The Reekonomy

For anyone who hasn't seen the article, it's here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6617241.html

Josef Blumenfeld, v-p of communications for HMH, confirmed that the publisher has “temporarily stopped acquiring manuscripts” across its trade and reference divisions.

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Trade and reference divisions have been asked to temporarily stop buying. It's not every single division of HMH. I don't think there's any reason to panic.

I'm worried about it. It makes me wonder what's next.

It's only temporary. Things will pick up again, albeit slowly, after January. I'm not worried.

I just posted a question about this on another thread; I guess I should have looked here first.

I'm a total frickin' unpublished unknown, and I've got a pretty good notion that that's usually an uphill battle in the best of times, but my last two rejections were returned to me so quickly it made my head spin.

In this economic climate, should all us newbies just be sitting on our manuscripts and practicing our short fiction until better days come around again?

I had a good chat with my agent last week about my WIP. Her last words were "Take your time. Nothing's selling." FWIW

Now something is always selling. Will it be your thing? Look at what kinds of things are selling. Does yours fit?

She said everyone is hoping for a big book-buying move this Xmas that will get publisher's feeling confident again and ready to buy in January. What do you think the chances are that the publishers will have a big Xmas of sales this year?

December, I've been told, is a big month for book sales. I hope so, because most everthing else is stagnant.

lkp said:

Now something is always selling. Will it be your thing? Look at what kinds of things are selling. Does yours fit?

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See, this is exactly what worries me. In this climate, the only things that will get published will be (usually lame) carbon copies of what's already hot. The editor/publishing company willing to take a risk on something slightly outside the box (not a big group to begin with) will vanish.

lkp said:

I had a good chat with my agent last week about my WIP. Her last words were "Take your time. Nothing's selling." FWIW

Now something is always selling.

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New deals are posted every single day to Publisher's Marketplace. So you're right, something is always selling.

It will be very interesting to watch what happens next. Remember, the Great Depression was also the heyday for the movie industry. People needed to escape the harsh reality, and movies were there to entertain. So I wonder if we'll see some similar trends. Netflix will do well, maybe, because people can stay home and save money. Paperbacks will do well, and kids' books, but hardbacks and coffee table books will suffer. Escapist fiction will boom, but serious literature will struggle. New voices from People of Color will enjoy an Obama bump, and so on.

A lot will depend on how much this crisis stops being Wall Street's problem and becomes everybody's problem. I never had any money to invest, and my mortgage is a 30-year-fixed, so unless I lose my job (which isn't likely, as a tenured teacher) the desperate sales everywhere are good news to me. I'm planning on buying lots of books this Xmas, to do my part!

I'm not worried at all.

I did a bit of research on all this doom n' gloom. And the publishing world is struggling, yes, BUT, I saw in just a little over a month, 31 of pub buys were from debut authors, and that's not counting what's not being reported--showing up on Publishers Marketplace, sooo...

With all this in mind, I'll leave you with some sig avis you can feel free to lift. Auntybug and I brainstormed and what with her awesome techni savvy she made these!

Colleen Lindsay has a great post up called why you shouldn't panic about the HMH buying freeze.