One Author's Drivel Is Another Man's Entertainment

Publishers pay huge money to celebrities, who are then supposed to go out and "write" something.

It could be the life story of a girl in her teens, it could be a pop singer penning a tome filled with fashion and diet advice.

Author Lynda La Plante would prefer that publishers stop paying enormous sums for such shite and print more readable, quality writing.

Actress Martine McCutcheon, who rose to fame with a starring role in EastEnders, a long running British soap, begs to differ.

Ms. McCutcheon wrote a novel and is under contract for two more. The first chapter of her debut novel, The Mistress, was made available on line, to generate some pre-release buzz. There was indeed buzz generated, with critics panning the writing as "a truly awful piece of pedestrian drivel."

She was well paid for her drivel because she's got an enormous platform. The book will sell, based entirely on her fame and not at all on the quality of her prose. Whether or not it well sell through to earn the advance is another story entirely.

Some other author will be paid a pittance in royalties to make up the difference. That also means that new authors will find it that much more impossible to get their chance, because the publishers are crying about the tight market and the literary agents hear the call. Untried authors won't get a foot in the door because the money's going out to pay celebrities and only published authors need apply.

So a highly respected crime fiction novelist calls on the publishing houses to re-arrange their priorities, to put out a quality product. A television soap opera actress defends the status quo, noting that her book is nothing more than entertainment for the average man.

The average man enjoys pedestrian drivel, as far as the major publishers are concerned, pedestrian drivel written by someone famous. It's all about the author's platform, about business, and there's precious little art involved.