The Publishing World

I'm reading Books in the digital age, by John Thompson, for my studies and his description of the decision process about publishing book sounded sooo familiar to that I couldn't help putting it here:

“At the point when an editor or editorial committee is considering whether to take on a book, there may be a great deal of discussion, speculation and even agonized deliberation about sales prospects, but by the time the book is actually published and its sales figures are clear, the earlier discussion may be largely forgotten and the book takes on a life of its own.”

The stresses are mine. There was a time when I was fed up with all this but I think I'm kind of missing it...