Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Has The Industry Slowed To A Crawl?

If my preliminary results are indicative of the present trend, it would seem that recent articles indeed describe the situation accurately. According to reports, there have been massive layoffs in several NY houses, and some firms (e. g., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt -- whose united companies published such authors as Philip Roth, Gunter Grass, and J. R. R. Tolkien) actually stopped acquiring new properties (temporarily?) last November. The situation has been no more promising with smaller presses; some ceased to exist, while others are trying to survive Chapter Eleven.

Of course, amidst all this "doom-and-gloom" the rich continue to get richer. Big-name authors (and, of course, celebrities, jocks, and politicians!) have apparently been spared the recessionary pressures which so adversely affect the rest of us.