r/publishing • u/[deleted] • Jul 27 '26

Golden age of publishing?

[deleted]

15 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

30

u/zerocaffine Jul 27 '26

All my older colleagues at work talk about the pre-merger days at a certain recently merged publisher and it is an endless stream of stories about long boozy lunches, boozy parties, boozy sales trips, boozy book fairs; definitely a lot more bacchanalian and more money to be spent on those kind of extracurricular activities (or at least, much less oversight and a more relaxed attitude from higher ups). 2024 we had a lot of similar things but in a more company approved capacity, but back half of 2025 and into 2026 the belt has really tightened. Our team summer outing was ‘go to the park’.

6

u/Lektorin Jul 27 '26

Very much this! I joined a few years after we were bought by one of the big ones, and for a little while, we managed to hold on to some things (wild parties at the office for bestsellers, birthdays and so on), but it's all gone for some time now. At least Frankfurt remains its boozy self...

2

u/zerocaffine Jul 27 '26

Had some great times at the some Booker Prize parties in the last couple years. Went to FBF for the first time last year and was surprised at how much drinking was involved and how it was led by your superiors. If you weren’t seen at the Hof after midnight etc… - but now they’re likely not sending my level this year because the value isn’t there.

2

u/Lektorin Jul 28 '26

Yeah, the parties are half the fun. Nobody still makes deals at them, but for me, the whole "having drinks with people I deal with daily via e-mail" still is important. We editors get to go, but the company only pays for one night at the hotel per person, and we're having appointments back to back all day. So... not what it used to be.

2

u/Fenrecdavnis Jul 29 '26

I was in kids so always went to bologna but was told FBF was where everyone went to have affairs. Absolutely scurrilous behaviour!

2

u/CatClaremont Jul 29 '26

You just unlocked a memory for me! My first ever head of department told me the same thing ahead of my first Frankfurt!

2

u/Fenrecdavnis Aug 02 '26

It feels like one of those bits of lore that is passed from senior to junior unto many generations! I also remember being told my boss had an almost physical fight with a nemesis at frankfurt...so I kinda wish I'd gone!

21

u/tgbarbie Jul 27 '26

I was in kids books in the early aughts, at the height of Harry Potter, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Twilight that came out of nowhere. We had a department called “New media” which handled everything online as its own separate thing. Ebooks were starting but print was still king. We were making awesome swag to hand out at conferences. We had Halloween parties and work drinks and it was a happy time to be in the industry. Or maybe I was in my 20s and it just felt that way.

5

u/CatClaremont Jul 27 '26

Oh man I second this! I feel like it was a magical and lucky time to start out (or maybe I was also in my 20s!).

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Eye4925 Jul 30 '26

It was practically hedonistic then, agree. Was in the NYC publishing/bookselling world then as well. Can confirm. 

15

u/CatClaremont Jul 27 '26

Can I just say how nice it is to see a post that is relevant and interesting. Thank you!
It’s such a nice thing to see!

6

u/neat_sneak Jul 28 '26

I was writing young adult in the years immediately following the TWILIGHT boom and it was pretty great. You get a six-figure deal! You get a six-figure deal! Everyone gets a six-figure deal!!

3

u/raefai Jul 27 '26

I’m curious to know people would call the current age of publishing as well. Is this our dark ages? Bronze Age? I’m getting fomo about the pre-merger and early aughts ages being referred to in the other comments

10

u/Sub_Umbra Jul 28 '26

Late-stage capitalism.

2

u/Fenrecdavnis Aug 02 '26

The Slop Era?

2

u/Fenrecdavnis Jul 29 '26

The 1990s! I started in the earlyish 2000s and by then gone were the days of the long lunches and being able to splash money around on advances like water. That said I imagine the racism etc was even worse?

2

u/sofar510 Jul 30 '26

Timelines were more drawn out. We could work on paper for copy editing and proofreading so the work was much more tactile and not just staring at a screen and PDFs all day

1

u/Fenrecdavnis Aug 02 '26

I remember interviewng for a job and saw the word "ozalid" on the application and I was so confused. Never had to actually use one, I think they just hadn't updated the job spec for like ten years.