14 DAY TRIAL // Pippa Middleton reportedly got the boot from her publishing agent once her party-planning book sales flopped.
Kate Middleton's younger sister put out her first book some five months ago. “Celebrate: A Year of British Festivities for Families and Friends” is about 400 pages long and has earned the socialite a six-figure advance check.
Pippa has previously been employed by Table Talk party planners in London, and her background also includes writing for the Party Times newsletter.
Christian Post mentions that she was paid $600,000 (€462,000) for her book rights, in a bid by the publishing house to use the attention it was getting to make record sales.
However, the book was met with mostly negative reviews and was not embraced by the public in the manner that publicists had expected it to be. According to USA Today, critics have slammed its phrasing and vocabulary choices.
“Because of their size, turkeys are perfect for feeding larger gatherings,” a fragment of it reads.
Recently, it has wound up in the discount bin, with sellers reducing prices by up to 50 or even 75 percent on it. Only 2,000 copies were sold within the first week after it was released.
Her high-profile agent David Godwin, who also represents the likes of Indian poet and novelist Vikram Seth, has confirmed in a statement that Middleton is not a client of his anymore.
“I am very sorry it has happened, but yes, it is true: I no longer represent Pippa and I wish her every good luck,” he says.
“Theirs was a tricky relationship. [...] David was not an obvious choice for Pippa. His writers are heavyweights while Pippa’s niche is fluffy and commercial. In the end it was clear the union was not a happy one,” an insider comments for the Daily Mail.