20
CHAPTERThe Economy and Publishing
BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES
AN AGENT NEEDS NERVES OF STEEL, AND LUCKILY I DO NOT
easily panic. Still, the 1987 stock market crash raised my eyebrows
a notch. I phoned the publisher of a large paperback house. What
effect, I asked, did he think that the suddenly looming recession
would have on that industry? Little, he replied: the paperback busi-
ness usually fares well during hard times. Paperbacks are, after all,
a cheap form of entertainment.
As everyone in the fiction game surely knows by now, he was
wrong. Paperback publishing, and the book industry in general, is
not recession-proof. During the worst of the last storm, in 1990-92,
publishing profits plunged and layoffs seemed to go on without
letup. The total number of titles coming out also dropped, from
55,483 in 1988 to 1990's nadir of 44,218.
Numbers do not quite express the anxiety and trauma experi-
enced by authors. Option books were dropped. Editors, newly "pro-
ductivity-enhanced," grew tough to get on the phone. Ad and promo
budgets, never generous, were badly slashed. Interminable negoti-
ations and lags in the delivery of contracts and payments became
common. Authors racked up credit-card debt.
The experience of the 1990-92 recession leaves us with this ques-
tion: how sensitive, really, is publishing to large economic swings?
Which indicators will forecast an upswing? In what ways will the
nineties differ from the eighties? And what can you do? 237