Are small publishers doing all the hard work for the big ones?

These days, it is minimally staffed and funded firms who invest in new authors. The giants avoid such risk, only picking the writers once their names are madePaul McVeigh and Kirsty Logan are authors you may have heard of. Both of their debuts were published by Salt, an independent publisher. Paul McVeigh’s The Good Son was shortlisted for a bunch of awards, and won the Polari first book prize this year. Kirsty Logan’s The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales won three awards — including the Polari in 2015— and Logan had her next book published with Harvill Secker, a division of Penguin Random House. The same trajectory is likely for Paul McVeigh. It’s a familiar story.Independent publishers have existed since the 19th century; it wasn’t until the 20th and the 21st that we saw the industry dominated by a few corporations. “The Big Four” publishers – Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, Hachette and HarperCollins – have grown big by buying up small publishers. Hogarth, for example, was founded by Leonard and Virginia Woolf in 1917; now it is an imprint at the Crown Publishing Group, which is in turn a part of Penguin Random House – which itself used to be Penguin and Random House before their merger in 2013. Phew. Related: 'Crazy but fantastic': Man Booker prize pitches tiny publishers into big league Related: A northern powerhouse really is coming – in publishing Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2016-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Nearly a decade ago, Lisa Taddeo signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster to write about desire in America. Taddeo was on a hot streak: She was writing regularly for Esquire, New York, and other publications, including a reported fictional first-person piece told from the point of view of... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2019-07-09 15:59:45 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House India in Promotional Partnership With Wattpad

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-07-08 15:35:12 UTC ]
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SoA launches £5,000 prize for illustrated children’s books

The Society of Authors has launched a £5,000 book prize for ‘quirky’ illustrated books for children aged 0-7. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-01 18:13:35 UTC ]
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Penguin stops printing Pedro Baños book after antisemitism claims

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[ The Guardian | 2019-06-27 13:01:37 UTC ]
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‘Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am’ director reveals how he captured the novelist’s intimate moments

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-21 15:30:00 UTC ]
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Two thirds of professional writers earn less than £10k, RSL survey finds

Sixty-seven percent of professional writers earned £10,000 or less in 2018, a Royal Society of Literature poll of more than 2,000 authors has found, with a room of one’s own still viewed as the most important requirement for a writing career 90 years on from Virginia Woolf’s seminal essay. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-18 18:49:13 UTC ]
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Penguin orders independent review of book over antisemitism claims

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[ The Guardian | 2019-06-17 12:44:17 UTC ]
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Gale, McMillan and Moss make Polari Prize longlists

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SP Books to publish handwritten Mrs Dalloway manuscript

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BookExpo 2019: J.J. and Chris Grabenstein Collaborate to Mark Individuality

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BookExpo 2019: S&S Welcomes Angelina Ballerina and Max & Ruby

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Robert Bernstein, publisher and champion of dissidents around the world, dies at 96

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Former Defense Secretary James Mattis to publish book this summer

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BookExpo's Librarians' Lounge 2019: Meet the Authors and Editors Behind Random House's New ‘Make Me a World’ Imprint

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Ed Vere wins Oscar’s Book Prize

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Prince’s unfinished memoir set for October release

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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