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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Sales, Earnings Up at Simon & Schuster

Revenue at the Big Five house increased 2% in the third quarter, rising to $203 million. Bestselling adult titles in the quarter included 'The Survivor' by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills, and this year's Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction, Anthony Doerr's 'All the Light We Cannot See.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gompertz Joining Skyhorse as Editorial Director

Skyhorse Publishing has named Mark Gompertz group editorial director, effective November 9. Gompertz, who was most recently at Hearst Magazines, had a long tenure at Simon & Schuster. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador's Harvey moves to Harvill Secker

Picador editorial director Kate Harvey is moving to Harvill Secker in the role of deputy publishing director. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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S&S nabs German star

Simon & Schuster has bought world rights (excluding Germany) in These Days of Ours, a new novel by Juliet Ashton, and will publish in June 2016. Ashton, who was previously published by Sphere in the UK, is a superstar in Germany, where she has shifted more than 100,000 copies for... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Logan wins Polari First Book Prize

Glasgow-based author Kirsty Logan has won the Polari First Book Prize 2015 for her short story collection, The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales (Salt Publishing). Now in its fifth year, the Polari First Book Prize celebrates the best debut books exploring the LGBT experience, whether through... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Henning Mankell dies after cancer battle

Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell has died following a battle with neck and lung cancer.  His UK publishers, Penguin Random House imprints Vintage and Harvill Secker, said it was a "privilege to have worked with a man of such talent and passion" and that the world was "a sadder place for... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales and publicity changes at PRH Ireland

Penguin Random House Ireland is to bring all publicity for Penguin, Random House and DK publishing in-house, with sales moving to one integrated team, and Michael McLoughlin appointed as m.d. of the business. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Up, up and away?

It may not have quite the same resonance as William Goldman’s infamous line about the movie business—“nobody knows anything”—but Carolyn’s Reidy’s comment, made at a recent Book Industry Study Group meeting held in New York, that “the more we know, the more we have to learn” is an excellent... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Trump Signs for New Book with S&S

Simon & Schuster's Threshold Editions will publish a new, untitled book by Donald Trump October 27. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Canadian Publishing 2015: PRH Canada’s Physical Consolidation Makes The Merger Complete

This summer, two years after the merger of Penguin Canada and Random House of Canada was finalized in July 2013, more than 200 employees left the publishers’ longtime separate headquarters and moved into a new Front Street office in downtown Toronto. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How to Write a Roger Federer Think Piece

It has been a bit more than nine years since David Foster Wallace delivered “Federer as Religious Experience,” the Magna Carta of what has become one of the most popular genres in sports journalism: the Roger Federer think piece. The now-classic essay, penned for the short-lived New York Times... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2015-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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RH Children's Buys Self-Pubbed Phenom 'Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep'

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of Self-Published 'Rabbit' Sleep Book Top 29,000

After selling roughly 300 copies prior to last week, self-published picture book 'The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep' moved more than 29,000 print copies in the week ended August 23. It's also rumored that the book were acquired by Random House for seven figures. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Morel to retire from Penguin France

Jean-Luc Morel, sales manager for Penguin in France, is to retire from the company after 25 years. Morel’s last day will be 22nd September. In the coming weeks he will hand his work over to existing members of the Penguin Random House international sales team: Pauline Konink, sales manager for... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales Down, Profits Up at Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster posted an 8.6% increase in operating income in the second period of 2015 over the same period in 2014 while revenue fell 5.6%, to $199 million. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vending Machines to Dispense Free Kids Books

Jet Blue, Random House and Mary Pope Osborne are giving away free kids books through a program that places book vending machines in underprivileged neighborhoods. The post Vending Machines to Dispense Free Kids Books appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shavit to succeed Franklin at Cape

Dan Franklin will step down from his role as publishing director at Jonathan Cape at the end of the year, with Michal Shavit [pictured], currently deputy publishing director at Harvill Secker, taking his place.  Franklin, who is aged 66, will take the title of associate publisher and will... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jones and Profile agree to split

Profile’s publishing director Mike Jones is to leave the company at the end of this week, by mutual consent. Jones joined Profile from his role as non-fiction publishing director at Simon & Schuster almost exactly a year ago in July 2014. The publisher said it was “very sorry” to make the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Leopold Blue wins children's book prize

Leopold Blue, a coming-of-age story set in South Africa, wins the 2015 Branford Boase Award for an outstanding debut children's novel. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2015-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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S&S buys Australian debut

Simon & Schuster has bought a "unique" debut from an Australian author. S&S ssistant fiction editor Carla Josephson bought UK, Commonwealth & ANZ rights in All These Perfect Strangers by Australian prize-winning author Aoife Clifford from Rebecca Ritchie and Clare Forster at Curtis... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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