Famous for Being Famous

Here in the United States of America, we don't have kings or queens, or princes and princesses, so we have created our own kind of royalty, and sometimes it gets downright embarrassing, especially when it involves those people who are famous for nothing more than being famous. We anoint them and praise them--and make them rich. I'm ranting about this because Christine O'Donnell of Tea Party fame in Delaware just got a nice book deal. Like Sarah Palin, she will be in the spotlight for her wacky opinions and because she's famous--and this book deal will just make her more famous. And so it goes (if you get that literary reference, comment on this blog and share--the author who used that phrase would probably have a hard time getting published today).

In the meantime, there are legions of talented, even gifted, writers out there who can't get an agent, much less a book deal. And you know who the real losers are? You and me, because we'll never have the joy of reading many of those writers. Publishers spend millions to sign up a single so-called writer, not because they recognize talent when they see it but because that person has a high profile and will sell books, no matter how good or bad they are. It has nothing to do with writing ability or talent and everything to do with the bottom line. I wouldn't get so worked up if publishers took the millions they make off these books and used it to cultivate emerging writers, but they don't. They just start looking for the next celebrity figure they can enlist to churn out a couple of hundred pages of drivel that the unsuspecting will rush out to buy.

Oh, listen to me! All worked up today!

The thing is that the millions these famous non-writers (and most of them require a ghostwriter or book doctor) get could be spent instead on nurturing and supporting the people with genuine gifts. But because the cult of celebrity has taken over, we'll never see those writers in print. Maybe someday the pendulum will swing back, and we'll once again have publishers and editors who want to be known for their commitment to literature, to exquisite prose and to originality--or maybe not.

I fear the latter. Maybe what we can do to stop this is stop buying the books in this particular genre - if it even deserves to be called a 'genre.'

So on this cold, bright day I am venting for just a minute. Is anybody listening? Does anybody care?