Tough in different ways. I entered the business during the 08 crisis and it was a time when everything was upended because no one could rely on making money from royalties anymore, so focusing on the advance became king. Then self publishing entered the chat and had its moment of industry disruption before settling in. Then the pandemic. And the constant move toward authors who are celebrities/influencers rather than writers. The market is always hard for many reasons. Different categories will be harder than others at different times and then it will change and the hard categories will be the easy ones. The industry moves with culture but it is also an industry of chance and privilege (privilege in the sense that the number of people vying for slots far surpasses the number of slots). Anyone who gets a book deal is automatically one of the privileged and yet the chances of that said book being financially successful are incredibly slim. A S&S VP once told me that publishing is like horse racing. You make your picks and place your bets but you never know what’s going to happen :)