The good news: our industry is not dead. The better news: it is not even dying. The bad news: it is not as maximally profitable as it used to be (unless you are working at Bloomsbury).
This new era of profit stress brings with it attendant concern among executives and staff. That is mostly what interests me about our industry these days: how companies will manage these stresses and how people are feeling about their work generally in an era of profound disruption. Is there still value in our being human? Or will publishers assess your value in relation to work that could be done by an AI counterpart?
(Jon)
***
No one is sanguine about their job anymore. Permanence is a thing of the past. A tenured publishing colleague said to me recently, “It’s like that warehouse scene in The Untouchables. I mean, imagine waking up to find an unscheduled Zoom meeting with your boss on the calendar. The kind of anxiety that would produce. I would be like, ‘Fuck.’ Fifteen years in the saddle, and they’re booting me off the stage via Zoom.”
This is not the industry most of us grew up in.
***
I came to book publishing thinking writing was art and that a life in service to art was a noble calling. And, for a time – I mean, this was an era of patience and somewhat gentility – it seemed that way. But that time has passed. I have since learned that writing is a job like any other and that publishing companies are capable of carnage. If you go into this business with the understanding that publishers are ruthless killers, you will have a more successful career than if you go into the business thinking they are genteel tributaries of culture (this is not an advice column, but I suppose that counts as advice: Don’t be fucking naïve about your place in the world).
(Nicholas)
If you are working in publishing, you are an at-will employee. You have rights and protections mandated by ERISA, but those rights and protections do not, in the end, save you from the trigger finger of executives seeking a “nimble” leadership team and workforce.
(Reagan)
***
She won, btw.
***
More advice: learn to be nimble. Publishing executives have done this, growing practiced in their finery, nimbly stepping over bodies in the office hallway to attend their “Literary” galas (you can see them posing in their ball gowns and tuxedos on Instagram). Their filtered glow.
The measure of a company isn’t in how they treat employees when things are going well. The measure of a company is in how they treat employees when things are not going well. Look for signs. Editors left scattered by the road in body bags - not a good sign.
(Ben)
(Tracy)
(Jean)
(Pronoy)
***
Never trust a CEO who uses product in his hair.
***
REALIGNMENT. REORG. RESTRUCTURE.
(Lisa)
***
I saw the writing on the wall in 2021. I knew it was time to get out. Sonny had been dead for two years. He wasn’t coming back, nor was his way of publishing, which was mostly letting editors acquire freely and having them defend their acquisitions with intuition and passion instead of data.
I am pro-data, and Sonny was too (up to a point), but I also recognize some of the harmful ways in which it is being used in our industry (track, for example). The era of trusting the read had come to an end.
And so, I left the campus.
***
I want out.
Is there anything we can do to change your mind?
Fire the leadership team.
Anything beyond firing the leadership team?
No.
How about a new job?
What new job?
What new job would you like?
You’re going to invent a new job for me?
If it would keep you here, yes. We can work on something.
***
That didn’t work out, btw.
***
Now here I am, in a new life, doing work I enjoy, buoyed by optimism, but having concluded that my business needs to change. People come knocking with some frequency. Mostly, I am saying no to single-title campaign work. The joy, for me, is in the long-term work I am doing with clients. Writers with a deep backlist (Robert Caro). Companies. Estates. Etc.
People think I am down on the industry. I am not. I am down on industry leadership, industry censors, and new industry norms, where publishers are demonstrably cavalier in their treatment of employees.
Going back to the beginning: Publishing is stable. Your job in it, however, may not be. Aviation created something called the misery index for travelers. If our colleagues at Publishers Marketplace were smart, they’d figure out a way to calculate the misery index at publishing companies. That would be a good use of data.
(Ann)
***
There is a perception that publishers focus on a small subset of books and let other titles founder. This is mostly correct. I remember a meeting at Knopf where the topic was “allocation of resources.” That meeting was among the (many) reasons I left.
***
We need to sharpen our focus.
How so?
By looking carefully at our list.
I’m listening.
We can’t publish every book on the list.
We’re not going to publish some books, now?
That’s not what I’m suggesting.
