When Big New York Book Publishers Quit Publishing

December 11, 2008

Everybody knows that the U.S. economy is sputtering, and in such a situation there is no reason to believe that sales of books will not slow down along with the sales of most other commodities. Still, it was shocking to hear a few weeks ago that one of the bigger and more prestigious of American book publishers, Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt, has made a decision to not publish any more new books for the foreseeable future. Now, granted, commercial publishers like HM love to compile a strong backlist because all the expensive upfront costs of such books have already been paid for with the result that there is often more "pure" profit in these still-producing backlist titles than in new titles. Yet, to be a viable publisher you have to keep publishing new work. As one person in the business said in a New York Times story, "HM might as well hang up a sign that says, 'Out of Business.' "

At this point, the maverick move by Houghton Mifflin appears not to have influenced any other publishers, although layoffs have been announced at some other big NY publishers. (Layoffs, I think you would agree, are a long way from the radical step taken by HM.) In fact, Houghton Mifflin may be re-thinking its suicidal gesture, as the president of the company abrubtly "resigned" shortly after the unprecedented non-publishing announcement was made. (I may be wrong about this, but I don't think the resignation was made in protest of the decision to not publish new work.)

Fortunately, and this is the point for lovers of baseball literature, there appears to be no shortage of publishers still willing to bring us new baseball books. Just take a look at the Book Releases page on this website, and you will see that baseball books are going as strong as ever. Yes, I know that all the books of 2008 were signed up in 2007 and some even in 2006 or earlier and that a better test of how baseball book publishing is holding up will come in 2009 and 2010. But I have confidence that barring a complete collapse of the ecomony our beloved little niche in the publishing world will sail along just fine. After all, the worse things get, the more we need a break from the stress of it all, and what better way to refresh the mind and uplift the spirit than to revel in the reading of a great new baseball book!