The Word Cloud

I laughted 'till I stopped whilst reading in the Daily Mail that people have been stealthily moving copies of Tony Blair's "A Journey" from the biography section to the crime shelves and then photographing the result.
A Journey has migrated to horror; fiction and even the dark fantasy section. In Telford's Asda, due to the lack of a crime section A Journey was moved to the toilet paper aisle.

What would you move and to where . . . ?

I'd start with the Stig and migrate him to the money-grabbing-Ahole section.

This section must be very full. Celebrities' books always get published, don't they?

"Celebrities' books always get published, don't they?"

My goodness me, no. Just ask any ghost writer how many project he/she is offered by the sleb agents, which then can't get a deal from a publisher and so never get written and never see the light of bookshop.

Particularly true in the last couple of years, since a famous year when one publishing house told all its acquiring editors to go out and get two sleb books each, and they published far too many, and got their fingers VERY badly burnt. And so they're a lot more cautious these days about what they commit to.

The thing about slebby books (even the proper aunto/biographies written by people who've actually done something with their lives) is that they have very little international market, and the promotion costs are huge, as well as the hassle of dealing with the sleb, who may only see the book as one of a range of promotional tools. Contrary to what many aspiring writers believe, the reason a publisher will decide to publish a celebrity book is that, despite these drawbacks and extra expenses, they think the book will make money for the publisher, which means they can publish more books by the likes of you and me, than they could otherwise. They don't always get it right, of course...

Emma

I'd move Twilight into the "supposedly a new pioneer of vampire fiction when actually people were writing about it a long time before she actually was" section. I think it's called the bin?


:)

On the subject of Stephanie Meyer I'd move The Host to the self help section under help for suffers of Insominia.

I could not get into it at all!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows just the Eiplogue to the I wrote this final chapters to please everyone as I can't cope being asked what happens next for the rest of my life and it took me thirty seconds aka the bin.

Lol, I'm yet to read The Host, I quite enjoyed Twilight, I just don't enjoy people like Charlaine Harris, who were there wayyy before, being said to 'follow' Meyer.

Oh, but it's all a scam - didn't you know!

I'd move the bible to the fiction section, and the koran to the comedy section . . . now, where did I put my bullet-proof vest?

Ha, ha, Wrath. I have a friend who truly believes in Creation and thinks that evolution is total rubbish. So I guess she would move Darwin's book to the fiction section. And as for Richard Dawkins...well, his works would probably be put into a Blasphemy section.

Interesting insight into the world of publishing, Emma, although I am not entirely convinced that all publishing houses are so altruistic.

OOOOh, that was damgerous - I think I'll just sit out on this round!

dangerous - oops!

Update:~ from Quentin Letts in Dec 24th Daily Mail

A Journey undoubtedly makes history as the most gossipy autobiography written by a British Prime Minister. But making history is not the same as writing history. Parts of this account - not least a conversation with Elizabeth II seems to have been lifted word for word from the film The Queen - should be filed under F for fiction of the most selfish, trashy variety.

{my words - to say nothing of plagiarism ~ no doubt a sincere form of flattery}

Appertaining to something worth reading . . .

Aleksandr Orlov's A Simples Life: My Life and Times is the latest moneymaking venture from the meerkat star of the Compare the Market TV adverts, who has revitalised a business and made a fortune conservatively estimated at £10m.

Amazon said pre-orders of the 127-page book, picturing the Orlov family tree and his relatives' historical struggles, had outsold the former prime minister's tome and a slew of newly released books by celebrity authors. Before its publication yesterday, (Friday, 29 October 2010) it had advance sales 165 per cent higher than Katie Price's fourth autobiography, You Only Live Once.

"The demand for his book is so great that he has generated more pre-orders sales than those achieved by Tony Blair's A Journey and more than double the pre-orders of Cheryl Cole, Russell Brand and Dannii Minogue for their recent releases," said Neil Campbell, Amazon UK's books manager.

Ebury Press, the Random House inprint behind the £9.99 autobiography, said: "All signs so far point towards it being a very successful book."

Its strong start suggests the British public has yet to sate its appetite for meerkats, the members of the mongoose family that populate Botswana's Kalahari desert, and for Aleksandr, who speaks with a Russian accent . . .