Can a Writer Be a Celebrity?

The beginning of every form of entertainment is written. Whether it be the cheesy dialogue of an old action flick or a literary masterpiece that puts the entire human condition into perspective. Even your favorite reality show or Hollywood gossip host has an entire team of scribes feeding them lines.

Why then, if these are the brainchilds of every popular production, do they get none of the recognition? Why do they only get a few hundred-thousand for creating the backbone of an entire film, when the recognizable faces who mouth their written words get millions?

Perhaps, we can delve into an old adage for inspiration. A mainstream mantra I've heard more times than I would have liked during my ongoing job search is, "It's not what you know...it's who you know." Well, in this case, "It's not what is said...it's who is saying it."

The sad truth is, we live in a visual culture, where seeing is believing. In order for someone to become famous, they need to be visible. They need to be on television talk-shows and internet video. They need to have a plague of paparazzi swarming them at every second of their life. People need to be able to put a face to name. Because with so many voices vying for attention, a human being needs some way of deciding which ones are important enough to lend their ear to. And if someone is a celebrity in our sycophantic world, they're worth hearing.

With the internet and web 2.0 technologies, everyone has a voice and the opportunity to carve out a nice little fan base, but if someone who makes a living as a writer ever wants to achieve celebrity status they will need more than their words. If not, they will continue to toil in obscurity until their work is read by a more worthy media figure.

It is possible for people with a background as a writer to break through the mold and wrestle their way to stardom. Look at Conan O'brien. He began his career penning skits and episodes for SNL and the Simpsons, but once they put his fiery red mane in front of the camera...he became an icon. So there is hope for writers to become recognized by the masses for their talents, but the only problem is that they'll first have to develop an image and a whole new array of talents before they can get the attention they deserve.

Any thoughts on why writers rarely achieve celebrity status?

-- Steve Creswick
Ad Doctor

Who wants to read an E-Book?

Over the weekend, Amazon and MacMillan book publishing got into a little scuffle over how to price their e-books. Amazon wants all e-books to be priced at $9.99 to entice people to buy a Kindle and read using their technology. When the Kindle first came out I remember an army of nay-sayers claiming people would never pay for both the expensive gadget as well as the 10 dollars for each book, but that is in the past and the venture has been successful enough.

Still, Amazon refuses to price e-books at anything other than $9.99, which has angered publishing companies. The bookseller take a loss by pricing them so low, but they make up for that loss by selling Kindles. The publishing companies believe that pricing e-books this low can last forever, and will even take a less percentage of profit to have their products priced higher. Apple will allow publishers to price their own books for the iPad, and they want the same from Amazon as well.

But the real question is not about Amazon or MacMillan or Apple. It is, why would the consumer want to pay close to the price of a regular book for an e-book? They're not thinking about the author who put so much time and effort into the tale they're reading. The reader is thinking about what they get for their money.

They do not get a tangible product they can lend to their friends. They get words on a screen, which can be found just about anywhere one looks on the internet. So, if you want to price e-books higher, there should be an incentive to purchase them over a hardcover or paperback copy, shouldn't there?

Well how about we borrow some marketing practices from other mediums.

1. Downloadable Content: It is popular for videogames in the digital age to offer free downloadable content with pre-orders of all the big releases, whether it be extra missions, or unique equipment. Maybe include a short story download, an extra chapter(not essential to the story of course), or access to those in the future.

2. Embedded Soundtrack: Set the mood with fitting music to accompany whatever chapter or page the reader is on.

3. Commentary: DVDs have optional commentary, so maybe e-books should have optional notes written by the author to clarify certain things, and expand on certain reasons for taking the path he/she did when writing the narrative.

1. Allow readers to upload their own notes and commentary, like when you buy a used book for class and most of the important stuff is already highlighted.
2. Access to commentary and opinions of reviewers, or academic essays in the case of certain books

4. Include concept art: We live in a visual culture. Some video games and movies offer concept art with their Collector's Edition packaging, so why not have an artist rendition of major scenes or characters included?

-- Steve Creswick
Ad Doctor