Hard on the heels of the announcement of massive shake-ups, reorganizations, and firings at two of New York’s biggest publishers — Random House and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — and before we could report a big layoff at the country’s largest Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson (54 people got the ax, as reported by none other than company CEO Michael S. Hyatt on his blog), comes the stunning report of layoffs at one of the biggest of the big: Simon & Schuster has laid off 35 staffers, according to a report by Michael Cader of the industry newsletter Publishers Lunch. S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy has released a statement saying cuts were made across the company “including our publishing divisions and international, operations and sales.” She added “today’s action is an unavoidable acknowledgment of the current bookselling marketplace and what may very well be a prolonged period of economic instability. In light of this uncertainty, we must responsibly position ourselves for challenges both near term and long.”