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Esta
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I have just received this info. from Writer's World: Quote: The economy has crashed down on an industry once believed immune from the worst — book publishing — with consolidation at Random House Inc., and layoffs at Simon & Schuster and Thomas Nelson Publishers. "Yes, Virginia, book publishing is NOT recession proof," said Patricia Schroeder, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers. "It's a sad day." At Random House, the country's largest general trade publisher, the man who helped give the world "The Da Vinci Code" is in talks for a new position, while the publisher of Danielle Steel and other brand-name authors is leaving altogether. Stephen Rubin, who released Dan Brown's blockbuster thriller in 2003, is negotiating for a different job after Random House eliminated his position as president and publisher of the Doubleday Publishing Group. Bantam Dell head Irwyn Applebaum, whose many authors have included Steel, Dean Koontz and Louis L'Amour, is departing, effective immediately On Tuesday, a top executive at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt resigned as the publisher faces a credit squeeze and possible sale. Meanwhile, the head of Thomas Nelson Publishers, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that releases religious books, announced that about 10 percent of the staff, "54 of our friends and co-workers," had lost their jobs Under the new alignment, Random House will reduce the number of its principal divisions from five to three: The Random House Publishing Group, the longtime home to E.L. Doctorow and Maya Angelou; the Knopf Publishing Group, a literary institution that includes Toni Morrison and John Updike; and the Crown Publishing Group, known for such political authors as Obama and Ann Coulter.Applebaum's Bantam Dell Publishing Group and Rubin's Doubleday Publishing Group will be dispersed among the three divisions. Bantam has long been in trouble as sales for mass market paperbacks dropped, while Doubleday has been hurt by the absence of Brown's long-awaited follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code" and by disappointing sales for a highly publicized debut novel, Andrew Davidson's "The Gargoyle." It doesn't encourage one to submit to publisher or agent at the moment . In the meantime...
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Dollywagon
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Everything is achanging - I've had a bee in my bonnet about the general global economic state for the past 6 years or so.
Originally I thought publishing would get hit big time ... now I'm not so sure, but it does depend on the publishers.
Will consumers be so keen to read light-hearted escapism and 'whodunwitch celebrity'? Doubt it - but I would think more people will be drawn to read the right things.
Satire, humour, practical non-fiction, foot in realism fiction (jeez, gimme time to get more words onto paper ... Pleeeeease)
People will have less to spend on consumer gadgets and leisure facilities, they will still crave them, but won't be able to afford them. Books, to me, seem the obvious answer - but quite probably, cheaper/second hand ones.
So yes, on the one hand publishers are going to get hit, reading is going to get hit, but the publishers with a bit of bottle and foresight are going to make it.
Just one opinion and I would actually like to know what others think?
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datahog
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In regard to American publishing, at least, you couldn't find a worse time in the history of the industry to submit to agents and editors. Some of the biggest names in agentry have announced publicly or privately that they'll be concentrating on their existing clientele for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, things aren't impossible even now. My writing partner and I have several of the top tier agents in NY interested in reading our co-authored work, a thriller called "Frame-Up," which is now in YWO's bestseller charts. (One has already read it and just this week asked for a revision before considering it again.) But we've both written novels on our own and won representation in the past, so it's not like we're newbies anymore. You've got to have a very strong pitch and opening chapters to garner the slightest attention now. Despite the "sky is falling" mentality these days, books have historically sold well in bad economic times. IMO, the conglomerates who own publishing are using the global financial crisis to institute major changes they hadn't the courage to try until now. Another six months or a year and things will be back to normal, I think.
This post was last edited by datahog, 07 Dec 2008, 12:50
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Esta
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It is an unprecedented economic situation. It's true that books and reading have survived past recessions pretty well. But the USA situation seems to suggest that this is not the case this time round. Publishing is no longer static - the internet and self publishing are here to stay. I think the next few years are going to be interesting to say the least. I want to write; I want to get published; I want to learn all aspects of the craft and businesss. Hooray for You WRITE oN. 
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Dollywagon
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... Can't remember if Frame Up was something I reviewed ... it rings a bell, I'll check later  Thing is, Datahog, everything is being hit, and I can't see why any one industry would consider itself immune? I do actually believe that if a company is sticking with existing tried/tested clients, that it is, in the long run probably taking more of a risk than usual, although it may 'feel' safe. When you have just lost your job or are in fear of losing your home are you really going to want to read about the trials celebrities are touched by - who they nearly slept with? People will see it as shallow and superficial. Then again I don't think recession has even touched most people's lives yet beyond them raining in the spending. I also disagree that in the UK at least things will be back to normal within 6-12 months - there are no practical factors to indicate this. In fact most things indicate it will be worse by this time. We don't have much to build upon or generate an income to reduce debt. Falling sterling means imports (and we import pretty much everything) means most things will become harder to access or more expensive. Exports will become more popular but what do we have to export? Writers - books - Yeah!!!! I don't know about ebooks etc ... really ... I've never found cuddling up to a pc particularly comforting and they aren't handy for carrying outside to practice my woodworking/gardening skills. Must learn more about them to get enough info to generate an opinion.
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datahog
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Oh, I agree the global economy may be in the tank for as long as a couple of years. My prediction is that the publishing industry will be doing better by comparison, well enough to have adjusted to the restructuring and downsizing, within six months to a year. The public will be buying escapist books of every ilk if the past is any predictor. I hate the celeb books too but they'll probably still be selling along with the other types of escapist lit.
I'm really having a hard time envisioning self-publishing cutting into traditional publishing's bottom line. I'm not discounting the possibility, I just don't get it, and would love to hear the argument as to how that'll happen.
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Dollywagon
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... raining! Raining ... ???!!!!
Ignore me, I'm tired ...
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datahog
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Quote: Dollywagon, Sunday, 7 Dec 2008 15:58... raining! Raining ... ???!!!! Ignore me, I'm tired ... Pretty good Freudian slip because it is raining--all over!
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BronwenWPhoenix
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I still consider myself a newbie: when Escaping Dreams was published this June by Pegasus/Vanguard, they kept me mostly in the dark and were terrible with publicity; luckily I was a journalist and had the right press contacts! I'll get my royalties on the 31st and that will be when I really know how well its done. I've since been offered an apology, so this isn't an attack on my publisher and I understand the person responsible has since 'left'. But that's why I became one of the 5000. My publisher is going to make a decision on Nightswallow next year now because of the current 'financial climate' but I'm kind of hoping the exposure I'll get with YWO, I won't necessarily have to take that deal, and who knows what will happen in the months ahead. I still know little about the publishing business, apart from how to send out a decent letter, synopsis and sample chapters! One day I'd love to start up my own publishing business; it's a little dream of mine.
www.bronwenwinterphoenix.com
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Esta
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Your input struck a cord with me, Bronwen. I am not a tyro on the publishing scene,either. My collection Close Distances came out last year with Cinnamon Press. I have had other work published over a number of years. But producing a novel is, for me, a new and difficult project especially when economic disaster is sending shudders through every industry. I sent my novel off to 3 agents and have still had no response after three months. I didn't want to hang around. I wanted to get it out there and I'm so grateful to youwriteon (if The Legacy of Alice Waters does appear that is). We really are in uncharted territory. I read somewhere that Random House is publishing PODs in a separate section. Established companies in every sector are splintering and disappearing. If the past is anything to go by what follows will be leaner and different. After all, in quite a short time, the small publishing houses gave way to the conglomerates - will there perhaps be a reversal? Who know? It will be interesting. What is the old Chinese curse? ANSWER: May you live in interesting times.
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Is this the time for ywo/legend?
04 Dec 2008, 09:26
