Also, from that link, "Far too many books are published?"
What a load of shite. The economy's in trouble, or too many books are released? Make up your bloody mind.
Good economy or bad, far, far too many novels have been published for twenty years now. That same has been true of several types of nonfiction.
About twenty or so years ago, publishers adopted the philosophy of "But a bunch, throw them all at the wall, and see which ones stick."
It isn't about the economy, it's about how thin you can spread the money, and still have more than a couple of publishers and a few top writers come out ahead.
There are thousands of publishers out there releasing books at a ridiculous rate, and it's harming everyone. For publishers, the sheer volume of books flooding the market makes it tougher to turn a profit, and guarantees that profit must come from bestselling writers. For writers, the number of books being released does make it a bit easier to get published, but it also makes it much, much more difficult to
stay published, and to make any real money from it.
The number of books being released should have been cut by at least twenty percent long ago, but technology has made it so incredibly easy for nearly anyone to become a "publisher" that cutting back now would be like unilateral disarmament.
