Celebrity Power

Here's how important it is to have a celebrity associated with your book. Last Tuesday morning on Good Morning America, James Patterson appeared to promote his new tome: a non-fiction book about the son of his friend Hal Friedman, who has Tourette's Syndrome, entitled Against Medical Advice.

There is no way that Hal Friedman would ever have been able to get his story published without the participation of James Patterson and while it is commendable for both to attract national attention to Tourette's Syndrome, the exercise also serves to underscore how difficult it is for the rest of us, talented and well-intentioned as we may be, to get to the next level.

I know I have written about this before and you can hear the bitter aftertaste of rejection, but this episode only highlights the problems in the industry. I am not thrilled that the arbiters of literary taste continue to publish more of the same and I am especially not thrilled that more of the same is essentially what sells to People magazine readers.

This is not about the book, which I am sure is a very good read, but more about the concept of what it takes to get a good book published. And about the people who are supposed to be helping you along the way.