A DISTURBING TREND

Why Are Writers Expected To Do So Much Self-Promotion?

They now have to ‘devote themselves as much to managing their careers as to writing their books’

Janice Harayda
Published in
6 min readMay 25, 2023

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Writers promoting themselves at a book festival.
Writers who were promoting their work at the National Book Festival / Library of Congress

A disturbing trend has taken root in book publishing. Publishers and literary agents seem to expect writers to hold down two full-time jobs: writing their…

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Janice Harayda
The Pub

Critic, novelist, award-winning journalist. Former book editor of the Plain Dealer and book columnist for Glamour. Words in NYT, WSJ, and other major media.