In regard to your Aug. 3 editorial “Put authors, readers first in ruling on merger of big publishers:” In 1999, I went to New York the day my novel, “Hard Time,” was being published only to discover that everyone at Delacorte Press was being fired that day, including my editor, who had been sworn to silence ahead of the public announcement.
The German publishing giant, Bertelsmann, had acquired Bantam Doubleday Dell, which itself was a consolidation of those three presses. They kept the Delacorte imprint but none of the employees. I have gone on to have a fortunate career, with an editor at William Morrow and Co. who supports my sometimes controversial books, but most mid-list writers are not so lucky.
