Another round of job cuts at Simon & Schuster
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R. S. Breed Founder
Publishers Weekly reports more job cuts at Simon & Schuster, following a first round earlier in the week. The layoffs total about 15, across both adult and children's publishing, and include several senior editors:
Fifteen jobs sounds small against the size of the company. It isn't small if you're an author whose editor just left, or an agent who now has one less person to send a particular kind of book to.
For anyone querying, I don't think this changes what you should be doing. It's more a reminder of what the trad side looks like from inside: fewer people doing the acquiring and editing, and "orphaned" books (where the editor who bought it leaves before it comes out) a risk worth thinking about rather than pure bad luck.
If you've got a contract with any big publisher, it's a fair question to put to your agent: what happens to my book if my editor goes? Better to have the answer before you need it.