March 19, 2026
1:00 PM ET
Worried that you’re not all that good at marketing and promotion—or that you don’t have the time, energy, or skills required to do it well?
You’re not alone: most writers have anxiety surrounding how to market and promote their work, and would rather assign the responsibility to someone else. Or they hope their publisher will take care of it. Unfortunately, there are some things that no publisher, no publicist, and no marketer can do for you—especially when it comes to building relationships in the writing and publishing community. And most effective promotion is centered on existing or potential relationships, not aggressively marketing yourself.
Imagine marketing and promotion that doesn’t require you to perfect the hard sell or learn how to become a professional marketer. This enlightened approach is called literary citizenship.
Literary citizenship is a concept that arose in the literary writing and publishing community, and it’s useful to all writers no matter what your background or genre. It advocates lifting up and bringing attention to literature, reading, books, and other pursuits that are intrinsic to authorship and publishing.