Big-brand authors: it isn’t in our genes | Brief letters

Book marketing | Labour’s moral exhaustion | Nitrite-free meat | Praise for the readers’ editor’s team | Rewind to racist languageNigel Newton asserts that “We are programmed deep in our DNA to be comforted by the authority and the reliability of big brand names” (AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief, 27 October). Hmm. Writers tend to see that certain authors being turned by publishers into big brands is a function of our economic sys