Why Is Every Celebrity Suddenly a Novelist?

Actors, presenters, DJs and reality stars keep showing up on chat shows with suspiciously polished debut novels. Meanwhile, unknown writers are still fighting to get anybody beyond their immediate family to read chapter one!

Have you noticed that every celebrity is suddenly a novelist? It used to be mildly intriguing. A television presenter, newsreader, actor, actress or radio DJ would reveal that they had written a book and you might think, “Oh, they can write as well. That’s interesting.” Now every other Tom, Dick and Harry celebrity appears on a chat show clutching a freshly printed novel and announcing, with tremendous sincerity, that writing it has been “such a journey”.

The characters apparently came alive. They spoke to them. They demanded that their stories be told. There is already a sequel coming and, would you believe it, they have secured a three-book deal. Frankly I’m fed up of it. Can celebrities please just stick to being celebrities?

Publishing on the easiest difficulty setting

I know how that sounds. Moody, bitchy, gripey and more than a little bitter. Well, actually that’s probably an accurate assessment. I am an independent author, so I have earned at least a small allowance of professional resentment.

Most writers will never receive the opportunities routinely handed to famous people. A celebrity begins with the single thing every unknown author desperately needs: an audience. Their name provides instant recognition, their face secures interviews and their existing followers make the project commercially attractive before anybody has read a sentence.

Perhaps the celebrity wakes up one morning and decides they have always wanted to write a novel. Perhaps a publisher approaches them because a familiar face on a cover, a life-sized cardboard cut-out in a bookshop and a week of television appearances can shift a considerable number of copies.

Even if the celebrity says, “I don’t know how to write a book,” that need not end the conversation. Somebody can develop the idea with them. An editor can shape it. A writing partner can help. A ghostwriter can talk to them over Zoom, perform literary CPR and turn a cliched concept into a polished personalised manuscript.

Ghostwriting has always existed, of course. Celebrity autobiographies have long been produced with professional writers, and that makes sense. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, created through Malcolm X’s conversations with journalist Alex Haley, remains a powerful example of collaboration producing an important book.

And to be fair, I’m okay with celebrities producing biographies – their lives are interesting and people want to know about the behind-the-scenes of what they have achieved it and how.

But now the celebrity publishing machine has moved enthusiastically into fiction. A debut novel becomes a trilogy, a trilogy becomes a franchise, a franchise becomes a TV drama or movie. Meanwhile, the celeb is discussing their “creative process” on television before most ordinary writers have summoned the courage to send their manuscript to the first of several hundred agents that will reject their efforts without even the courtesy of a reply.

Two Very Different Publishing “Journeys”

Put the experiences side by side and those inspirational celebrity stories about “the writing journey” begin to sound rather different:

Stage	Unknown first-time author	Celebrity debut novelist
Starting point	A blank page and an audience of approximately three relatives	A famous name and thousands or millions of existing followers
Getting noticed	Sends queries to agents and publishers, usually followed by silence or rejection	May be approached directly by publishers looking for a marketable name
Writing the book	Works around employment, family, bills and daily life, often for several years	Can access professional editors, researchers, writing partners and ghostwriters
Securing a deal	Must prove the quality and commercial potential of an unknown product	Arrives with built-in publicity and a ready-made customer base
Financial support	Frequently pays for editing, design, formatting and promotion personally	May receive an advance and a fully funded professional production team
Cover and production	Finds and manages freelancers or learns to do everything independently	Publisher handles editing, design, printing and distribution
Bookshop presence	Struggles to secure shelf space or persuade local shops to stock copies	Receives prominent displays, signings and possibly a life-sized cardboard cut-out
Publicity	Posts relentlessly on social media and hopes the algorithm shows mercy	Appears on television, radio, podcasts and national press
Initial sales	Friends, relatives and a few heroic strangers	Launches directly to an established fanbase
Critical reception	Must fight for every review	Endorsements and media coverage arrive as part of the launch
Questions about authorship	May face suspicion about using AI, especially when self-published	Often receives little scrutiny over editors, collaborators or ghostwriters
The next book	Begins the entire struggle again	May already have a three-book deal

Meanwhile, somewhere in a spare bedroom

Unknown writers are working around jobs, families and bills. They spend years developing a story, reach chapter three, lose confidence and scrap the whole thing (I’ve done exactly that several times!). They begin again, pay for editing, commission a cover, learn formatting and then market the finished book themselves. Some finally publish and sell three copies. Two go to relatives and the third was probably purchased by somebody who clicked the wrong button.

