Incidentally I have, sitting next to me, a freelance publishing contracts manager who works contract rights for Hachette and other big players. Anyway, the pro

Incidentally I have, sitting next to me, a freelance publishing contracts manager who works contract rights for Hachette and other big players. Anyway, the problem in the industry, from my point of view (very opinionated): - The market has-not-priced-in-demographics! Still! Blinkered to the aging readership. - False expectation of revival or sustaining market size. - Often the wrong channel/medium. Much non-fiction & fiction simply doesn't need or benefit from traditional publishing houses. - Industry is still in the process of acknowledging (or is hiding the fact) that brands are so dependant on celebrity names. Celebrity authors are bolstering statistics and making it look more lucrative to the average Joe than it really is. - Clinging on to old worldviews on IP, to the detriment of innovation. - Very much haven't got their head around LLM / prior art changes that are forcing us to be less litigious in the coming years. My associate is more conservative than me, and is also far more knowledgeable than me of course. I also note the consolidation of publishers was at full throttle this past decade.