Abstract

This article explores the advantages of analytic autoethnography as an effective framework for empirical research in applied creative practice. It explores practice-based and narrative-driven analysis alongside rigorous quantitative analysis in an investigation into publishing contract negotiations. The author draws from their lived experience as a non-fiction writer, an in-house editor for a trade publisher, and as a scholar in the field of publishing studies. The author’s exploration of the project’s methodological selection process, which led to analytic autoethnography as the primary method, is employed and discussed within an interdisciplinary field comprising publishing and literary studies and legal studies within a sociolegal framework. In detailing the journey of investigation and the application of a narrative-based response to quantitative data, the article discusses the rationale and strengths of analytic autoethnography and how it was applied to the project, including the ethical position of the autoethnographic researcher and a critique of the method’s broader use in cultural studies and practice-based research.