On The Boundary of the Sacred and the Profane: The Author Name

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine whether or not the author name is of the same nature as a brand name in readers‟ eyes, in order to understand whether there is a limit, a bound to the scope of the branding concept. The case of the literary fiction writer is especially interesting since literature is at the frontier of commerce and the arts, and accordingly at the frontier of the profane and the sacred, given the socialization process from which the arts have benefited since the sixteenth century. To this end, two qualitative studies were conducted among respectively 31 and 18 readers in France. The findings of the studies show that, although the author name (the signature) plays the role of a brand name, the author (the writer) is not a brand for consumers, who develop diverse strategies to cope with the commercial aspects of the book industry. The results help to formulate recommendations for authors and publishers, but also for brand managers.