What Literature Did Agents Build?

For three days in August 2022, the publishing world directed its attention not to Manhattan, but to Washington, DC, where the industry stood trial. Penguin Random House had attempted to acquire Simon & Schuster, a move that would reduce the “Big Five” publishers to just the Big Four. Viacom had been signaling their desire to unload Simon & Schuster for some time, and many—myself included—treated this merger as a foregone conclusion.