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 best-seller 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 said.

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 advance and by goodness it paid off. In hardback, the book sold about 650,000 copies and in paperback has sold 450,000,” he said.

“Then she got pinched from me. Random House, the biggest publishers in Europe, paid her more than ?300,000 for the second volume of her autobiography.”

Blake, whose publishing company is enjoying its best year ever with a turnover of ?6 million, 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.”