2021 was one of the biggest years for influencer publishing. Countless publishers earned millions of dollars for publishing hundred paged books comprised of mainly pictures. Celebrities including Charli D’Amelio have released what their so-called “self-written” book. In Spain, national influencers such as Laura Escanes, Dulceida, El Rubius, Aless Gibaja, Pelayo Díaz and Irene Noren have gained millions of euros for telling stories all the way from their childhood about traumatic experiences. But, to what extent is the writing really theirs?
“Many celebrities seek ghostwriters because they have the name recognition and the story to tell but don’t know exactly how to tell it. Others need content produced quickly, and hiring a team of ghostwriters is the fastest way to produce quality writing in the shortest amount of time possible” (Ghostriders). Famous people such as Elton John, Barack Obama, and John F. Kennedy have used this type of service in the past. What does the celebrity do? Provide information and gain thousands (even sometimes millions) of dollars. Let’s take the case of Charli D’Amelio, a globally popular figure on TikTok (a social media platform). If the maximum a writer can obtain from each book sold is three dollars (from a 18 euro book) and the total number of followers she has on Tik Tok is 130.7 million she just needs 0.7% of her followers to gain approximately 3 million dollars.
As a writer, I believe the main problem of this arrangement is the invisibility towards other writers. What about those who have written a novel throughout a lapse of time of ten years and still have not received any response from a publisher? Cases like these keep on rising, causing the anger of thousands of writers who can’t share their story with the world. Editorials are focusing their attention each time more on celebrities who have a story to tell. Even if they’re not going to end up writing a single line, the profit is all that matters.
The editorial world has changed drastically in the past few years and each time the amount of books being published by independent authors is limited. Is it going to be a phase or an eternal cycle?
Bibliography
“7 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Used Ghostwriters.” The Scripted Blog, 21 June 2016, https://www.scripted.com/content-marketing/famous-ghostwriters.