Rumors surfaced today of a merger between Random House, the largest English-language trade book publisher in the world, and Penguin Books. HarperCollins is also being considered.
The New York Times (blog) reported:
Pearson, the British media conglomerate, said Thursday that it was in talks to combine its Penguin publishing house with Random House, owned by Bertelsmann of Germany.
The deal, if completed, would bring together two of biggest book publishers in the world, uniting Penguin and its iconic orange logo with the owner of Crown Publishing and Knopf Doubleday. The combination would create a division with greater scale that could compete in a rapidly evolving e-book market. Traditional publishing houses have increasingly come under pressure, especially in the e-book category, from online retailers like Amazon and Apple.
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In light of this news, I felt it was imperative that we get an idea about what this new future might look like.… Read the rest
My name is Justin, and I don’t like urban fantasy. This is where everyone says, “Hi Justin” and then I regale you with the stories about how the genre has burned me so often that I can longer stand to be in the same room with it. I might finish my little speech by saying, “And I’ve been urban fantasy free for 98 days.” Someone might even give me a pin to commemorate my unreliance. Of course, that isn’t really true. . . I do read urban fantasy. I’m just scared of wasting my life every time I do.
