From Bowdler’s Shakespeare to Puffin’s edited Roald Dahl, publishing has often chosen to smooth away awkwardness rather than explain it. But sanitised texts, missing credits and silent rewrites do more than tidy the past — they erase evidence, authorship and the people who made books possible.

Writing is no longer only something authors do. It is also something sold back to them through courses, critiques, webinars, mentoring, self-publishing advice and promises of access. This essay asks when publishing stopped merely selling books to readers and began selling the dream of authorship to writers.