We all understand the inevitable consequences of such takeovers. Trade books, fiction and non-fiction, that were deemed uneconomical are ruthlessly slashed from back lists, regardless of merit or content. Indeed, the managers of today either make their numbers or they are booted out of their jobs and, invariably, the industry. In the thirty years of my authorial adventures, I have witnessed first hand what can be called a cataclysmic publishing revolution. Indeed, it is still bubbling with ferment and uncertainty.
Publishing is now in the hands of a few global giants.
Hardly anyone in the business, whether administrators or editors, with exceptions, of course, can look forward to an assured lifetime career. People who have their moment in the sun, the gatekeepers who make the decisions on what will or will not be published are quickly cast aside when their decisions fail to rise to the level of their mostly off-shore director's expectations. Decisions as to what book is to be well-published, meaning well designed and produced, expensively marketed and advertised, distributed in large numbers and heavily promoted in the old and new media and point of sale in brick and mortar venues are mostly based on the politics and biases within the publishing house, public whim, the current national craze or controversy, past track records, and the usual hopes and dreams and persuasive skills of the best salesman around the conference table. One must have some compassion for those who slave in the withering vineyards of traditional publishing. They are in a lousy business.