‘It’s almost a full-time job just marketing your own book’: understanding novelists marketing knowledge and practices

Abstract

Whether novelists publish traditionally or independently, marketing is a crucial element of their work if they are to earn a sustainable living from their creative practice. Increasingly, traditional publishing houses require novelists to undertake marketing activities, while self-published (independent) novelists have little choice other than to do their own marketing; however, research into the labour practices of novelists, including their marketing activities and knowledge, is still an emerging field. This research has been conducted using semi-structured interviews with seventeen emerging novelists in order to explore their marketing knowledge and activities and address this knowledge gap. The interviews were recorded with permission, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis. The results indicated a significant gap in their knowledge of this vital aspect of their vocation. Novelists interviewed had very mixed marketing skills ranging from sophisticated to limited. Most of the novelists wanted to improve their marketing knowledge and acknowledged marketing as important, but they lacked the time and resources to undertake this improvement.