For Debut Authors, Busting Out Is Harder Than Ever

Esquire's Kate Dwyer looks at media's changing landscape for authors
By Gina Carey,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 30, 2024 2:30 PM CDT
For Debut Authors, Busting Out Is Harder Than Ever
A table displays signs with #BookTok at a Barnes & Noble in Scottsdale, Arizona.   (AP Photo/Tali Arbel)

Kate Dwyer at Esquire argues that today's media landscape has made captivating an audience near impossible for debut authors. And given the importance of a first book to landing subsequent deals, this can leave many talented writers' careers dead in the water. "Getting the review on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, an NPR interview, People magazine, and maybe a morning-show interview used to be the golden ticket for a book," veteran publicist Nicole Dewey tells Dwyer. But in today's fractured media environment, carefully curating this type of story is more dependent on algorithms than tastemakers. In her conversations with industry insiders, "almost everyone mentioned that debut fiction has become harder to launch," writes Dwyer.

One difference is that the PR push might have to be sustained over several months even after the book's release, instead of coming to a close upon its release. One unnamed editor at a big-name publishing imprint ticks off three must-haves for a debut author who wants to break out: "one, a major book club; two, a boost from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indie Next, and/or Book of the Month; and three, a major profile," writes Dwyer. She uses Jack Kerouac's On the Road as an example of how the media landscape has changed for promotion—the strategies were groundbreaking for their day, a time of relatively few national magazines—but outdated now. Publishers, for example, continue to struggle with how to "game the algorithm" for TikTok's powerful BookTok audience. (Read the full story.)

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