Recently, I had writeen about the place of the author in publishing value chain. I recently came across another article from Publishers Weekly by Jesse Kornbluth, which explores the changing role of authors today:
"Authors are beginning to grasp that the job description of “writer” has changed. Writers may be artists. They are also brands. And restless brands at that; it's the rare writer who stays with one publisher for the long haul. More typically, publishing contracts are for one or two books; in that truncated relationship, a publisher can only do so much for its writers. The heavy lifting of a career will fall to writers and their agents, or it just won't get done.
So unless they are geniuses—and recognized as such—writers who want attention for their work need to cultivate some 21st-century media skills. They should be camera-ready, because they'll want to make YouTube videos. They should know their way around social networking sites. They should have some experience with book clubs, and they should be willing to spend as much time there as they used to spend on book tours."
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