Katie Price up for book award- what do you think?

[Guest]

Michelle. Did you just agree with me? Stop it at once.

[Michelle]

Oh my, I think I did. Sorry, I'll stop right now.

[Talisman]

Either way, it's not as if it's an important award.

 

It is one of the most important prizes in the book world - as the article in The Times and other sites said, the 'Oscar' of the book world. I personally feel that despite what Michael Rosen says, authorship is everything. Who is it sho spends time with these people gathering facts, getting under the skin of the 'celebrity author', writing it in a style that makes it sounds like their own work, then presenting it to the publisher and going through the editing process with them to get everything right - not Katie, but the ghost writer.

 

It may have been Katie's ideas that went into that book then, but it was the ghost writer who did the bulk of the work, and is therefore the true author. That work should then be honoured and acknowledged in the correct way.

 

Ghost writers though are very private people, and this is a difficult but interesting and very lucrative profession to get into if you have the stomach for it. It is a license to get right under the skin of these celebrities and ask them all those pertinent questions that no one else can - not so much maybe with Katie, as let's face it, there is not much of her life that has not already been shoved down our throats anyway, but you know what I mean. Ghost writers are also paid handsomely for their efforts - usually for a set fee, but often with these celebrity books, also for share of the profits. They do the work knowing that it is part of the deal for their name not to be mentioned and not wanting the publicity that goes along with all of this.

 

I do believe that things are changing, and public are wising up to these things and wanting things to change. That change takes time to filter down through the echelons of the publishing industry, which is notoriously resistant to change. It will though happen, it is an inevitability and only a matter of time - it is not if, but when.

 

Perhaps a fair compromise would be for the ghost writer to retain her anonymity (I know her name, but most of Katie's fans and those outside the publishing industry wouldn't), but for the prize money to be shared equally between them. Mind you, with the fuss that this has caused, I would be very surprised if it won anyway - it it does, then I don't think we have seee anything yet.

 

It could be of course though also, and I made this point on my blog site, that this has all been divinely inspired by the universe in order to raise awareness of such issues. Who knows after all what the higher agenda is or what truly goes on behind the scenes.

[Weave]

Its a excellent marketing idea, they are buying the name, I am not sure about the award though but thems the breaks.

[Icecream]

No. If it's a book prize, the book gets the prize. (Although the author still gets all the recognition.) If it's an author prize, like the Nobel, the author gets it. But prizes should be about the author and not the book. The focus of this competition is the book and therefore it shouldn't matter who wrote it as it's the book's name that will be tied to the award. Either way, it's not as if it's an important award.

 

OK, so the actual writer should get the recognition then. Of course it matters who wrote it. The person who gets the recognition (whether jointly or not), should be the person behind the writing, since it is their writing that is getting awarded. Of course it is an important award.

 

I agree with Talisman all part of a divine plan for the universe).

[Guest]

While trawling through my favourite blogs, I found this link which mentions KatieJordan's ghost.

[~V~]

All this talk about Ghostwriters ...

 

Aren't all writers 'ghostwriters' if we look at it that they listen to somebody and then put the ideas into a book? Taken to the extreme anyway ...

 

No author gets every idea from their head, they get them from numerous sources, this one just got them mainly from Katie Price.

 

So yes, ghostwriters are a ridiculous concept

[Purple Poppy]

I think you'd have to be a certain kind of person to be able to ghost write, not just to know that you'd miss the limelight, but to be able to work with people you didn't particularly like or respect...and yes, if you were able to you could refuse a job, but how many people are in that position.

 

I still think its an collaboration and each should get equal billing.

Pp

[kateleopald]

Yes but your average member of the public doesn't stop to think whether it's the book or the author being awarded a prize.

 

I think this is a really good point. The only reason this book grabbed attention is because of the person linked to it and Katie Price did not write this.

 

I think it's a (marketing inspired) tragedy.

 

If JK Rowling stuck two balloons up her jumper and got voted into the FHM 2008 sexiest babe/bimbo list, I think lads mag readers would think the same way...

[Guest]

Oh joy! Oh rapture! Oh happy day! What fresh bliss is this? Could it be? Yet more golden prose from the pen of that most literate of novelists? Hurrah! Linky.

[chicken]

How positively vile