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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Random House Moving to Digital Catalogues in 2012

Random House is the latest publisher to replace paper catalogues with digital editions. Random will begin the transition with its Random House Children's Books division's summer 2012 list which reps will start selling in January. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

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

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 25/08/2011 - 07:10 Apple c.e.o. Steve Jobs' authorised biography, which is published by Little, Brown this November, is set to include the story of Jobs' shock resignation from the technology company on Wednesday night. The book, written by... Continue reading at The Bookseller

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

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 10/08/2011 - 15:07 Granta Publications has put its books onto the iBookstore, with all digitised titles from Granta Books and Portobello now made available. Marketing and digital development director Iain Chapple said: "We are committed to... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ 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

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 29/07/2011 - 11:22 Random House has acquired the memoirs of long-time US Vogue creative director Grace Coddington, in a Transatlantic deal for a reported $1.2m (£700,000). The memoirs will be simultaneously published by Random House in the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Print book sales decline in first half of 2011

Written By: Charlotte Williams and Philip Stone Publication Date: Fri, 08/07/2011 - 09:55 Print sales across the book market have dropped by 3% in the first six months of 2011, compared to the same period last year, with Jamie Oliver the bestselling author over the period, ahead of Julia... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sulkin to retire as Williams becomes Bodley head

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 08/07/2011 - 08:40 Will Sulkin will be retiring from his role as publishing director of The Bodley Head in April 2012, with Stuart Williams, editorial director at Harvill Secker, to step into the position. Sulkin's retirement in 2012 will... Continue reading at The Bookseller

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

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 30/06/2011 - 13:09 Harvill Secker has acquired a non-fiction title about the work of British lawyer Clive Stafford Smith over 25 years to save those on death row in the US. Editor-at-large Rebecca Carter bought UK and Commonwealth rights... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ 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

Written By: Rachel Bradley Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 08:07 A guide to astronomy and a pop-up guide to how the world works are among the shortlisted titles for the first Royal Society Young People's Book Prize in three years. The £10,000 prize was not awarded between 2008 and 2010 due... Continue reading at The Bookseller

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

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:44 BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen is to write a book on the recent uprisings in the Middle East for publication in autumn 2012 by Simon & Schuster. Editorial director Mike Jones bought UK and Commonwealth rights excluding... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harper switches to Hodder & Stoughton

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 03/06/2011 - 09:58 Hodder & Stoughton has signed a three-book deal with thriller writer Tom Harper, marking the author's move from Random House's Cornerstone. Associate publisher Oliver Johnson signed the deal for world rights through... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Duggan leaves Random House for CourseSmart

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 26/05/2011 - 08:47 Random House Digital director Fionnuala Duggan is to leave the publisher for digital learning company CourseSmart, where she has been appointed managing director for international. The California-based company, which provides... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vintage launches digital campaign for debut

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 14:12 Vintage Publishing's Harvill Secker is launching a digital marketing campaign for one of its autumn debuts, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, teaming up with Failbetter Games. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bodley Head latest to publish Bin Laden title

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 16/05/2011 - 09:06 The Bodley Head has acquired a title looking at the operation that searched for, and finally killed, Osama bin Laden, by al-Qaeda expert Peter Bergen. Publishing director Will Sulkin acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random rushes Bin Laden digital exclusive

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 09/05/2011 - 08:51 Random House is publishing its first "instant ebook exclusive" with William Heinemann's rapid response to the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Beyond Bin Laden: The Future of Terror will be published tomorrow... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nurturer of Authors Is Closing the Book

The editor Robert Loomis, who is retiring from Random House after 54 years, is known for nurturing writers including Maya Angelou, William Styron, Shelby Foote and Calvin Trillin. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers Make a Plan: A ‘One Stop’ Book Site

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[ The New York Times | 2011-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Decoder: Plaintiffs Drop Suit Over Jimmy Carter Book

A $5 million lawsuit against Simon & Schuster over a book by former President Jimmy Carter was dropped by the plaintiffs on Thursday, three months after it was filed. The plaintiffs in the class-action suit had argued that Mr. Carter's "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," about the Arab-Israeli... Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2011-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Publishers, AOL To Launch New Book Recommendation Site [MediaMemo]

Three big publishers and AOL are set to launch Bookish, a "new digital platform for readers". Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, and CBS' Simon & Schuster are backing the new site, which is supposed to launch this summer; AOL will promote the property and handle ad sales. A press release... Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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