The Guardian view on the writing business: readers must ultimately benefit | Editorial

People want stories and that means cultivating a publishing ecosystem where big and small can flourishThis week both the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the Department of Justice in the US announced investigations into the planned $2.2bn acquisition of the publisher Simon & Schuster by Bertelsmann, which already owns Penguin Random House. The merger, if allowed, would see Bertelsmann have almost one-third of English-language book sales. The move follows a year when a population cocooned at home, reaching for comfort reading, inflated the profits of big publishers. Bloomsbury and Pan Macmillan recently announced that they would be returning furlough payments; HarperCollins did not take them.Many of the UK’s smaller publishers fared rather differently: a Bookseller survey last summer found 60% feared they would cease to exist by autumn. Indies tend not to have the backlists full of household names that, say, a Penguin has; they depend far more on serendipity, on a customer wandering into a shop intending to buy one thing but coming out with something else as well. This happens far less with online shopping; at least one publisher lost up to 90% in sales. Some also found it difficult to qualify for furlough. They took to social media to announce their plight, or to try new selling tactics; some crowdfunded; some received emergency Arts Council England cash. Many were dragged back from the brink, for which we should be grateful. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-03-28 17:25:47 UTC ]

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The Storefront (place)

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[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-06 16:00:43 UTC ]
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Blackwell's drops click and collect in almost all stores as lockdown hits

Blackwell's is the latest bookseller to announce it has closed its stores during the new lockdown and will not be offering click and collect, with the exception of its Oxford branch. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-06 09:24:14 UTC ]
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Newton and Browne make New Year's Honours list

Bloomsbury founder and chief executive Nigel Newton and former Children's Laureate Anthony Browne have been awarded CBEs for services to the publishing industry and to literature respectively in the New Year's Honours list.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-30 02:25:11 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Children's Books takes two from Skinner

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-23 00:52:01 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury cooks up Holland & Barrett partnership for Fearnley-Whittingstall campaign

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-21 10:37:27 UTC ]
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[ The Guardian | 2020-12-19 09:00:45 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury mounts big campaign for Such a Fun Age paperback

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-18 11:17:53 UTC ]
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Fungi and local authors prove Christmas hits for indies

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-17 16:31:47 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-17 02:21:05 UTC ]
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[ The Guardian | 2020-12-16 08:00:30 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-16 05:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-09 16:14:16 UTC ]
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William Collins pre-empts 'radical' Dalrymple debut on Indian independence

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-06 19:12:38 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-04 19:10:54 UTC ]
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HarperCollins pre-empts 'definitive account' of Trump presidency from Haberman

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Let an Indie Bookseller Pick the Best Book Subscription for You

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Major publishing fairs BookExpo and BookCon to 'retire' after pandemic cancellations

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