For fiction publishers were small houses with semi-amateur owners. They had an interest in what they were publishing, and if they liked an author they'd provide

For fiction publishers were small houses with semi-amateur owners. They had an interest in what they were publishing, and if they liked an author they'd provide opportunities and invest in a career. For example Penguin, which was launched in the 30s to provide cheap literary paperbacks for the mass market - a kind of cultural levelling up instead of dumbing down. Now publishing houses are relatively small departments in unimaginably huge media corporations. Penguin is now part of Penguin Random House which is part of Bertelsmann, which also owns BMG (Bertelsmann Music), RTL TV/Radio in Europe, and Arvato, which is a general purpose corporate offering logistics, finance, IT. So it's not a family-owned business any more. And it is much more business than family, with the usual MBA culture of targets, ROI, and the rest.