(CNN) Barbra Streisand’s upcoming memoir, My Name is Barbra, is already a #1 bestseller, and the book won’t even hit shelves for nine months.
Current bestseller status is based on pre-sales on Penguin Random House official website and Amazon.
Streisand’s autobiography follows the recent best-selling celebrity memoirs by Viola Davis, Jennette McCurdy, Matthew Perry, Prince Harry and Pamela Anderson.
This is the current status of the release. Famous people who share stories about their early years, family dynamics, relationships, and personal struggles are of great interest.
Biography expert Rutger Bruining, CEO/founder of StoryTerrace, the UK’s leading biography writing service, attributes part of the trend to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A pandemic book boom
“I think a lot of celebrities have used lockdown to reflect on their lives,” Bruining told CNN. “What better time to think and write a book when there are no other work commitments to distract you? There [are] A flurry of memoirs coming out this year. As this post-pandemic period has given many to reflect on their lives, there is a built-in interest in learning from the lives and experiences of others.”
Pamela Anderson’s memoir, Love, Pamela, was released last month.
Bruining explained that memoirs tend to appeal to a wide range of people.
“The audience for her is pretty broad,” he says. “View [Prince] Harry’s memoirs, for example. You’ll have royal observers and supporters, who are likely to be an older demographic reading the book, as well as potentially younger readers interested in Harry and Meghan’s story or their philanthropic endeavors. Obviously, a certain level of interest in the memoirist’s area of focus—whether it’s an actor or an athlete, a trauma victim or a noble—will have an impact on whether a reader picks up the book, but I think it is less important than for other categories or genres.”
Several celebrity memoirs have been released in the past year that expose the author’s flaws.
“These are important to the public because they know that a remarkable personality might have gone through something similar,” Bruining said, citing Perry’s book, in which he outlined his battle with substance abuse.
“Writing about taboo subjects normalizes open discussion about those subjects and can positively encourage others who may be struggling with similar issues,” Bruining said.
Celebrity memoirs are big business
Aside from self-help, there’s also the promise of a big paycheck.
It has been speculated that Prince Harry received a $20 million advance on his book from Penguin Random House. He, like many other stars, collaborated with a writer on the project.
“A good ghostwriter makes a concerted effort to gain the trust of their subject,” Bruining said. “They find common ground and create a safe space in which the client feels comfortable opening up about often painful topics.”
And while celebrity memoirs currently dominate the market, like everything else, Bruining said the trend won’t last forever.
“Reasons range from the expensive cost of new hardcovers to the fact that many memoirs deal with heavy subjects like abuse, addiction, and other less-comfortable subjects,” he says, adding that people often devour these types of stories, but then you look for something “feel good”.
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