I was talking the other day to an editor about a prospective _title_ being picked up by a small press.

She notifiled me that all the marketing is the author's job. She told me that this is true in the case of large publishers, too.

What do you think -- is this the case? Do large publishers stipulate that marketing is the job of the author?

Small presses often just don't have the budget to market their authors, but not so with the big houses. They have a vested interest in maximising sales; having already made a huge investment in advances, printing, artwork, distribution etc it would be pretty dumb not to.

And I would imagine, it's true, even for large houses. They would do some marketing (such as reviews, some publicity and book signings, etc.) but budget is tight. The money goes to the big names, leaving little to the lesser-known authors. It's up to the authors to market themselves and the books—doing signings, readings, putting together a website, going to conferences, and talking about their books every chance they have.

Of course, I only have indirect experience with the larger houses!

I think that most small and independent presses focus on getting their catalog distributed and that's where most of the effort goes. That leaves few resources (ie money time, et al) to devote to marketing individual author's books.