Per the below about The End Of Publishing, there’s also the theory that people are still reading books — they’re just all reading the same book. Most notably these days: the unstoppable James Patterson.
What he has done so successfully is not just to launch one or two bestselling crime series, but three – along with the Alex Cross stable, there’s the Women’s Murder Club, featuring four Californian crime-solvers, and most recently the Detective Michael Bennett series. He’s also created two series for young adults – the hyper-popular Maximum Ride books starring a group of kids who are part-human, part- bird, and a new line starring the orphaned teenage alien-hunter Daniel X. A book from each of these series is published once a year, as well as a number of other stand-alones. He has a horror line, a romance line, a historical-fiction line, always produces a big summer stand-alone thriller, and is now turning to non-fiction.
And this article’s from the UK, where publishing is in an even more dire state than the US.
