The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem
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The publishing industry is criticized for its problematic reliance on advances and royalties, likened to a form of gambling, with authors often facing financial uncertainty and publishers taking significant risks.
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Sep 28, 2025 at 10:18 AM EDT
3 months ago
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> Sales track—or simply track, in industry parlance—is an invisible force shaping contemporary literature. Much depends on that number. On the basis of track, published authors struggle to keep going; those just starting out fear their careers will be severed at the root. Track shapes how an agent pitches a book and how editors assess whether to buy it. Track restricts reader choice by dictating which books are served up as the next big thing (and the next, and the next) and by kneecapping writers deemed insufficiently commercial. The primacy of track, in other words, is a barometer for the health of literary culture. Right now, when the industry is especially skittish, the obsession with finding the next blockbuster hit privileges the survival of the few at the expense of the many.