BB FANS

Published: 05 November 2006

Publishers regret big-name signings whose books are expensive flops
By Anthony Barnes and Martin Hodgson

As the publishers waved their chequebooks, the line-up of actors, pop stars, sportsmen and politicians must have seemed irresistibly bankable. Now they are counting the cost after this summer's push of celebrity stories turned into some of publishing's most expensive flops.

Chantelle

Living the Dream

DEAL: £300,000

SALES: 4,000 (published 26 Oct)

EXTRACT: "I paused at the top of the steps... Behind me was an eerie quietness, a deserted house, which for three weeks had been home."

Independent

Five books from Wayne Rooney? What were they thinking?

If anyone made any money this year from autobiographies, its the Hoff. As I previously mentioned in another thread I went to his signing at Cheshire Oaks a while back, and so did over 2000 other people. They had ordered in 600 copies and sold out within minutes. If that happened across the rest of the country, then hes made a fair few quid out of the whole deal.

If anyone is remotely interested in seeing the pictorial evidence of this splendiferous occasion, please PM me for a link to the article I wrote, with pictures. You can also see me and Minnieminx doing our best impression of the infamous Hoff/ Gary Coleman picture with KITT.

I would like to add however, the book is utter bilge. I've read better scibblings on a toilet wall.

I think the problem is that everyone knows the majority of these "celebrities" aren't writing the books themselves, they just let people have the general story. There ends up being no feeling behind any of the words and they just fall flat.

And really, who cares about Chantelle anyway? I really don't see the point in reading about a person who has only been in the spotlight a year. It sounds boring.