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blog by RICK WALTON listed in categories: Book Planet, Writer's Life

Q: What do you think of celebrity books?

A: I think celebrities in general should do their homework before diving into an artistic area that they don’t know much about. I respect the celebrities who do their homework. Their books are well-written and respectable. But most celebrity books are written to capitalize on the celebrity’s fame.

Saw a new celebrity book recently. Written by a famous novelist. It was a fun idea, but needed some good editing. The book had the following problems: 1) It was in verse. It should have been told in prose. 2) The verse was awkward. Didn’t flow easily. 3) The book was too long, probably 64 pages, with 2-5 verses per spread. 4) Because the story was forced into verse it was too wordy. The author used two or three stanzas to say what he should have said in one phrase or one sentence. It was clearly the work of a person who writes long novels and is used to going on and on. 5) And strangely enough, though the story was too long, the plot was too slight.

But the thing that really got to me about the book, and this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine—is that the jacket copy stated that the book was “destined to become a classic”. I’ve found that as a rule any work of art that proclaims itself to be “destined” to be something is only destined to be bad.

Posted in June, 2008