The business of writing: literature as a commodity in Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú

This article presents considerations about the status of literature as a commodity and writers as professionals in the twenty-first century. These considerations are based on an analysis of Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro’s Betibú (2011), which follows the story of an Argentine crime novel writer who becomes a ghostwriter after her latest novel receives harsh reviews for being considered commercial rather than literary. I argue that the novel in question points out misconceptions about the influence of the book industry on the aesthetic quality of literary writing, highlighting the need for literary criticism to look into everyday relations between readers, authors, and editors.