Personally, I had wanted to publish a book since primary school and had been writing stories for years before I finally did it in 2023. I figured that writing an entire book was the tricky bit. Turns out the real challenge is trying to reach readers; it remains the toughest part of the process.

Then somebody who has never previously been associated with writing strolls onto a chat-show sofa and announces their latest novel, nationwide publicity campaign and carefully negotiated three-book deal. You can understand why those of us still fighting for every individual reader might feel slightly aggrieved.

Publishers are running businesses

Publishers are commercial operations, and celebrity books can make money. A recognisable name reduces risk, attracts media coverage and earns valuable shelf space. The reality is that if a publisher has an unknown novelist and a celebrity author, which one receives the larger marketing push?

We already know the answer. One can sell books through name recognition alone. The other needs reviewers, recommendations, advertising and a minor miracle involving the algorithm. At this point, it’s genuinely questionable whether a new author would really benefit from a publisher contract at all. And perhaps the Indie route is the better option as the most sincere and genuine ambassador for a book is the real author who wrote it.

There are arguments in favour of celebrity books, of course. They bring people into bookshops, encourage fans to buy books and potentially introduce reluctant readers to fiction. Anything that gets more people reading and supports booksellers has value. If celebrity publishing helps cultivate a wider book-buying culture, the rest of the industry may benefit.

I recognise all of that but still find it all enormously frustrating.

Did they genuinely write it?

The awkward question remains: when a celebrity says, “I wrote a novel,” what exactly does “wrote” mean?

Some undoubtedly write every word. Others work with editors, co-authors or writing partners. To be fair, some established novelists use collaborators, and even the most solitary author eventually benefits from another pair of eyes.

Greater transparency would help. If another writer developed the plot, constructed the characters or produced much of the prose, that contribution deserves visible credit. Readers should be able to understand whose imagination and labour created the book they are buying.

Ironically, independent authors increasingly face the opposite suspicion. Use artificial intelligence for promotional material or a cover and somebody assumes the novel was generated by a machine. I get accused of this all the time as I do use a lot of AI in my promotional content – without the wherewithal to produce big-budget campaigns, I have to resort to whatever tools are available to me, and AI can produced eye-catching content.

However, I have been writing stories since I was at primary school in the 1970s. For example, my collection of stories in Quantum Races were written across more than 20 years, with some appearing on my website long before current generative AI existed, yet the eye of suspicion falls quickly upon unknown creators.

A celebrity receives endorsements, reviews and queues for signed copies. An independent writer receives an interrogation about their use of apps.

An unequal starting line

I will obviously concede that celebrity authors have every right to accept an opportunity and make money. I would probably do the same in their position. The irritation comes from pretending that everybody entered the same race on equal footing.

Ordinary writers are still at the starting line, tying their shoelaces and wondering whether the race organiser has forgotten them. The celebrity is already halfway down the finishing straight, sauntering towards the champagne at the finish line while a chauffeur waits to take them to the next book signing extravaganza.

You already have the acting, presenting, DJing and television career. Must you have absolutely everything? Leave one thing for those of us locked in spare rooms, talking to imaginary people and hoping that somebody, somewhere, might eventually read what we have written.

I sound bitter. I am bitter. But I suspect many writers feel exactly the same irritation whenever another celebrity appears on television, holds up a novel and begins describing their incredible literary journey.

Am I being unfair? Have you read a genuinely brilliant celebrity novel? Should ghostwriters and writing partners receive greater recognition? Let me know in the comments. If you need me, I will be back at my desk, rewriting chapter three.

Shahzad Sheikh is the author of Silent Ruin, How to Be an Automotive Content Creator, Quantum Races and The ULEZ Files.

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