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 ]

Other news stories related to: "Are small publishers doing all the hard work for the big ones?"


Kate Manning moves from HC to Hot Key

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 17/10/2011 - 09:18 Hot Key Books has hired HarperCollins' head of children's sales as its new sales and marketing director. Kate Manning will join the publisher on 2nd January 2012 and will be responsible for a fiction list comprising between 30... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Global woes unlikely to hit US business at Frankfurt

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 10/10/2011 - 08:43 Leading US publishers are looking forward to this week's Frankfurt Book Fair, with both Simon & Schuster and Hachette bringing more editors than they did last year. Hachette US chairman and c.e.o. David Young will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google launches UK eBooks store, Australia and Canada 'soon'

Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 06/10/2011 - 14:17 Google eBooks has launched its e-bookstore in the UK. The store can be found at Google.co.uk/ebooks with frontlist titles including The Fear Index by Robert Harris priced at £9.06 and Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson priced... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random wears it well with Rod memoir

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 05/10/2011 - 12:08 Random House has acquired the autobiography of Grammy Award-winning rock 'n' roll singer and musician Rod Stewart, with Stewart promising to "hold nothing back". The Random House Group UK and Random House US jointly... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster to publish Country Life titles

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 22/09/2011 - 08:48 Simon & Schuster has signed a deal with Country Life magazine to publish a new series of tie-in books, beginning this autumn with Curious Observations: A Country Miscellany. The book will comprise writings, articles and... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Virago acquires university satire

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 16/09/2011 - 09:21 Virago has bought rights to a satirical novel set at a top-class university. Associate publisher Ursula Doyle bought UK and Commonwealth rights to Penelope by Rebecca Harington from Jane Finigan at Lutyens &... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Philippa Gregory to write YA

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 15/09/2011 - 08:30 The Red Queen author Philippa Gregory is turning her hand to young adult fiction for the first time, after signing a deal with Simon & Schuster. Ingrid Selberg, director of children's publishing at S&S UK, and Jon... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstone's adds new categories to kid's book prize

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstone's add new categories to children's book prize

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House Moving to Digital Catalogues in 2012

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jobs' biography to include shock resignation

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Granta hits iBookstore

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital sales double at S&S, international "booming"

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 03/08/2011 - 09:20 Digital sales more than doubled at Simon & Schuster in its second-quarter but did not offset the decline in print. However, the publisher reported an increase in profits of 12% off the back of the shift to digital and... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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RH strikes a pose with Vogue's Coddington

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sulkin to retire as Williams becomes Bodley head

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Print book sales decline in first half of 2011

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harvill Secker to publish death row lawyer memoir

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harvill Secker buys new Nesbo

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Six shortlisted as Royal Society kids' book prize returns

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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S&S title to examine Arab spring

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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