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A review by kellylynnthomas
Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature by Dan Sinykin
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Big Fiction is part history of publishing, part literary analysis. The first few chapters give an overview of how and when publishing houses began to get bought up by larger corporations, with a particular focus on Random House. Sinykin also delves into some of the popular fiction of the 1970s and 1980s, and explains how the changing industry affected authors and therefore, the books they wrote. Later chapters take a look at nonprofit publishers like Graywolf, and the final chapter looks at W.W. Norton and how it managed to stay independent when pretty much every other publisher was conglomerated.
Overall, Big Fiction is an interesting read, even if I didn't agree with all of Sinykin's literary analysis. The prose is dense, and definitely not easy reading. Parts of the book felt a little unbalanced, with not enough history/context and perhaps a bit too much analysis of individual novels. This is still a valuable study of how conglomeration changed fiction in big ways, and worth reading.
Recommended for: People who work in publishing, writers of fiction who hope to be traditionally published, and anyone who is interested in the history of publishing and literary fiction as a genre.
Overall, Big Fiction is an interesting read, even if I didn't agree with all of Sinykin's literary analysis. The prose is dense, and definitely not easy reading. Parts of the book felt a little unbalanced, with not enough history/context and perhaps a bit too much analysis of individual novels. This is still a valuable study of how conglomeration changed fiction in big ways, and worth reading.
Recommended for: People who work in publishing, writers of fiction who hope to be traditionally published, and anyone who is interested in the history of publishing and literary fiction as a genre.