Quote:
Originally Posted by bgalbrecht
Angry Robot's done a very good job of finding and publishing SF/fantasy authors that either win the Campbell award or are on the shortlist. They apparently overreached, though, as they recently shut down two of their imprints (I think YA and crime).
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According to some (alarmist?) reports I've seen out of the UK, small tradpub houses have been dropping like flies over the last couple of years. Apparently they're getting swamped by the flood of BPH backlist releases and, more recently, global english indies.
Another problem facing many small tradpub houses everywhere are facing is that their contract terms mimic the BPHs but they don't have the leverage of the big boys and, as a result, submissions are declining.
Some are adapting with more author-friendly terms and lower ebook prices but others aren't: I saw a report of one US regional/niche publisher that has been asking for 22 years worth of (unconstrained) first refusal rights, presumably to kerp authors from selfpubbing on the side. They effectively want to tie the authors to them for life.
With the no-longer-as-big BPHs trolling for publishing houses to buy, the smaller tradpub houses everywhere are seriously at risk. Coal mine canaries.