Why is the industry imploding today?

[penmage]

Why is the publishing industry imploding today? WTF?

Editor J called us all in for a mandatory closed-door meeting in his office on ten minutes notice, and told us that Rick Richter, the president of S&S Children's Books, is resigning, effective Friday. He wanted to tell us before we heard in the 11am press release.

But that's not all. Our publisher was also fired. So were 34 other people, all in adult. The PW alert calls it "what has to be one of the grimmest days in publishing in recent years."

We're supposed to have a new president by year end--which is to say, within three weeks. And who knows what will happen when that person starts?

Another PW alert today announced a major restructuring at Random House. Yesterday, Becky Saletin, a publisher at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, stepped down. And last week, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced a new policy in which they are no longer acquiring manuscripts, which is the most fucked-up thing I can imagine a publishing house doing.

I can't be the only publishing person freaking out here, right guys? WTF? Seriously?

Comments

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Are you guys worried about a year without a Twilight book? These massive blockbuster titles are both a blessing and a curse sometimes, it feels like.

[grammargirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know that worried is the right word... but SMeyer is, absolutely, a huge part of the successful year we've had. I was also just talking to some people at lunch about how we don't really have a huge, cornerstone book for the next couple seasons. We've got Jon Stewart and Tina Fey, but not till 2010, and who knows what the industry will be doing by then. So... yeah, it would be nice to know that we could rely on a new SMeyer book that would be guaranteed to make a ginormous amount of money, but I also don't think the lack of one is going to shove us into bankruptcy or anything.

On an unrelated note, I am deeply amused by the fact that Firefox's spell check recognizes "ginormous" as a word.