What Big Publishing Consolidation Means for Authors

Houses breed cultures, of course. What workplace doesn't? But within book publishing, consolidation means fewer decision-makers and fewer personalities. It means a mandate from the top to acquire only the most commercial works. Editors in New York are taught to look for a certain kind of book, and this leads to myopic thinking about what's good, and even what's publishable. Due to the desire for celebrity connections, big book publishing is also fueling a type of publishing that's bottom-line driven, sacrificing the passion projects and special projects that editors used to be able to take risks on. Exclusively bottom-line driven publishing has created lowest common denominator publishing, where publishers are undervaluing (or just not seeing as viable) what's quirky, unique, and fringe in favor of appealing to the masses. And I don't think I need to go into a sidebar here about the general taste and sophistication level of the American masses.