How pathetic. I hope publishers are now bitterly regretting handing over millions in obscene advances to certain celeb 'authors' who hardly needed the money anyway. This is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, but of course it is the mid-list authors earning a comparative pittance in advances (if they get paid them anyway - I had a book pulled at the 11th hour last year and didn't receive a penny from the publishers) anyhow who will suffer, not the big names. But I agree with Matt - publishers will reap what they sow in the longer term.

Culling after a period of excess is a worthy phenomenon and nobody will be the worse for it , except the culled .

One of the biggest problems facing the trade is that so few outlets are prepared to stock hold in serious quantities. Notional cover prices are immediately devalued by Amazon discount offers - even though they might source to order from wholesalers and only sell a dozen copies in the lifetime of the title. There is no easy solution ; quality titles, attractively designed and well printed will however, often, have serious long term sales potential providing that they can find enough stockists.

"Many" has touched on the publisher's biggest problem here. Regardless of what many think, e-books are here to stay and make it far easier for an author to be published, to control their own rights and ultimately could earn more than they would staying with a publisher if - and that is a big "if" - the e-book thing really takes off. But this "if" becomes smaller with the culling of the mid-listers who still have fans and will buy e-books in sufficient quantities to keep an author solvent; even if a mid-lister sells around 1,000 copies of an e-book, multiply that by how many mid-listers are being dropped by their publishers and we have a bigger demand on the format. What we might see at the end of this recession and this period of culling is a shrinkage in publisher's lists, more control of content by the author and the rise of the e-book and guerrilla publisher that can deliver what serious readers want out there - good content and no celeb garbage. Which is a good thing for readers and authors, but I suspect not so good for publishers.
I think publishers should be worried.

The behaviour of the big corporates is getting really worrying. Penguin is now an unrecognisable company to what it was when Helen Fraser came along in 1998. There is an aggression to their movements (witness what Tom Weldon did with WH Smith travel) that takes the breath away. They only have a few titles on their lists that reassures people that they are still a humane company: authors like Zadie Smith, Alain de Botton and Ali Smith. If they're not careful,indies like me are going to steer clear of them altogether.

Different Planet said:

Rather than reject a manuscript, I actually take the time to work with the author to make it publishable if it's not right when it's delivered.

I also work with any author pre-contract whose work isn't quite up to standard so that, when they are commissioned to write a book, they know exactly what we expect from them - and the same support is ongoing whether they're established authors or first-timers.

Time for other publishers to think long-term, support their authors and take responsibility for what they commission.

Of course authors have to be commercially aware. I couldn't agree more, but this isn't what we're talking about here. It's shady practices. When my book was cancelled a few weeks before the deadline, the publishers hadn't even read the product and they refused to pay the advance. Months of work went down the drain and as they'd demanded I produce it early, I'd had to turn away other work and was out of pocket. I then met other writers through the Soc of Authors who had had similar experiences. I don't think it's unreasonable to consider this totally unacceptable behaviour and it's the kind of thing that makes me think twice about being an author at all.

'no point in sitting on your laurels'

Read backside.

'- as authors you should be promoting your own work and don't rely on others to do the work for you.....'

Yeah don't trust your publishers. Knock on doors it worked with the big depression in American. Alright the Bible had a lot of pre publicity.

'if it's good it will sell'

Absolutely. Sales volume is one hundred percent linked to literary quality and if anyone disagrees hasn't read...

'with a good website in a global market place their are loads of options for promoting your own work -'

Yeah - twitter blog - that's the way to flog.

'but, may i add...'

You may, you may.

'the publisher seems to be responsible for all the hidden works that go into producing a book, for instance the ISBN no. barcode, printing, distribution marketing - the list is endless.'

Yes it's called publishing.

'These days, there's no such thing as a free lunch...'

What not even a sandeich, when did that stop?

' and the companies however big or small they
are have army's of people they employ and support.....'

Well I knew it was competetive out there I didn't realise it was quite so violent. Is Ross Kemp going to do an expose?

If this weeds out some of the dross we are forced to sell to the ever increasingly moronic public, I say hurrah.

You know I think that we may be reading too much into this . I suspect that many publishers planned their publishing whilst we were very much in the economic upswing .They along with many others , such as car manufacture and house building have come to a decision to urgently and dramatically reduce cost and to curtail production.

The authors culled will represent unacceptable risk , in that they will need more marketing pro rata than a mega author , and where the resultant sales result is more speculative . Jamie Oliver on the other hand represents Zero publishing risk [in terms of the author] , the risk there is just the management of the publishing in terms of pricing , selling and marketing decisions and their implimentation.

Of course authors and their work is not the same as car production in any respect, except economically . It is a real shame that excuses are being found to delay or drop books- my only point in the blog above was that this was inevitable given the need to cut production.

Poor authors are subject to the same daily risks as every one else.... Make sure you tie everything up properly in your contract or otherwise be aware that something like this happens like there is risk for everyone every day.....

eBookWorm, have you swallowed a parrot or something?

To quote Fran....'Books are not magazines & we independents want new titles that are fresh & different. Who cares about a biography of someone who is "famous" but hasn't actually done anything with their life yet. We want literature and literature doesn't sell in huge numbers.' Well Fran you may want (and I don't disagree with you...) but the whole publishing scene, be it in book or magazine form is a BUSINESS...and love it, loathe it or stick your head in the sand.....it needs profits and vision that is supported by accountants or self financed indulgent individuals...cos MONEY it what it has always been about. Either cos' folks could afford to loose it as those wonderful families of the empire might have done...or folks wanted to make it and saw a gap in the market...like Jamie Bing, mind you he does appear to have some backing.

Accept reality, if the speculation doesn't look good on the 3.15 at Kempton races...pull your bet!

Peter B the only widget I have ever used was in my can of draft Guinness and like it or not Mr 'B' the name I contribute under is the name I was born with. I was able to survive and be paid for my labours for about 25 years in UK publishing..... the one thing you are right about is that I am now self employed in what was actually never one of our colonies...mind you had it been it would now be a much better place>

'Enjoy'....as these dammed foreign Johnnies say over here......

Snobbish attitudes toward print on demand publishing will continue to break down as formerly bloated traditional publishing houses learn that no leftover inventory means cheaper overhead. It's the future, knocking.