I guess that if people keep buying the books, it doesn't matter if they aren't as good as they could be, because all the publishers care about is getting rid of what they have printed.

(Joe Haldeman said at a con that tax changes in the USA had meant that print runs had become much smaller as it was ruinously expensive to have books sitting in warehouses for more than a year, thus the publishers print small runs, sell them out, then print another run if required)

And in SF, they are releasing a book a day now. So what if Niven writes a turkey, as long as it makes back its advance, and a bit of profit, that's all that matters.

Meanwhile I go into the bookshops, and despite all the books, there is nothing for me to buy.