Week Seven Prompt Response

For our prompt this week, I want you to think about fake memoirs, author mills (like James Patterson), and celebrity inspired book clubs. Basically write a readers' response to one of the articles you are reading for this week (see syllabus or links in this post for readings) - or talk about a time when a book or author that made headlines affected you personally or your work.

Before I started working at a library I was not aware of the phenomena that is celebrity book clubs. I had only heard of them in a second hand way. I saw their seals on the covers of books, but did not look that deeply into them. When I did start working at a library I became acutely aware of them and specifically one book club: Reese Witherspoon's. When ever she picks out a new book it literally cannot stay on our shelves. Her pick for January, of this year, is one of the most popular books at our library right now. 

The Variety article goes more in depth about this trend and the affect that it is having on the publishing world. I find it incredibly fascinating. In our modern world celebrities all have side hustles. The most common these days being owning some kind of brand. The celebrity book club is an offshoot of that. With Reese's book club the people are not giving her money to join the club, but she gains the full rights to produce the books into movies. This is what she is getting out of the book club. When a celebrity picks one of these books for their book club it can become an overnight bestseller. Where the Crawdads Sing has sold 18 million copies since being a pick for Reese's book club.

I personally would never use a celebrity book club to get recommendations. I try to naturally get book recommendations from coworkers, seeing a book at work, or friends. I do find them fascinating. I think that they are becoming more and more prevalent in our modern world. It is important to be aware of them and think about why they choose the books they do.