Dizzy: When publishing is stranger than fiction

I thought publishing is supposed to move slow, but lately it's moving so fast I'm getting dizzy. Publishing itself is stranger than fiction.

The Penguin and Random House merger is approved.

Trade presses are developing digital-first and digital-only lines.

New small presses are emergent.

Self-published titles are lighting up the NYT lists.

The new subgenre of New Adult is capturing readers and starting debates.

Barnes & Noble is closing many branches.

Trade presses launched Bookish to compete with Goodreads and Amazon for book recommendations, book selling, or possibly something else.

Agents are offering new writer-paid services, from assisted self-publishing to editing to workshops and seminars.

Not just new but established agents are leaving the business.

Published writers are getting dropped by their presses mid-series -- even for contracted, edited, completed books.

And other new writers are getting new contracts and new agents. Others are breaking out as new successes.

It's said that the only thing we writers can control is writing, and if we're lucky, now we feel about it. I'm working on both of those, but I don't think it's not all we have to do. Yes, more of the marketing and publicity falls on our shoulders, but it's more than that. Writers have to manage their careers -- whether trade published, self-published, or both -- because the only constant we have is ourselves.

Agents, editors, presses, formats, and distribution change, but there will always be writers. We are content creators. We are spinners of stories. We capture imaginations and bring order to the world, at least until we get to the end.

How (if?) we will get paid for it in the future is anybody's guess. It's tough out there. So yes, I'm a little dizzy waiting for whatever is next.

Have the changes in the industry changed your idea of what your career will be? What kind of press and what kind of professionals (agents, editors, freelancers, consultants, publicists) you will work with?