Victory For Book World In Court!

 

  

Writers, consumers, literary agents, and bookstores won big when a federal court ruled yesterday that a proposed merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster was illegal and would not take place.  

The ruling says that the biggest publisher in the world can’t take over one of the few remaining American book publishing giants because it would violate anti-trust laws that protect against unfair business practices. In other words, the Goliath of book publishing has been derailed from simply eating up its competitors.  

The Justice Department estimated the two publishers would have accounted for 46% of the best-seller market if the proposed merger had gone through.  

This is good news if you treasure free speech. When one company starts to become a giant gatekeeper on what gets published and sold in America, voices get silenced. One company should not be in such position of power where it can essentially stop certain books from seeing daylight.  

Other winners include: 

* Bookstores, who won’t be squeezed by one publisher dictating terms for so many books. 

* Writers, who will have greater publishing options and more favorable royalty terms. 

* Literary agents, who will not see advances dry up as a result of fewer publishers to buy what they offer. 

* Consumers, who maximize their reading choices when books don’t get released by mainly one big filter. 

Though self-publishing offers the right of any author to publish anything, the reality is that many of those books go nowhere. Without the support of the market reach of a big publisher, the odds of selling a lot of books is greatly diminished. Thus, unless you are with one of the Big 5 - Harper Collins, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, or Macmillan - your distribution reach is very weak and your promotional abilities are hampered. 

Another result of the ruling is that Penguin has to fork over $200 million to Simon, as per the terms of the failed business pact.  

Will there be new attempts by old rivals to get married? Maybe smaller ones will get gobbled up by a hungry Penguin Random House, but it looks unlikely that the current Justice Department will support the merging of big publishers. 

As best-selling horror writer Stephen King says: “Consolidation is bad for business.”

Please Contact Me For Book PR Help

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres.

 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2022. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.2 million pageviews. With 4,400+ posts over the past decade, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.