids.
Celebrity-written literature has also allowed for a spotlight to be shone and represent the experience of marginalised groups in society – according to Jasmine Richards, “celebrity fiction has been one of the key ways to get black and brown characters on shelves in recent years.” Celebrities are responsible for the image they embody for their fans and audiences and are able to directly engage with the need for positive representation through literature.
However, not only is celebrity-written fiction important in amplifying the voices of those unable to in society, but it is also crucial in making the literary canon accessible for all – the more limelight a celebrity has, the more people are encouraged to read their book; in a world with a dwindling global literacy rate, it can be argued that this is needed more than ever.
However, with the spotlight comes a plethora of problems; seen through the lens of Kafka’s theory on bureaucracy in his novel The Castle, celebrity involvement in the publishing and literary world can be problematic. Book titles by celebrities are a product of a manufactured celebrity culture, one that excludes authors who rely on their craft for a living, and one where agents typically approach a famous person to write a book rather than the other way around.
They do not face what professional writers term the ‘query trenches’ – the challenging period a writer spends seeking an agent to represent their work – and much of the time will outsource the creative work to ghostwriters, many of whom are not recognised for their skill.
So, whilst celebrities bathe in the glory and glamour of their new hit-bestseller, those responsible for its literary craft are left in the shadow. David Baddiel expressed the concerns that people have reflected in relation to the recent popularity of celebrity novels – he stated that “fame is so fragmented now. Here’s your
corner of fame – people don’t like it if you’re encroaching on other arenas.” And for many writers who have dedicated their whole life to the art, this statement resonates as true. As celebrities write more and more, books don’t start to get judged by their cover, but rather their name, leaving no space for authors with no famous status to support their work. The publishing industry has become fragmented by the rapid digitalisation of media and culture, and for many, the prominence and power of celebrities only complicates this.
So, is it fair enough to say that we judge a book more by its name now than its cover? And what does this mean for future generations of writers? Has the literary canon as we know it transformed, or lost its value completely?
“Animal Actors Show” by wwarby is licensed under CC BY 2.0.