Famous first words: how celebrities made their way on to children's bookshelves
David Walliams, Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Springsteen … when celebrity authors make big money from children’s books, do young readers and other writers pay the price?
What do David Walliams, Lil Nas X, Ricky Gervais, Dermot O’Leary, Geri Halliwell, Bruce Springsteen, Miranda Hart, Greg James, Chris Hoy, Frank Lampard, Clare Balding, Konnie Huq, Marie Kondo, Paul McCartney, Julian Clary, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Fogle, Tom Fletcher, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Sandi Toksvig, Natalie Portman, Spike Lee, Fearne Cotton, Russell Brand, Pharrell Williams, David Baddiel, Simon Cowell, Danny Baker, Prince Charles, Coleen Rooney, Madonna, LeBron James, Lorraine Kelly, Ben Miller, Sarah Ferguson, Adrian Edmondson, Jamie Lee Curtis and Keith Richards have in common?
They are all children’s authors. And celebrities. Which makes them, depending on who you speak to, either the saviours of publishing or proof of its decline. And of the many celebrities who have tried their luck in children’s books, Walliams is the giant. Since his 2008 debut, The Boy in the Dress, he has sold more than 40m books and racked up more than 180 weeks at No 1 in the children’s charts; a feat even JK Rowling has never achieved. He alone accounted for 14.4% of HarperCollins’ £133m revenue last year, and singlehandedly sold a third of the top 50 children’s books of the year: 2.4m copies from 11 books, compared to 4.7m between the rest.
I draw a line at the idea that children’s books are there as an extra way for Simon Cowell or Madonna to make more money
Related: Feminism, fattism and fart jokes: do David Walliams's books pass the smell test?
I don’t like the fact that I don’t make any money selling these books, but I do like that they bring kids into shops
