The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus
thewalrus.ca · 4,843 words · saved by 1 readers
Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it
In 1970, a New York publishing company put out a debut novel by an editor and former teacher from Ohio. The press, then known as Holt, Rinehart and Winston, had taken a chance on the book, which had been rejected by numerous other houses. The initial print run was somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 units—modest expectations that looked justified when, in the first year, sales barely cleared 2,000. This despite getting positive reviews in the New York Times and The New Yorker and being assigned to freshman classes at the City College of New York. The attention wasn’t enough. Four years later,…
saved by
related reading
- No one will read your book - by Elle Griffin - The Elysianelysian.press
- The Cultural Decline of Literary Fictionoyyy.substack.com
- MY DEBUT NOVEL WAS A FLOPharoldrogers.substack.com
- Literary Hub >> Winning the Game You Didn’t Even Want to Play: On Sally Rooney and the Literature of the Poselithub.com
- No one buys books - by Elle Griffin - The Elysianelysian.press
- we've created a society where artists can't make any moneypersonalcanon.com
- What Was Literary Fiction? | The Nationthenation.com
- How the MFA swallowed literatureerikhoel.substack.com
- Want to sell a book or release an album? Better start a TikTok. | Voxvox.com
- Old Directions | The Editorsnplusonemag.com
- At Random, by Christian Lorentzenharpers.org
- The NYT Book Review Is Everything Book Criticism Shouldn't Becurrentaffairs.org