Sally Rooney and The Literary Industrial Complex

 Sally Rooney, a self-described Marxist, appears to be willingly serving as the latest tool of what some call the Literary Industrial Complex, a capitalist dream come true.  Basically, it uses the public's infatuation with celebrity to sell a lot more books than would otherwise be the case.

Ms Rooney, author of the best-sellers "Conversations with Friends" and "Normal People," and who has just had her third novel "Beautiful World, Where Are You" published, offers a glimpse of this phenomenon on page 228 of the Hogarth paperback edition of "Normal People."

Therein, the book's chief male protagonist, a young man named Connell who appears to be getting a writing career started, muses over the nature of literature and concludes that books are purchased primarily so educated people can feel superior to the uneducated.

Even if the writer himself was a good person, and even if his book really was inciteful, all books are ultimately marketed as status symbols and all writers participated to some degree in this marketing.  Presumably that was how the industry made money. 

Those were some of Connell's thoughts at the conclusion of a book reading he had been attending at college.

How then does Ms Rooney participate -- beyond just making herself available for interviews, such as in the New Yorker when an except from "Beautiful World" was published there shortly before the book was released -- evidently as part of the marketing effort?

One way is by authorizing a host of branded merchandise to be released around the time of publication -- and making sure it gets into the hands of opinion leaders and with their names then associated with it, out onto social media.

The New York Times described the effort in an article entitled "Beautiful Merch, Where Are You?" (By the way, the title of the "Beautiful World" does not finish with a question mark. probably because there is no answer in Ms Rooney's view.)

As the release date has drawn nearer, anticipation has approximated streetwear-drop levels. In August, Ms. Rooney’s publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, distributed yellow bucket hats and tote bags (featuring the novel’s cover illustrations, by Manshen Lo) to celebrities, journalists and other so-called literary influencers. They have been encouraged to post about the book using the hashtag #BWWAY.

Lena Dunham, Maggie Rogers and Lucy Dacus are among those who shared photos of the book and its promotional swag on social media. Sarah Jessica Parker was photographed reading it between takes for the “Sex and the City” reboot. In an interview, Delia Cai, a correspondent at Vanity Fair, called it “the status galley of the summer.”

And further ...

Emily Temple, the managing editor of Literary Hub, described the ongoing Rooney-mania as nearly “unprecedented” for a literary fiction release. To her, it calls to mind “Ferrante Fever” — the obsession with the pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante, whose Neapolitan Novels, beginning with “My Brilliant Friend,” made her an international celebrity.

And so forth and so on.  Publishing is first and foremost about marketing and marketing is about celebrity. The manner in which Ms Rooney's latest book was launched, and how she participated in it, while decrying capitalism would make excellent fodder for her next novel -- and its collectable swag.