Many have followed the adage “write what you know” and penned semi-autobiographical novels about characters navigating their way through Hollywood or the music business, while others seem to have a genuine talent for fiction writing and creating characters who readers come back to again and again.

So which celebrities have found success in the publishing industry, and which are better off sticking to their day jobs?

1. Millie Bobby Brown

The British 19-year-old set the internet alight last week with her debut novel Nineteen Steps. The book is inspired by her grandmother experiencing a crush on the London Underground during the Second World War. Described as “a sweeping and evocative tale of star-crossed love and tangled secrets in wartime”, the novel has nevertheless received criticism online for being ghost written.

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The book’s author Kathleen McGurl has leapt to the Stranger Things star’s defence in The Guardian, pointing out that “it doesn’t diminish her involvement, because ultimately it is her family story, and it wouldn’t be happening without her”.

2. Pamela Anderson

Goodreads reviews call Star “playful, bawdy” and “a breathless romp through Tinseltown and tabloids”. Readers gave both a solid three out of five stars.

3. Tom Hanks

Elvis star Tom Hanks began writing his first novel in 2018 after feeling ground down by laborious shooting schedules, telling the BBC that it was his way of staying inspired by the movie business. Called The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece: A Novel, the book centres around the production of a superhero film inspired by a 1970s comic book, and follows characters on both sides of the camera. The book is heavily inspired by his own experience, and Hanks told the BBC: “I wrote wherever I was. I wrote on planes, I wrote at home, I wrote on vacation, I wrote in hotel rooms, I wrote on long weekends when I wasn’t working.”

4. Hilary Duff

First rising to fame in Disney’s Lizzie McGuire back in the early 2000s, 10 years later the then-23-year-old actor and singer Hilary Duff decided to write for the same audience she was most familiar with: teenagers. The resulting Elixir trilogy comprises three fantasy romance novels that follow photojournalist Clea Raymond as she attempts to understand her father’s disappearance in Brazil and the bond she forms with a mysterious stranger named Sage. More recently, Duff wrote a children’s book titled My Brave Little Girl, which she told Good Morning America was inspired by her daughter.

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5. Naomi Campbell

However, absolutely no one was surprised to learn several years later what they’d suspected all along: that it was in fact her “editor” for the project, Caroline Upcher, who had written the book. “It wasn’t really even ghosting,” Upcher told The Guardian in 2008. “It was just another novel by me but with someone else’s name on the cover … everybody knew it was me, but we all then had to pretend otherwise.”

6. Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke is one of the most accomplished authors on this list, having penned six novels to date, all of which have received critical acclaim. The Washington Post called his most recent book, A Bright Ray of Darkness, a “witty, wise and heartfelt novel”, while his second novel Ash Wednesday drew flattering comparisons to J. D. Salinger by literary critic Helen Falconer.

7. Britney Spears

8. Kendall and Kylie Jenner

Of all the books the Jenner sisters could have written, it feels safe to say no one had futuristic sci-fi on their bingo cards. But that’s exactly what the pair did when they released Rebels: City of Indra together in 2014. “We didn’t want to do something typical that you just heard anyone else would do,” they told The Toronto Star at the time.

The newspaper asked the Jenners if the book’s depiction of a planet where the elites live in the sky and the poor live beneath the Earth’s surface was a metaphor for how they saw the world. “I don’t think we took it that far,” Kendall replied. Yes, quite.

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9. Madonna

It wasn’t a one off, either. The “Material Girl” penned almost 20 children’s books between 2003 and 2010, many of them in The English Roses series.

10. Nicole Richie

Richie is another star whose novels are clearly based on their own experiences. Her 2005 book The Truth About Diamonds tells the story of “rock royalty princess and card-carrying member of Hollywood’s inner circle” Chloe Parker as she attempts to navigate fame and riches to find herself.