It would be nice if when people talked about publishing they differentiated between multinationals and small presses. I worry it disrespects and erases small press published authors to suggest the million dollar deal folks are the only ones who exist and whose work has impact.

And I think it erases the dedication and fight of people who have been committed to publishing work seen as « non-commercial » by multinationals. Who went to media meetings and heard things like « our paper won’t ever review a book of an author who uses they/them pronouns. »

The US has a history of feminist and BIPOC and queer small press publishing (more of that was happening in the 70s and 80s than was in Canada). Many of those presses no longer exist but they deserve to be part of convos we have now.

I am all for authors BEING PAID but it’s not a full picture of an industry to ignore indie, small press, & self pubbed successes. Also the role of agents shouldn’t be overlooked. They have as much if not more power than acquiring editors.

We work in a challenging precarious industry that is only just grappling with things like basic respect, care, conduct, and support (for authors and for professionals) & the conversations we need to keep having demand nuance and possibility modeling if we are to get anywhere.