Publishing— It Sucks There, Too

I’d like to take time out from the current world financial meltdown to talk about publishing, and how and why it totally sucks.

This article from New York states it very well, although for some reason it concentrates on best-sellers, and the heart-rending stories of newly-minted writers who got seven-figure advances for their first novels, only to find their price sinking into the low six figures by their third books.

Someone like me, who after thirty years in the business is about as far away from a seven-figure advance as I am from the moon, finds it a little hard to summon up a lot of fellow feeling for these flashes-in-their-pans.

Bet your money on someone with a thirty-year track record, why don’t you? You can’t do worse than you’re doing now.

The article pre-dates the current financial contretempts, which compels me to add this footnote: publishing runs on credit. The money that is paid to authors is borrowed from banks. Banks aren’t even lending to other banks right now, let alone businesses with the tiny profit margins we see in publishing.

Short form: Doomed. The lot of us. Doomed.