Brand Management: International Bestsellers and the Death of the Author, Again

Abstract: On podcasts, in profiles, on social media, the individual author is more visible today than ever. But such platforms belie the very process that has made the contemporary novelist a brand manager of a more collaborative endeavor. Combining an original dataset of international bestseller lists, interviews with industry professionals, and a critical reading of the biggest international bestseller of the last decade, we argue for a shift in authorship that occurs when conglomeration bleeds into globalization, bestsellers become international, and the twenty-first-century author foregoes the work of solitary creativity to embrace the collective work of brand management.