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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Books The Fundamentals of the Publishing Economy Are Strong

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 2:03 PM

Via PW:

PW has learned that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has asked its editors to stop buying books.

They say this is temporary, of course, but holy shit. Incoming manuscripts are the lifeblood of a publishing company. And for Houghton to go public with this means things are really really bad. This is unprecedented, I think, for one of the five biggest publishers in America. An agent in the PW story says this action is "indicative of an industry climate worse than any he’s ever seen."

Eep.

Comments (9) RSS

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We need to have a publishing deadpool.

Posted by Dave on November 25, 2008 at 2:27 PM

Damn. I guess I can put off writing the next great American novel for another year.

Posted by drawmark on November 25, 2008 at 2:58 PM

I hear Obama reads. Maybe there's a bailout plan in the works.

Posted by Brian on November 25, 2008 at 3:04 PM

Only car companies and unethical bankers get bailouts. No book companies or nonprofits -- what have they ever done to harm the world?

Posted by jrrrl on November 25, 2008 at 3:21 PM

In related news, the Kindle is about to be axed.

Paperback is where it's at.

Posted by Will in Seattle on November 25, 2008 at 4:22 PM

@5: Really? I heard the Kindle 2 was just delayed...

Posted by Dawgson on November 25, 2008 at 4:38 PM

I am very curious to find out how they plan to continue making money without publishing new books.

Posted by Greg on November 25, 2008 at 6:01 PM

I'm self-publishing my NaNoWriMo novel. Suck it, big publishing!

Posted by mint chocolate chip on November 25, 2008 at 8:10 PM

Doesn't surprise me they have stopped buying new books. They can continue to survive just selling existing new books. Especially with the type of books mifflin publishes.

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