"Carine Abouseif, Senior Editor: As an editor, my ears always perk up when I hear a story described as "juicy." That's how we talked about contributing writer Tajja Isen's essay, " The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem," as it made its way through our editorial process. Tajja interviewed writers, book editors, and literary agents about the concept of "sales track"-a term for the number of books a writer has sold. Low sales numbers can cut down a writer's career before it's even really begun, shaping how an agent pitches their second book and whether editors will buy it."
"It was juicy because of the voices Tajja was able to get, including an editor at a Big Five press. But I also loved it for the way it pulls back the curtain on an industry that I know little about, but whose products I consume. If I read a book by a debut author and never see a second book, I find myself wondering what happened to them. The piece answers that question: they probably didn't get a second chance."
Nine 2025 selections expanded perspectives by exposing overlooked systems and ethical tensions. One examination of the publishing industry's "sales track" metric shows that low sales numbers truncate many writing careers by shaping agents' pitches and editors' acquisition decisions, often preventing debut authors from publishing a second book. Another investigation turns journalistic convention inside out by subjecting reporters' motives to rigorous self-scrutiny and challenging the notion of the journalist as a neutral moral referee. Together, the selections emphasize consequences of algorithmic narrowing, industry gatekeeping, and the value of journalism that reveals unexpected, consequential ideas.
Read at The Walrus
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