How is the literature industry doing during the recession?

Ashley: How is the literature industry doing during the recession?
I’m interested in becoming a editor, book publisher, or author when I get older how is the literature industry doing?
I plan on books! Not the news paper!

Answers and Views:

Answer by mcglestacius
Well this thing here is called the internet. And it is raping the shit out of that industry. But you’d probably still be able to get a job editing.

Answer by Tortuga
The literature industry died when the internet came about. That was the knockout punch after it was already staggering after cable television went from 12 channels to about 200 and people stopped reading books. Before 1980, bestsellers used to go into multiple printings when people still read. These days, very, very few books survive more than one hard copy printing and go straight to paperback (fiction anyway. Non fiction can last longer). It’s a great profession, however, it’s not like it was post WWII when you had several publishing houses in which to shop your book around.

Answer by Cara B
First off, I don’t know much about the stock market(or any of that stuff really), so the only thing I can give you is my personal experience.

Anyway, during this whole recession my friends and I started reading and buying a lot more books. I’ve noticed this around school, too. I don’t really know why that is, but where I am from the literature industry is doing fine.

Answer by Matthew B
Newspapers are all but dead, less and less people read every year. It’s a hard road, but rewarding. I would look into new avenues like E-publishing or the Kindle tech. or E-books everything is moving online and even in Japan now they have seen the rise of best selling Text-Novels, that’s right Novels written on cellphones and published in cellphone libraries. Crazy stuff to this old man. But, good luck and I wish you the best.

Answer by Johnny
Thanks to the recession, book sales (especially fiction) are soaring. See link below.

Newspapers are a bad medium to be in; they really are dying off. It’s just a sign of the times, not so much a byproduct of the recession.

Answer by ajt575s
Technical writing is one of the best fields to get into right now. Make sure to minor in computer science or some other technical field so you have an angle, because a lot of tech writing jobs require you to have some knowledge of a particular field, especially computers. I’ve even seen writing jobs for people with degrees in the medical field.

The recession has been very hard on writers and editors. Authors have a very hard time getting their work published, so I honestly wouldn’t bank on that. Most creative writers I have met are teaching or working some other job and writing on the side, trying to get published. The thing is, when a company hits a hard spot, the first staff members to go are often the writers/editors/graphic designers/etc. It is a tough field and very competitive.

On the bright side, when you graduate, the economy will probably be better. Print media is not where it is at, though, and newspapers are going broke all over the country.