Traditional Publishing Consolidation and Competition

Eons ago, there were a multitude of publishing houses.  These houses created true competition for not only established, blockbuster authors, but their hunger to come out on top led them to take risks on new authors no one had yet discovered in the hopes of finding the next big thing.  Yes, there were lots of failures, but they also found JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, Tad Williams, and Timothy Zahn.  They appreciated a Stephen King, but they took time to develop a David Weber, because they had to find fresh blood to keep up with everyone else.

However, in the late 1990s, publishing houses began to merge and consolidate until today there are only five major publishing houses(Penguin/Random House, Hachette, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, and MacMillan).  And if the merger between Penguin/Random House and Simon & Schuster goes forward, we’ll be down to four.  That consolidation and monopolization of the market is why the DOJ is stepping in to limit it.

The continuing mergers of large publishing houses in restricting competition, to say nothing of shutting out new voices…at least in the traditional publishing market.  Resources are becoming so scarce, and traditional publishing houses have become so risk-averse, that they tend to dedicate resources only to “proven” blockbuster authors.  The few new authors that get a contract are kept on meager wages and onerous contracts that strong them along without allowing them to breakout.  They can try to take their work to one of the other publishing house in search of better terms, but that has become increasingly more difficult as competitors shrink.  In the olden days, an author with talent could find a friendly editor willing to develop raw talent and turn them into a star, but those days are long gone.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch does a great job talking about the what-ifs of the business and how consolidation has hampered new talent growth.  If you want to see something analogous that you can relate to, look at how Hollywood is looking for the next sequel or summer blockbuster in an established franchise rather than taking chances on something new(could Star Wars or Blade Runner get made today?).  She muses that the move by the DOJ is 15-20 years too late, and that the damage has already been done and is lasting.

She has a point…when it comes to traditional publishing.  There are fewer and fewer auctions for books, and advances and marketing has dwindled.  However, that has opened up opportunities for indie publishing.  I could go into how indie publishing has gone from “you’re shit” to viable in the last decade and a half, from POD platforms to cover artist relationships, but the main point is that indie publishing has become a valid path for so many that it wasn’t early this century.  A writer that can’t break through can use an indie platform and make a successful living.  And just like with traditional publishing, an author that finds a viral moment can get big(like Andy Weir).  It still takes talent and a large stroke of luck, but it’s doable, and I think traditional publishing has enabled it.

That’s right – traditional publishing restricting itself has signed its own death warrant.  It froze out all but the top tier, established writers, leaving folks with no choice.  If dozens of houses still remained, breaking through the noise would be much more difficult given that indie could still be written off as not being “good enough” to find someone to publish them.  However, with options being so limited and so exclusionary, and platforms like Amazon and IngramSpark  providing such quality, indie writers can find their own path and people will give them a chance.  Ebooks especially make this possible since they’re cheap and don’t take up space.

So, is the limiting/consolidation of traditional houses, and more merges into larger and fewer entities, truly a bad thing?  I’m not so sure.  I think the narrow vision of traditional houses opens up lanes for those looking for more control.  I think if the traditional houses marketed their newbies worth a damn, they could still crowd out indie competition, but since new authors know they’re on their own until they break through, most figure they might as well keep control if they have to do most of the stuff for themselves anyway.  Now all we need is for the audience to follow suit.  Many are coming around, and if we can reach a critical mass, then the entire structure of traditional publishing will collapse.  In its place, we can build, and are already building, a more open world for artistic expression.