ABSTRACT
The concept of the citizen author is defined and explored within the publishing industry. In order to understand what positions the citizen author currently and potentially could hold, it begins with a historical view of their rise, including concepts of their eighteenth-century antecedents. But the focus of this research is on their growth alongside that of social media platforms. This allows for drawing out relationships between genre fiction, publishers, and the citizen author, which provides a fuller understanding of the power dynamics involved when publishers, social media, and the citizen authors mix in the current industry climate.
