Personality goes a long way

Is it just me, or does Bestseller sound like a bad idea? I know I plugged it in the last blog entry but the more I think about it, the more I dislike the enterprise.

For the record, I think writing competitions are a fantastic things. It inspires those who have never thought of picking up a pen or keyboard before to write, and it provides aspiring writers with another avenue of publication rather than the soul-destroying path of submitting work through agents listed in the Writers and Artists Handbook.
The Secret War is a product of a writing competition – a book that was spotted amongst thousands and then published, so I’m obviously biased. But at least it shows writing competitions can further a writer’s career.

And the same might be said of Bestseller. But it’s not really the winning that could be a problem, it’s the taking part.

ITV is notorious for it’s reality-stardom TV what with X-factor and Pop Idol under it’s belts. But let’s face it, it’s sensationalist telly. As someone whose friend entered their daughter into an X-factor competition, it’s quite obvious the producers pick both the worst and the best entrants because there’s nothing more “entertaining” than seeing some oblivious individual make a complete prat of themselves on TV. Just as there’s nothing more “entertaining” than seeing some genius being discovered by a panel – only for it to be revealed in the tabloids they’ve been singing semi-professionally for fuck knows how long.

So how would that translate into Bestseller? Well I’m speculating, but if it’s given the same structure as X-factor or Pop Idol, you could well have an aspiring author standing in front of a panel of authors pitching their magnum opus. Which is fine, but writers don’t tend to be extroverts. Some, and some of the most talented, are introverts to some degree – those who find it difficult to even talk about their book to friends, let alone strangers… And let alone other authors. In fact, I would go as far as saying that really only ballsy, confident and those with the gift of the gab would get away with pitching their manuscript to best-selling authors. Have you ever tried doing that? Say at a signing? Or a convention? Me neither, I wouldn’t dream of doing it.

Pitching is for the film business. It’s for directors or scriptwriters or those who deal with that sort of thing on regular basis. Not really for writers who spend their time in solitude, spending months or years writing something only to be tongue-tied when it comes to pitching it to a best-selling author. Writers usually let their writing speak for them.

And unlike singing or dancing or acting, writing is hardly a performance thing (unless you’re a performance poet or the like). Novel writers don’t audition.

So what kind of winners could we get with Bestseller? We could get several contestants who are confident speakers, pitching a high concept book with actually little merit, while the better writers – those who have real talent – are laughed off the show in front of millions of TV viewers because they’re way too nervous to get their book across. Personality, in this case, will go a long way – and not really what counts: the writing itself.

I hope I’m wrong, and the show is a resounding success for the writers involved – if not so much ITV. But if it doesn’t work that way, I’m not sure how it could be done otherwise - perhaps with some actor reading excerpts of the book entries, or the authors themselves.
It would be fairer, but hardly “entertaining” Saturday night telly. It’s just not cruel enough.

But then the publishing business is already cruel without making it light entertainment.