I guess I'm just not feeling that same kind of disappointment in the market because I've never had huge success. Successes come and go, based on books, based on series, on whether you happen to hit the zeitgeist in the markets. It's like construction work, where one or two bad years might be followed by the kind of money that dreams are made of but anyone smart puts it back because the next rainy year could mean delays and bad budgets and bankruptcy. It's speculation, and in a sense, the fiction market especially, somewhat like gambling.
:D
I think the days of authorship as a
steady regular day job kind of gig was always a delusion. The arts are just not that kind of business. The ladder isn't being pulled out from under anyone so much as the ladder wasn't really there to begin with. It was an imaginary ladder. :D
What you have is a swing set, and the ride up is inevitably followed by a ride down, but if you haven't jumped off you might get another go at the sun. :D
Maybe it's a row of swing sets, all swinging at different rates and started at different moments, and it looks like Susie is overtaking Mark but in reality everyone is just in their own groove, reaching for the sun. :D
How I used to love trying to swing hard enough to get the chains to let loose and send me twirling over the top. Never quite made it but it sure was fun trying.
Publishers can spread out risk and have so many fires going at once that it becomes a whole different thing for them, but even they depend on a few big hits to pay the bills. That is not the indie publisher. Anyone doing that has graduated to small press and left indie behind.