Penguin Random House is negotiating its first mega contract with Amazon since the two sides merged in July 2013. Their current contract with Amazon UK expires at the end of the month and the contract in the US is up for renewal towards the end of the year. When Penguin merged with Random House the publisher now accounts for 1/4 of all new novels in print. With so many books … [Read more...] about Penguin Random House Negotiating a New Contract with Amazon
Penguin Random House
When Will Publishers Learn? Direct to Consumer Doesn’t Work
We're going to go out on a limb here and make a sweeping prediction, one that hopefully will be ridiculed in fifty years: consumers do not buy books directly from the publisher. Why not? Because in most cases, they don't know who the publisher is. In even more dire news for publishers, consumers also don't care who the publisher is. That truth hasn't stopped Penguin Random … [Read more...] about When Will Publishers Learn? Direct to Consumer Doesn’t Work
Germany’s Bertelsmann to Close Bookselling Division
In what is possibly the slowest death in the publishing industry, German publisher and retailer Bertelsmann announced this week that it would be leaving the bookselling business to focus on content, which it produces not only as a book publisher but also in other forms of media. The company, which hit its heyday in the years immediately after the end of World War II and leading … [Read more...] about Germany’s Bertelsmann to Close Bookselling Division
Update on the Penguin Random House Merger
Penguin Random House officially merged on July 1st this year, but so far, not much has changed at either side of the company other than the formalization of the upper leadership. Employees of both companies still answer to their original chains of command and the book catalogs remain separate, at least for now. In an article for Publisher's Weekly on where the newly formed … [Read more...] about Update on the Penguin Random House Merger
Jamie Oliver Cookbook Offered as Value-Added Content to UK Libraries
Thanks to initiatives like the joint Sourcebooks and OverDrive project earlier this year, The Big Library Read, publishers are finally receiving concrete data on how library lending impacts their book sales. In what appeared on paper to be a bold move that cost the publisher and the author a great deal of money, Sourcebooks made one of its titles available to all of OverDrive's … [Read more...] about Jamie Oliver Cookbook Offered as Value-Added Content to UK Libraries
Penguin and Random House Merger Approved in Canada
Penguin and Random House intend to merge and have been submitting approval documents to regulatory authorities in all of the major countries they operate in. When the two companies join forces, they will account for 1/4 of all books published. It was announced late Friday that the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canadian Competition Bureau have both approved the … [Read more...] about Penguin and Random House Merger Approved in Canada
Penguin Random House Impact on Debut, Non-Fiction Authors
No one seems to like standing in the presence of a colossus. When Amazon bullied its way into being the book industry giant that it is today, critics were arguing that it was becoming a powerhouse player, a force to be reckoned with that stood to remove competition and fair negotiating from the industry. Now, authors, agents, and industry watchers are voicing their concerns … [Read more...] about Penguin Random House Impact on Debut, Non-Fiction Authors
Penguin Random House Sends Letter to All Employees
Whenever there are talks of mergers or takeovers, it’s only natural for company employees—even long time members of the corporate family—to wonder what kind of impact it will have on people at every level of the company. With the official announcement of the newly joining Penguin Random House, Random House’s CEO Markus Dohle sent an open letter to all employees. A similar … [Read more...] about Penguin Random House Sends Letter to All Employees