Reality TV key to publishing riches in Britain

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) In celebrity-obsessed Britain, Reality TV is the perfect new passport to publishing riches.

No talent is needed, just a voracious hunger for fame.

Critics may rail about the dumbing down of British culture but ghost-written autobiographies by instant young celebrities head straight to the top of bestseller lists.

Supermarkets have become a huge new market for celebrity sagas while online book buyers lap up tales of instant fame, publishers say.

''At the moment British culture is incredibly celebrity-driven,'' said Joel Rickett, deputy editor of the industry's weekly trade magazine The Bookseller.

''I wouldn't be surprised if publishers aren't sniffing around the current series of (the hit Reality TV show) Big Brother. The winner could walk out into a book deal.'' ''Publishers, just like any other media, are trying to ride on their coat tails,'' he told Reuters.

Glamour model Jordan, famous for her surgically enhanced breasts, fell in love with pop star Peter Andre on the Reality TV show ''I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.'' For publisher John Blake telling her tale was an opportunity too good to miss.

''She was turned down by almost every publisher. I took a gamble, paid her a 10,000 pound advance and by goodness it paid off. In hardback the book sold about 650,000 copies and in paperback has sold 450,000,'' he told Reuters.

''Then she got pinched from me. Random House, the biggest publishers in Europe, paid her more than 300,000 pounds for the second volume of her autobiography.'' PASSING PHASE Blake, whose publishing company is enjoying its best year ever with turnover of six million pounds, said: ''I think it's just a passing phase. First there was Princess Diana and then a period when every book about David Beckham sold by the tonne.'' Jade Goody was mocked on the Reality TV show ''Big Brother'' as the stupidest woman in Britain when she told her fellow contestants she thought abscess was a green French drink and Pistachio the painter of the Mona Lisa.

Afterwards she laughed all the way to the bank with her autobiography, fitness video, perfume and property portfolio.

Now, to complete the full set of Reality TV Golden Girls, Chantelle Houghton has turned the celebrity circus upside down and earned herself a six-figure advance for her story.

Brought into ''Celebrity Big Brother'' by the producers as a fake celebrity alongside 10 genuinely famous personalities, the Paris Hilton look-alike had the last laugh, being picked by phone voters as the victor.

Her astonished cry of ''Oh My God'' became her catchphrase, duly repeated when she got engaged to Preston, lead singer from The Ordinary Boys, who appeared with her on the show.

After Random House signed her, Chantelle echoed the dreams of so many twentysomethings who now see instant celebrity as a career option: ''Oh My God, I never thought I'd have my own book. But as I've learnt, if you want something bad enough and you believe in it, it really is possible to live the dream.'' REUTERS SY RAI1704