Another Celebrity Book

So, there's another celebrity writing a kids book! Wow, I can't wait to read it! (Add massive doses of sarcasm with that!) To wit:

Grammy-nominated musician Avril Lavigne's MAKE 5 WISHES color manga books, in which an introverted teenager gets a series of wishes granted by a demon go bad and then meets her hero -- Avril Lavigne, who helps her find the courage to conquer her own personal demons, to BetsyMitchell at Del Rey Manga, for publication in April 2007 and July 2007, by Terry McBride at Nettwerk Management (world).

Pardon me for barfing, but oh, please. Even if Avril hadn't come up with that plot, I'd barf. And the fact that it's a celebrity that has makes last night's and the night before's dinner come up too.

I'm so tired of people thinking it's easy to write a children's book.

Writers everywhere put up with everybody we know saying they want to write when we tell them we do. It's practically a cliche and it's a very tired, old one, to boot. In addition, whether we like it or not, children's literature is a ghetto - kids writers, of whom I am one, aren't regarded as seriously as writers who write for adult markets. Kid's lit, like kids, is seen as "lesser", of little importance, and somehow, not as demanding as writing for grown-ups, when the fact of the matter is, it's harder. I, and a lot of kids writers I know, were published in adult forums long before we were good enough to be accepted by children's publishers.

So the assumption is that if people want to write, it's easier to write for kids - it's not as long, it's not as complicated and it's just plain easy to do. All of which is so false, it makes my teeth ache. (My teeth ache because I'm clenching them so hard. It's bad form to rip someones throat out with your teeth. Really gives kid lit a bad name.)

So when a celebrity gets accepted and announces a kids book, it really grates - they didn't pay their writing dues, they sure aren't going to be turning out quality kids stuff, and I personally think the kids are being cheated by that. Not to mention what it does to those of us who are still paying our dues and are often writing material that is head and shoulders above what gets put on the bookstore shelf by these people and/or their ghostwriters.

So, when we see yet another celebrity bringing out a book for kids, it grates on a number of levels - we're working hard for little to no money a lot of the time, when they get huge advances and immediate acceptance because they do have a NAME recognition that will bring in the bucks (and I wonder just how often those advances prove out!); the kids are being cheated because instead of quality work that appeals to them, like Dav Pilkey, and Eric Wilson, and the innumerable writers on my children's writers email list who have learned their craft and take it seriously, this stuff is thrown together by someone who hasn't learned how to write for kids. The kids like it, not because it's good and it captures their imagination, but because it contains the name and likeness of someone they know from TV and videos and music. And I often wonder just how much disappointment there is when they see someone, who may excel at their craft, fall flat and turn out a story that doesn't appeal to the kids?

How often will these kids come back and reread the book once they outgrow their fascination with this particular celebrity? Whereas all of Eric Wilson's 22 books are still in print, and he's working on his second generation of fans - his original readers are now grown up and introducing their favourite books to their kids. Will Avril's books do that, 20 years from now, when no one remembers her name? Will Madonna's books still be in print (are they still in print?) when she's 65 and not as visible as she is today? These people might be remembered for their music, or their contributions in their primary art, but it's almost guaranteed that their books will be forgotten and out of print, because it's the name they're trading on, not the content and the quality.

And in the meantime, how many authors who worked hard and put years of effort in are being turned down because the money that could have gone to them as a modest advance was allocated to the celebrity?

So, yeah, it grates. And we carp and call them names and are jealous and hate them because they get it easy and they not only haven't earned it, but never will be good enough to be one of us.