“For Godoff’s allies, the question of ‘What Now’ comes closely followed by ‘Why’. Olson was remarkably up front about his reasons–finances, which many read as pressure from the Bertelsmann highers, who have their eyes on an IPO. As for why revenues weren’t higher, many pointed to a decision made too recently to create a Little Random paperback division; it is Vintage, after all, that many feel makes Knopf untouchable.” – Publishers Weekly, Jan. 16..
The TeleRead take: An IPO? Jeeze. Yes, publishers can turn nice profits, and it wouldn’t hurt to trim back some of the outlandish advances for the biggest megastars or be cautious about creating new divisions. But does Bertelsmann really think that Wall Street and European equivalents will be happy with normal rates of return for prestige-pubishing, when even genre books can be unpredictable? Is book publishing going the way of commercial radio–where cash has unabashedly won out over quality? Remember, anyone in theory can start or buy a radio station, but the Clear Channel people dominate. Time to consider new business models for book publishing, music and the rest? Reports continue to come out about the book industry’s woes–check out today’s piece in the New York York Times on the continued disappointments of even best-selling authors.
