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 ]
When it comes to high-calibre non-fiction, risk-averse trade publishing houses are producing too many copycat ‘smart thinking’ books that promise more than they deliver. But praise should be given to the university pressesAmid the ambient wails of doom about the publishing industry, I’d like to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sarah Knight was sick of commuting, P&L statements and eating salad at her desk at Simon & Schuster, so she quit to freelance and seek happiness. The post Sick of P&L Statements, Literary Editor Quits, Gets Web Kudos appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former Penguin communications manager Toby Jones has been hired as group marketing and publicity director by Simon & Schuster. Jones, who left Penguin in 2013 to go travelling, will begin at S&S on 1st July and report to chief executive and publisher Ian Chapman. Marketing director... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quarto Publishing Group UK has made a series of appointments to its sales team, as part of a restructure. John Stefani, previously business development director at Simon & Schuster will take on the role of sales director, while Geraldine McBride, previously trade sales director at Bonnier... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors Guild has outlined some of the "egregious terms" of current contract boilerplates it plans to address in its Fair Contract Initiative, first announced May 28 during BookExpo America. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen King and Robert Galbraith, the pen name for J K Rowling, are among those longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for the best crime novel of the year, for Mr Mercedes (Hodder & Stoughton) and The Silkworm (Sphere) respectively. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Editors and licensing acquisition executives from publishing houses including Lerner, Bendon, Candlewick, Random House, and others are among the attendees roaming the show floor at the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, which runs June 9-11. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Non-human cover stars are two-a-penny in the publishing industry. Just check out Miley with Bubba Sue on the new issue of Paper magazine. But, as many celebrities past and present show, you have to pick your companion with care…In the competitive world of magazine covers, you’re nobody unless... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What a difference a year has made with BookCon, with this year's literary fanfest featuring not one but two author panels specifically addressing issues of diversity in books and in the publishing industry itself. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster has rushed through a second reprint of The Ugly Game: The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup by Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert after the Fifa arrests last week, which dominated news headlines around the world. The publisher ordered a 1,500 reprint of the book, only released... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Authors Guild of America has launched a Fair Contract Initiative to “address the major inequities in many boilerplate contract terms today” and educate authors on what terms they can negotiate on. The initiative, announced on Friday (28th May) at BEA, aims to “restore balance to the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joe Monti, executive editor for Simon & Schuster’s new Saga imprint for science fiction/fantasy, or SFF, admits that diversity is more than an intellectual exercise. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week: Judy Blume's first novel for adults in 17 years, Stephen King's latest, and the absolutely incredible story of Stalin's daughter. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette Book Group and Simon & Schuster this week became the latest Big Five publishers to offer audiobook titles to libraries via Midwest Tape’s nascent Hoopla digital platform. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At this year's BookExpo America, the Authors Guild is rolling out its Fair Contract Initiative, a series of commentaries it will publish in the coming months that take a "fresh look at the standard book publishing contract." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tom Doherty, president and publisher of Tor Books, worked his way up through the sales force ranks at Simon & Schuster and was mentored by Betty and Ian Ballantine when they launched the first science fiction and fantasy line in the country. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writers are contributing to the fall in their incomes by penning free pieces for large companies in the hope that it will raise their profile and lead to book sales, Roxana Robinson, president of The Authors Guild, has told The Bookseller. She also said that Amazon was devaluing books and writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gonzales, currently director of integrated marketing at Simon & Schuster, has been been appointed v-p, associate publisher, trade books at Rodale, effective June 15. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lawyers acting for Author Solutions are due to file new papers with a New York court this week in the latest development in the lawsuit against the assisted publisher. The Penguin Random House-owned company Author Solutions provides a variety of services direct to authors under a series of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A fall in physical book sales led to a decrease in revenue in the first quarter of 2015 for Simon & Schuster. Results released by the publisher’s parent company CBS Corporation were not broken down geographically, but gave publishing revenues for the first three months of this year at... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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