THE CAREER NOVELIST
Session III), but even that is not so bad. At least the copyright is still
held by the author.
The other saving grace for career novelists is agents. A good
agent rarely or never surrenders subsidiary rights, let alone copy-
right. Agents know that to maximize their clients' earnings they
must shop around and set licensors—movie studios, for example—
against each other in competitive bidding.
In the short term, then, while conglomerates may seek to raise
earnings through "synergies," leaving less room for individual
authors on their lists, in the long run the financial benefits will
reach a limit. As a result, some of the most heavily debt-burdened
conglomerates will probably fall apart in the nineties, selling off
their pieces either to raise cash or to streamline and more sharply
focus their operations.
Indeed, divestiture by media conglomerates is already happen-
ing. Simon & Schuster grew huge buying Pocket Books, Prentice
Hall, Ginn & Co., Silver Burdett, and finally Macmillan and its sub-
sidiaries (Scribners, Atheneum, etc.). In 1995 S&S sold off Simon &
Schuster Young Books, Prentice Hall Professional Software, and two
publishers of legal and financial books. The reason? To sharpen
their focus, they said, on their twin goals of globalization and edu-
cational technology.
I have no doubt that other divestitures will follow. Hearst recent-
ly tried to sell William Morrow and Avon, shaking the companies'
morale and causing massive staff defections. (A planned sale to
Putnam-Berkley grew close, but fell through.)
Who will be next? Read tomorrow's business section.
OFF TO THE ORPHANAGE
Sell-offs and restructurings raise another fear inherent in the mega-
merger trend: the possibility of having your novel orphaned. This
may occur if you are under contract but your editor is gone, if your
imprint is in peril, or perhaps even if your publisher is on the chop-
ping block. It happens. Pinnacle, Pageant, and Lynx are a few of the
publishers that have gone under in the last decade.
Here again, however, the author and agent are actually in control.
Or should be. It is your agent's business to place your work with edi-