Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Are we seeing the death of the celebrity memoir? Poor sales of autobiographies putting major publishers off expensive big-name titles

  • Chief executive of HarperCollins says books written by stars have 'peaked'
  • Claims profits are now 'hit and miss' and publishers reluctant to buy them
  • Books from Stephen Fry and John Cleese failed to match high expectation

Celebrity memoirs are no longer popular as the genre has already 'peaked', according to one of Britain's leading publishers.
Charlie Redmayne, UK chief executive of HarperCollins, has slashed the number of books written by the rich and famous that his company buys up.
He claims their profits are now 'hit and miss' - and says even those expected to do well, written by some of the country's biggest names, are failing to match expectations.  

Undersold: 
Undersold: Memoirs written by Stephen Fry and John Cleese both sold 60,000 copies - far less than what was expected from two of Britain's most popular comedic actors
Mr Redmayne, older half-brother of actor Eddie Redmayne, told the Evening Standard: 'We're moving away from big celebrity hit-and-miss stuff.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2881571/End-chapter-celebrity-memoirs-Autobiographies-rich-famous-no-longer-sell-says-publishing-house.html#ixzz3MeBnOxs8

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