The representation of publicists in popular culture appears to have a direct relationship with the ways in which publishing sector publicity staff are perceived by their colleagues and peers, which in turn has a distinct knock-on effect on work practices and labour conditions. In this seminar, we report on our recent research which, through interviews with eight publicists working in publishing houses in Australia, explores how the work of publicity is commonly misrecognised and undervalued. In framing publicists as cultural intermediaries who contribute to the shaping of cultural tastes, we seek to illuminate the significant gap between the common gendered perceptions of publicists and the realities of their professional practice.

Alexandra Dane is a lecturer in Media and Communications and the University of Melbourne. Her research focusses on the nature of and access to power within the contemporary publishing sector. She is the author of Gender and Prestige in Literature: Contemporary Australian Book Culture (Palgrave Macmillan) and the co-editor of Post-Digital Book Culture: Australian Perspectives (Monash University Publishing).

Claire Parnell is a lecturer in Professional Communication at RMIT University. Her research focuses on the platformisation of publishing and cultural inclusion in the publishing and media industries. She is also part of a collaborative research project funded by the Romance Writers of America investigating romance publishing in the Philippines.