The State of Indie Literature in America

Can we ever shake off the cancel-conscious dreck of the 2010s? Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. No one has any idea what’s happening in the book publishing industry. The entire bookselling model has undergone such a profound sequence of shocks stretching back to the Harry Potter series—which basically crowned Barnes & Noble as the only profitable physical bookstore chain in perpetuity—that there’s little chance to reset the balance. Nick Pompella is a science writer, editor, and reporter at Purdue University. He also works as a freelance fiction editor, and has published art criticism and foreign policy analysis for National Review. More on Literature