The New Publishing Universe
Random House in NY
On a recent trip to New York, one of the places my husband and I passed by on our daily walks was Random House, one of the Big Six in publishing. It’s every writer’s dream, at least I think it is, to have a book published by them or one of the other major players. But within the past year, there have been some dramatic changes in the publishing universe. This means writers no longer have to be published by one of the Big Six to have their dreams come true.
There have been many blog posters commenting on this new landscape for writers. Here are a few, if you’ve been wondering which way to go.
Kristen Lamb’s Blog Post is an excellent examination of how the Big Six publishing giants are losing ground to Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.
There’s more ongoing advice at Digital Book World about the e-reader explosion and its impact on writers.
And Literary Agent Jenny Bent has written an insightful post, on how the new publishing universe is affecting her work as a literary agent and what this means for authors.
The May/June issue of Writer’s Digest is chock full of 
advice about publishing today.
I wish I knew which direction to take with my novels. One thing I do know is there’s a lot of help out there for writers. Still, it would be nice to have a crystal ball.
I’d love to hear what sense you’re making of all the changes out there. Are you querying less? Are you checking out all the ways you can self-publish? Or are you still pursuing the traditional route?
I think a lot of us are DIY. There isn’t much money to go around, very few authors are signed, the publishing world is in tremendous flux. Actually, I could write a book about this… but I won’t! 🙂
I agree, Julia. Tremendous flux. With lowered prices, print on demand, and easy downloads of books, readers are gobbling up every kind, even those that are poorly edited or have a poorly constructed story. But I haven’t lost hope for the future of book publishing. Cream for the most part rises to the top. There will always be room for good books. The problem for now is how to get them out there and into the readers’ hands. With publishers and agents being more cautious than ever, it’s a challenge for all parties.