User:Auldhouse/DraftHistoryPublishingUnitedStates

1950s
Random House went public in 1959 kicking off a boom in publishing stock which drew other publishing companies into the stock market.

1960s
Random House purchases Alfred A. Knopf in 1960. According to Michael Korda this made it "clear that from now on the real money was in books was going to be made not by writing or publishing but by buying and selling publishing companies themselves.

Before the 1960s publishing was a very stable industry. Authors and editors were very loyal to house that they published with. For example, both Hemingway and Fitzgerald were published by Scribner's for decades under one editor Maxwell Perkins. During the 1960s authors and editors began switching from house to house looking for better deals much as publishing houses were bought and traded. The notion that the book trade was "an occupation for gentlemen" of independent income was over after the Random House decision to go public as a company that is traded publicly also has to list what it pays corporate office holders.