Literature as Commodity

The inexorable commodification of literature has undercut the ways writers and publishers used to work. That's not a defense of the old ways, but it should raise questions about the notion that somehow money (consumable quantity) can reflect literature's ultimate value (lasting quality). In the past, editors published popular best-selling writers to feed the writers of great books. In this new Gilded Age, the few writers who've sold books in large quantities, the .01% at the top, will make the money, and those writing the great books may always remain in danger of being hungry as they feed the world.