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. However, there has been little research into the marketing skills and knowledge of novelists and authors. Thus, this research aimed to explore their marketing knowledge and activities to address this knowledge gap and provide an insight into their labour practices outside of creative writing.  

Research outcomes: 

This research interviewed sixteen novelists and authors as an exploratory study to address the identified research gap. The results found that the novelists and authors had very mixed marketing skills. Some were conducting sophisticated marketing involving brand management and market research. Others had very limited marketing knowledge and most described marketing in selling and advertising terms. Utilising market research and analytics were particularly weak skill sets. However, most of the novelists wanted to improve their marketing knowledge and acknowledged marketing was important, but they lacked the time and resources. The novelists and authors' marketing skills and little time to improve them were found to be very similar to small business owners and could be addressed by using some of the same approaches. The tension between the novelists’ creative personas and the need to commercialise their work also appeared to have a negative impact on marketing knowledge and success. Finally, the novelists in general acknowledged and understood that marketing encompassed narrative, but they appeared reluctant to utilize audience feedback. 

Benefits for the university and society more broadly:

Novelists and authors, like many creative industries practitioners, face highly insecure and competitive employment, and income opportunities. Because marketing can help them to build a platform and awareness for their work, enhancing their marketing skills and knowledge is important and can help them to earn a more sustainable level of income. The results and new knowledge contributed by this research can assist them and the industry. It was found that novelists and authors faced the same challenges and constraints regarding employing marketing as small business owners and could be addressed using some of the same approaches. Small business owners often utilize networks and mentoring to address their lack of resources. One-to-one or many-to-one mentoring could be introduced as could dedicated online spaces for novelists and authors to share marketing tips, advice, and resources.  

The lack of time to up-skill was a critical factor for novelists and authors. Therefore, creating small, flexible, formal marketing educational resources including tip sheets, content plans, information about pricing and e-book publishing and explanations as to why various marketing processes, such as brand management, are important and how they work may help authors.  Organising guest speakers and panels of marketing experts, including authors, who have established effective marketing practices, and public relations experts in the publishing industry, could also provide authors with flexible marketing educational information. 

One youth research team member was part of this project.

Read the final report

The project's final report for industry and the public featured design work by Isabella Bilokin who is a Bachelor of Design student at the University of the Sunshine Coast and a graphic designer operating as Designed by Izzy.