What are you suggesting?
I want to focus on the titles that are driving revenue. We need to dedicate more resources to those books.
We try and do that when books are working.
We’re not doing enough of it.
Well, that’s a bandwidth issue. Marketers and publicists have a lot on their plate. They feel overwhelmed as it is.
BEAT.
This is a strategy to lighten their load. They’ll have fewer titles on their plate.
But we’re not cutting the list.
No.
Then how is this going to work?
We’re just cutting the titles they will be working on.
And who will work on the others?
No one.
Excuse me?
There are some books that don’t need any attention.
What, exactly, are your expectations here? That these books will publish themselves?
Exactly.
***
If you’re inside one of the big fives, you’ve been a party to conversations like this. They can be deflating. But then you realize that publishing is a lot like America these days, and we are all witnessing the waning days of democracy.
(Kathy)
***
There are exceptions. People who run their companies with heart and cadence to the writing process. Morgan, for example. A man out of step with time, but in step with the needs of writers and the people on his team.
***
I tried to be a good manager when I was inside. I cared about my colleagues. I worked to be a mentor/teacher/team leader. It presented a conundrum to HR.
***
Did you see his Tumblr this morning?
No. BEAT. But I have seen some of his Tumblr posts.
We can’t have him setting that kind of example.
Agree.
He’s writing about hair and fucking, for chrissake.
Hair and fucking?
Yes. Mentioning people by name. BEAT. This isn’t funny.
He does consistently grade out as one of our best managers.
We both know those employee surveys are bullshit.
Bertelsmann places a preponderant emphasis on them, however.
Bertelsmann? You know he’s posting about our parent company too?
I didn’t know.
Well, he is. Using terms like “German gangbanger.” I got an email from Gutersloh this morning.
That’s not good.
No, it’s not.
I guess we need to have a talk with Mehta.
***
Sonny?
Yes.
May I come in?
Sure.
How are things?
Good.
Well, that’s good to hear. BEAT. Are you aware of Paul’s Tumblr?
Yes.
Have you ever spoken to him about it?
No.
Do you think you should?
Do you think I should?
Well, yes.
Why?
He’s a visible executive and some of the things he says are objectionable.
To whom?
Colleagues.
What colleagues?
I am not at liberty to say.
Have them talk to me.
You know that’s not how things work, Sonny. BEAT. The appropriate course of action here is for you to talk with Paul. Tell him colleagues are finding his posts objectionable. BEAT. You should also know this has been elevated to Gutersloh.
They’re reading Bogie’s Tumbler in Germany?
Yes. He described our parent company as “German gangbangers” in his post this morning.
And you have an issue with that?
Yes.
(Vicky)
***
Sonny did talk to me. He called me into his office.
***
HR says some colleagues are upset by your Tumblr.
Oh.
They didn’t say who.
Who do you think it was?
Someone who doesn’t have a sense of humor. BEAT. I could have them killed.
***
This is why I loved him.
***
Sonny was not a classic good boss. Some will say that he was aloof, that he was uninterested in the circumstances of your life, and, as an executive at a big imprint, that he didn’t connect with everyone. But he always had the backs of his colleagues. He knew what to say. More importantly, he knew what not to say. Also: never used hair product.
***
“We thank them and wish them a joyful and fulfilling next chapter.”
***
Until next time.
Kill Your Darlings
POSTSCRIPT:
A reader writes in with a complaint: “You don’t post enough to charge for subscriptions.” They have a point. I say to them – and to you - no one is holding a gun to your head. Unsubscribe. You would be doing me a favor. There’s a pressure to publish that comes with subscribers and I don’t need any more fucking stress in my life.
As for the writing: it takes time. There are a lot of writers who publish with more frequency on blogs, substacks, and newsletters. I’m not one of them. I am too consumed with trying to process the world (the melting ice caps, the unchecked wildfires, the decimation of our coral reefs, the flooding here in Vermont, all the people who are mean to others). It’s a struggle. All of it.
This is the slow read I didn't know I needed this morning. I'd read a whole novel of that.
Dark Bogie is the Dark Brandon of publishing...