Around 9 years ago, I accidentally switched on a tv “morning show”. The sort where there a lots of promotional pieces and fluff interviews with people trying to plug a product. Normally, I keep flicking past such channels, but on this occasion something caught my attention – they were interviewing a pair of sisters who at a mere 16 and 18 years old had just published their debut novel. In their words (as I recall them*) “We were at home one day when a representative from Simon and Schuster called and asked us if we would be interested in writing a book.”
This seemed unbelievable – out of the blue, two people who weren’t even trying to be authors were offered a publishing contract with one of the largest publishers in the world. Surely there was no way that was true? And yet, it was.* The sisters didn’t make the aspiring author in me feel any better about the situation when I later read about their writing process: they created a broad two-page outline describing the futuristic tale about two girls with superpowers who are secretly twins and then handed it off to a ghostwriter to complete. In researching for this post, I found an article which said that even that outline was completed with the help of their creative director over a mere two days. Yes that’s right, the teenage sisters employed someone to help them manage their creative output. This leads to the reveal that the sisters in question were Kylie and Kendall Jenner (In case it needs to be said – of Keeping up with the Kardashian’s fame).
The creative director defended them in interviews after the books publication saying the Jenners had numerous Skype and Face-Time sessions with their ghostwriter, Maya Sloan, and that “the group all marked up drafts with extensive notes” (my emphasis).1
Unfortunately, around the time of it’s launch, “Kendall said she and Kylie received “some help” with their book because “we obviously can’t write a sci-fi novel on our own.” Her admission came shortly after an embarrassing gaffe on the Billboard Music Awards, during which she misread a teleprompter and awkwardly blurted out: “Guys, I’m the worst reader!””3. For authors who spend a year to years writing a novel, only to languish in obscurity, this bordered on a Dante-style poetic justice hell**. Adding further insult to the injury, the Jenners received a large advance for the book and were then out promoting its publication as though they had written it from scratch. I was aghast and very jealous. So there is some definite sour grapes from the struggling writer in me here.
Their book, Rebels: City of Indra, The Story of Lex and Livia was published in 2014 by a Simon and Schuster subsidiary to mixed reviews. One of the more brutal ones said their sister, Kim Kardashian’s sex tape had a better plot.2 The book sold some 13,000 copies4 which was considered a flop given their fame and advance etc. However, it did go into reprint and a sequel was published in 2016. The sequel had equally mixed reviews on Amazon (some of which relate to the fact that the Jenners and their creative director get a writing credit in addition to their new ghostwriter, Katherine Killmond – as in “Apparently it takes four people, a famous name, and a complete lack of talent to write a book nowadays” -Sarahfoz & “I heard that this book existed and immediately regretted it. Having read not one single page, I find myself demotivated and saddened by merely being aware of it’s existence.” -Kevin), nevertheless the sisters can claim to be the authors of two books.
In the modern age of AI generated text, and authors using it to write sections or edit drafts, or even to write complete novels, it is a curious thing to reconsider how the Jenners becoming authors makes one feel. Their use of a ghostwriter is not conceptually removed from the use of AI (nb: I don’t agree with authors using either ghostwriters*** or AI), but to me the reason why it grates a little more comes down to money. AI can be used freely or cheaply, but it is expensive to use a ghost writer and the sisters had no barrier to hiring one (indeed, just before the book was published, Kendall had bought a US$1.4 million apartment at age 18). Furthermore, Kendall and Kylie had no aspiration to be authors so the whole exercise reeked of a soulless branding opportunity. When authors slave to write a novel, struggle to get it published, then when they do have a roughly 15% chance it will sell less than a dozen copies5, it seems unfair that two authors who weren’t even trying can get their book into the top 7% of books sold that year.5 I guess it just shows the power of having yourself as a brand.
What about you? What do you think about the Jenners being authors? Am I judging the situation too harshly? Please comment below.
Next time I’ll talk about the weird routine of a world famous author which they use to get in the mood for writing. To make sure you don’t miss it, please subscribe to my mailing list.
1 Kaufman, A. (2014) For Maya Sloan, ghostwriting Jenners’ YA book just part of fiction fun https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-maya-sloan-20140701-story.html
4 https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2014/10/77080/kendall-kylie-jenner-rebels-of-indra-flop
5 See the top comment at https://countercraft.substack.com/p/no-most-books-dont-sell-only-a-dozen
*based on my recollection of the interview. This may be wrong or contain false memories.
**For example, in Inferno Dante has fortune tellers and psychics walk with their heads twisted backwards so they can only see where they’ve been.
*** With some exceptions – eg when a person sits down for extensive interviews about their life and a ghostwriter puts the stories into some form of autobiographical narrative.
Robert New 
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