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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Calling BAME writers: entries open for 2019 short story prize

The hunt is on for up-and-coming writers who could scoop this year’s £1,000 Guardian/Fourth Estate prize A Chinese villager with no arms becomes a Paralympian swimming champion; a dapper elderly Jamaican spends New Year’s Eve in a south London police cell under suspicion of domestic abuse; a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Zayed Award Winner Hussain Al Mutawaa on Children and the Habit of Reading

The 2019 Sheikh Zayed Book Award winner in Children's Literature counsels the publishing industry to stop 'riding the wave' of typical entertainment and promote issue-based reality in young people's books. The post Zayed Award Winner Hussain Al Mutawaa on Children and the Habit of Reading... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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S&S to Distribute New Law&Crime Publishing Unit

The Law&Crime network, an on demand and live streaming network focused on trials and legal commentary, is launching a publishing unit and has signed with Simon & Schuster for worldwide sales representation and distribution. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Prince’s unfinished memoir set for October release

Random House will publish an unfinished memoir by the late pop superstar Prince this fall, the Associated Press reported Monday. The publisher is set to release "The Beautiful Ones," which shares its title with a song on Prince's 1984 album "Purple Rain," on Oct. 29. The news of the book's... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Obituary: Danielle Cumbo

Publishing industry veteran Danielle Cumbo, who most recently served as director, international sales at Simon & Schuster, passed away after a long illness on April 16. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors told to write under pseudonyms to fuel debut obsession, claims Harris

Authors are being told to write under pseudonyms to present themselves as debut writers and feed the publishing industry’s “obsession” with new, marketable voices, Joanne Harris has said. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing figures express frustration at gender pay gap results

Figures in the publishing industry have expressed frustration at the latest round of gender pay gap reports, which showed little progress had been made since 2017. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Clinton, Patterson and King make CrimeFest shortlist

Bill Clinton, James Patterson and Stephen King are on the CrimeFest Awards shortlist, which this year features a mix of established names and new talent. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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S&S scoops Khashoggi book

Simon & Schuster has landed The Killing in the Consulate: The Life and Death of Jamal Khashoggi by Channel 4 News’s Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rugman. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Appoints Dedicated Sales Manager for Christian Imprints

Shaila Muñoz joins PRHGE with more than a decade working in the publishing industry, most recently at HarperCollins Christian Publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Licensing Hotline: March 2019

News about Scholastic's Baby Shark books; Random House's new Minecraft fiction series; Carlton Books' new Disney license for augmented-reality formats; Studio Fun’s Lost Kitties tie-ins; Sterling’s Funko's Wetmore Forest books; Bob Books' license for VersaTiles; and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One step beyond

Philip Jones looks ahead to assess how the publishing industry will weather Brexit. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The pivot from traffic to audience: How early adopters lead change

Across every industry, data is changing the way we work — and the publishing industry is no exception. Audience data, such as user engagement and visit value, has invaded online publishing and is forcing publishers away from old tactics towards adopting new revenue-growing strategies. Sponsored... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Art Connects Us: Sarah Odedina

As a recipient of the Arts Connects Us Grant I travelled to Ghana and Sierra Leone to meet with writers and publishing professionals working in the field of books for young readers to foster creative and collaborative exchanges between those contacts and publishing professionals and readers in... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-03-19 11:10:28 UTC ]
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INDONESIA FOCUS: Q+A Nirwan Dewanto

You started writing early in your high school days, what were you writing about most back then?I think it is exaggerating to say I started writing at high school. I was already writing, but it was mainly journaling, which was not for public consumption. There was a poem (about a tree in the... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-03-15 11:15:36 UTC ]
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How we can enable different voices to emerge in book publishing?

The professor and author discusses his research into the publishing industry’s recent attempts to improve diversity. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Changing course: reflections on the Jhalak Prize

Sunny Singh reflects on how far the Jhalak Prize and the publishing industry have come since the award was founded, and how far there is to go. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Guardian view on academic publishing: disastrous capitalism | Editorial

The giants of the scientific publishing industry have made huge profits for decades. Now they are under threatScientific publishing has long been a licence to print money. Scientists need journals in which to publish their research, so they will supply the articles without monetary reward. Other... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rethinking 'diversity' in publishing

Five years after a report into the trade that induced many measures to change the publishing industry, a new text will assess the current state of play. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Westchester Publishing Services Celebrates 50 Years

The leading provider of publishing services celebrates 50 years of delivering excellence to the publishing industry. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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