One thing that saddens me about the perceived necessity of new authors going on Twitter, BookTok, etc. to “build an audience” is that it seems to prevent anyone who wants to separate their literary life from their private life from ever again being supported by a publisher. Many authors over the years have felt the need to do this, for personal or professional reasons: J.D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, James Tiptree Jr., John le Carré, Joe Klein, Isabel Fall. I doubt that all those authors will be considered part of the canon in 100 years, and very possibly none of them will be, but I think the world would be poorer if they’d all been unable to become successful writers.
I don't know. This is sort of arguing that a world in which publishers were gatekeepers/PR agencies/etc. meant that authors could sort of hide behind that front--at the cost of putting their fate in the hands of their publisher.
But I'm not sure how widespread/true that ever was. Authors went on book tours and TV shows all the time to promote their writing. I'm not sure how common the pseudonymous/reclusive successful author ever was.
