The reason the New York publishers survive is because they keep acquiring new authors, and there will always be new authors to acquire. But they are not in business to help any one particular author. They are in business to make money. They know that they make money by selling great books, and so they acquire a lot of great books. But most of the books don’t sell enough to pay the big cost of running a publishing conglomerate. So they keep acquiring until they find the next hit—and they will, just by the law of averages.
