Authors fear the worst if Penguin owner takes over Simon & Schuster

Analysis: if Bertelsmann, owner of Penguin Random House, buys US publisher, writers expect smaller deals and less choice for readersUK watchdog investigates Penguin owner’s Simon & Schuster takeoverJokes circulated online when, in 2013, Penguin and Random House merged: would the new mega-publisher, which became the world’s biggest trade publishing group, be known as Random Penguin? Penguin House? Now, as the prosaically named Penguin Random House’s parent company Bertelsmann’s $2.17bn acquisition of Simon & Schuster comes under scrutiny in the UK, the jokes are fewer and further between.Authors have made it abundantly clear that they fear the fallout if the deal goes ahead. When it was first announced last November, the Authors Guild in the US was quick to register its objections. The acquisition, which would bring heavyweight S&S authors including Hillary Clinton, John Irving, Stephen King and Bob Woodward under the PRH umbrella in the US, would “creat[e] a huge imbalance in the US publishing industry”, it warned, calling on the US justice department to step in. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-03-22 23:24:23 UTC ]

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The Most Anticipated Debuts of the Second Half of 2020

There’s no doubt COVID-19 has forever changed the world as we know it. A small slice of life that had to shift trajectory is the publishing industry. Debut authors are especially struggling as the books they have worked on for countless years are released into a world without in-person book... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-06-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of June 29, 2020

A “marginalized people’s history of labor in the U.S.” goes to One Signal for six figures, HarperCollins takes on a book about Prince Harry and Prince William, Willie Nelson and his sister sell a memoir to Random House, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Trump family sues to block publication of niece's memoir

The Trump family is reportedly seeking a court order to block the president's niece, Mary L Trump, and Simon & Schuster from publishing memoir Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-25 12:16:46 UTC ]
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HarperCollins wins six-way auction for debut from S&S's Pronovost

HarperCollins has triumphed in a heated six-publisher auction for the debut novel by Nita Prose, the pen name for vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster in Canada, Nita Pronovost. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-25 11:27:10 UTC ]
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Trump Family Sues to Block Publication of Tell-All Memoir

The suit, filed in Queens County (NY) Surrogate’s Court, seeks to enjoin Trump’s niece Mary L. Trump and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, from proceeding with the publication of 'Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man', citing a sweeping... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing must 'radically reimagine' its audience, major diversity study says

The UK's first academic study on diversity in trade publishing and fiction has called for the industry to “radically reimagine” its audience and value readers outside the white middle classes. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-22 22:54:17 UTC ]
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Macmillan Forms Trade Management Committee to Address 'Key Issues'

Macmillan's trade group has formed a 13-member management committee aimed at bringing more diversity to setting priorities for the company's trade publishing divisions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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In the Race for Trump Tell-Alls, Simon & Schuster Is Leading

The publisher, which is up for sale with a brand-new chief executive, is behind John Bolton’s and Mary L. Trump’s books as well as a new one about Melania Trump. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-06-17 22:36:46 UTC ]
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B2B Publishers Call to End Data Misuse in Online Ad Auctions

A group of B2B publishers and ad tech firms are banding together to curtail the harvesting of publisher-specific data from online ad auctions by third-parties, a practice they argue is an unauthorized breach which places their relationships with their audiences at risk. Referred to as data... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2020-06-17 21:29:40 UTC ]
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Can #BlackoutBestsellerList be the reckoning the publishing industry needs?

The social media campaign could force publishers to focus on black writers by encouraging readers to buy their booksCould the New York Times’ Best Seller book list ever be filled entirely by black authors?As industries undergo reckonings around race, in the wake of international demonstrations... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-17 10:00:17 UTC ]
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Trump is trying to block publication of John Bolton's book. What's he scared of? | Lloyd Green

The memoir reportedly depicts Trump as caring more about re-election than US national security. No wonder he wants to quash itOn Tuesday, the Trump administration asked a federal judge to block publication of John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened, the former national security adviser’s... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-17 06:30:46 UTC ]
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DoJ Sues John Bolton Over Forthcoming Memoir

In a statement, Bolton's publisher, Simon & Schuster, said the suit was "the latest in a long running series of efforts by the Administration to quash publication of a book it deems unflattering to the President." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookshops need to be representative too

I want to acknowledge that my experience as a South Asian is not the same as those of Black people in this country. Although it’s important to note that we may have some shared experiences, the current BLM protests are about Black Lives, and it’s crucial to know the difference.  However, the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-15 19:31:29 UTC ]
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Donald Trump's niece Mary set to publish explosive book about her family

Too Much and Never Enough, due in August, is expected to detail her role as primary source for exposé of the president’s tax affairsDonald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, will publish a “harrowing and salacious” book about the president this August, according to reports.The Daily Beast revealed on... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-15 12:17:31 UTC ]
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Publishers want more black authors. Why have they silenced us for so long? | Candice Carty-Williams

As Black Lives Matter protests take place across the world, the publishing world is rushing to support those ‘ignored by the mainstream’. Who is the mainstream, then?The publishing industry is stilted and archaic. I worked in it for seven years, and left due to reasons I can’t legally talk... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-11 09:44:22 UTC ]
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Changing the story with Hashtag BLAK and The Diverse Book Awards

I am a Black author and publisher in an industry that is dominated by white people. Black Lives Matter is not a hashtag. It is a movement that will carry on until we have seen real change. It is being said time and time again but there is still not enough representation in the publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-11 01:22:51 UTC ]
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Dorothy Koomson: 'publishing is a hostile environment for Black authors'

Author Dorothy Koomson has written an open letter to the publishing industry, in which she describes it as a “hostile environment for Black authors”.   Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-10 06:37:48 UTC ]
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A great Bigfoot novel may be lurking out there. Max Brooks’s ‘Devolution’ isn’t it.

Given monster stories by Mary Shelley, Stephen King and other masters of the macabre, Brooks is trying to fill some awfully big shoes here. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-06-09 15:19:49 UTC ]
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S&S Children's scoops two Poskitt and Willmore titles

Simon & Schuster has acquired the third title in The Runaway Pea series by Kjartan Poskitt and illustrator Alex Willmore, in addition to an untitled picture book. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-08 05:13:15 UTC ]
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What It's Like to Be a Frontline Bookseller During a Pandemic

Frontline booksellers are the first people customers see when they set foot in bookstores across America, and are among the most vulnerable workers in the publishing industry. This is what their world looks like now. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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