RIP Jackie Collins

Have you ever tried to sell a book? It is much harder than writing the book…to me

at least, and I am far from a shy retiring personality. But there is nothing worse than putting all the effort into writing a book and then, like a tree falling in a forest with no one there to hear it, no one is there to buy it. So I have watched others do

it. Some are better behind a typewriter than in front of a microphone. Others were born to be media darlings. Jackie Collins was the embodiment of the latter.

I had met Jackie several times for interviews at events when I was an on-camera reporter and host. At the most glamorous of evenings, she was never an outsider looking in but rather an insider looking around. And her keen observational eye gave her the inspiration for her over thirty books on the goings-on in Hollywood. (Full disclosure: She was my inspiration for my “Dark Side of the Bright Lights” series of books: NOT TOO COCKSURE, HEIR LINE FRACTURE, the soon to be published SCANDAL EYES, et al.) For she not only walked the walk and talked the talk…she was willing to tell all.

And that is how she sold books, she told all. She was a true cocktail conversationalist. In fact, during one interview (http://t.co/vr2d7nu3QC) with me for Britain’s GMTV you can spot our cocktails—hers was scotch, I favor vodka. Her stories were the stuff of Hollywood lore and legend and when she spoke she didn’t so much sell the book as enticed you to want to know more. You either bought the book or somehow felt left out of the club. Because she was such a great storyteller, she was on all the right guest lists and, in turn, would tell what she saw at that party while guesting at the next. People didn’t fear being in her books as they were sure she would never write about them. But she did, more than 30 books worth. She told me people never saw themselves in her work but believed she had gotten everyone else spot on. Now that is genius. I have taken a page from her book, figuratively, and began my own series of Hollywood insider novels. But, more importantly, I have taken a page from her professionalism: don’t try to sell the books. Sell the authenticity of the writer and the books will sell themselves.

Rest in peace Jackie Collins. Your legacy is more than your books.