'Expressive times': Publishing industry an open book in 2022
Along with the thousands of books it released in 2022, the publishing industry also offered — not always willingly — some stories about itself
NEW YORK (AP) — In 2022, the story of book publishing was often the industry itself.
Penguin Random House's attempt to purchase Simon & Schuster ended up in a Washington, D.C. courtroom, as the Department of Justice prevailed after a three week antitrust trial last summer that also served as an extensive, often unflattering probe into how the business operates. In November, some 250 HarperCollins union employees went on strike, their calls for improved wages and benefits and greater workplace diversity amplifying an industry-wide discussion over the historically low pay for entry- and mid-level workers.
And throughout the year, social media was the meeting ground for observations and revelations on the trial, the strike and other issues the publishing world once confined to private gatherings. Authors posted their book advances, agents criticized HarperCollins and other publishers, and editors shared their year-by-year salaries. Some staffers, such as former Macmillan editor Molly McGhee, announced on Twitter last March that they had had enough and were quitting.
In her resignation letter, McGhee cited “the invisibility of junior employees’ workload” and alleged that “many executives in the publishing industry are technology illiterate” and dependent on their assistants.
