This is slightly off-topic, so I'm putting it under a spoiler...

I know quite a few people in the publishing industry (writers, editors, some of the publishers, a few of the literary agents). You discover aspects of publishing that aren't obvious to the public.

For example, quite a few of the "authors" are not authors at all. The author name is actually a brand name and there are numerous different authors writing the books. There's a popular science fiction series that's written by about six different authors (I know one of them) all under a fictional name. Sometimes the publisher or primary author is up front about there being several writers, sometimes they keep it a secret.

There are lots of ghost writers (especially for biographies, but also many other kinds of books).

There are also quite a few teams, but only one person's name goes on the front of the book (this is apparently how Dan Brown and his wife produced Da Vinci code, something that the public didn't know until it came out in one of the lawsuits).

I met two members of a law office where the lawyers had some spare time when business was light and they decided to team-produce a novel (one that did quite well) and share the proceeds. The project was so successful, they wrote another one, and then I think? another one (at the time I met them, they had at least two successful books on the shelves). It's hard to picture members of a law firm sitting around pitching a novel to each other, but that's what they did and it worked out well for them.

Okay, so those are people who actually contribute to the books.

But there are also people who get their names on books without doing any work at all. I know several books (by different authors) where one of the editors has a byline on the front cover and that person did not even SEE the books until they were printed. No contribution whatsoever. (This is politics, and when it happens, the authors and the other editors are NOT happy about it.)


I have lots of stories about the writing industry, the music industry, stand-up comedy. I used to travel frequently to trade shows. For me it's a business expense, so I can deduct it. The shows were computer-oriented, but because I'm mostly in the graphics industry, these were conferences that attracted creative artists and I had the opportunity to meet many talented and interesting people. Some of them worked in the Star Trek and Star Wars series. One of the guys used to work backstage at the Cheech and Chong shows when he was younger. He kept us entertained with stories for about an hour. This kind of interaction is almost impossible now with Covid messing with us, but hopefully scientists will come to our rescue as they so often have in the past (the vaccine news is hopeful).