Entrepreneurial Identity in US Book Publishing in the Twenty-First Century

This Element provides the first focus on entrepreneurship in book publishing (freelancers, booksellers, and publishers).

Rachel Noorda (Author)

9781108819510, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 September 2021

75 pages
17.8 x 12.5 x 0.6 cm, 0.12 kg

Entrepreneurship underpins many roles within the publishing industry, from freelancing to bookselling. Entrepreneurs are shaped by the contexts in which their entrepreneurship is situated (social, political, economic, and national). Additionally, entrepreneurship is integral to occupational identity for book publishing entrepreneurs. This Element examines entrepreneurship through the lens of identity and narrative based on interview data with book publishing entrepreneurs in the US Book publishing entrepreneurship narratives of independence, culture over commerce, accidental profession, place, risk, (in)stability, busyness, and freedom are examined in this Element.

Introduction
1. Independence amidst Consolidation: Independent Publishers and Bookstores
2. Freelancers: Flexibility and Uncertainty as a Contractor
3. Intersectionality and Entrepreneurial Identity
Conclusion and COVID-19.

Subject Areas: Publishing industry & book trade [KNTP], Retail sector [KNPR], Literary studies: general [DSB]