Two major publishing houses, Penguin and Random house, merged
on Monday.
What does that mean
for us authors?
First, the reason for the merger it seems is that the publishing
industry is going through an evolution like the newspaper industry. The
publishing for the most part is comprised of a few large companies and relatively
small companies and there is not enough room in this new trend for them all. The
Big Power houses were struggling to find profits in this digital age. Amazon,
Apple and other Ebook traders have been the leader in the growing Ebook revolutions
and have exerted enormous pressure on the publishing industry. This is a way
for them to gain the upper hand.
Second, I believe this only helps the emerging Ebook author.
This affords us more competition for our work. If the large publishing houses
merger means anything, it’s that they have to stay with the trend, or fall
short in acquiring the best of the emergence of Ebook authors. Then they, I
believe are welling to seek out the EBook writers, like Amazon and others have.
Amazon recently bought the smaller publisher Avalon Books to launch its own
book imprint division.
Third, the ongoing digital revolution allows authors to
craft, publish and market books of quality with deft and precision -- and to
use those works to find their audiences and cultivate long-term relationships
with return readers. Frequently, publishers locate these talents from the
self-publishing pool. They repackage the product, and place it back into the
context that they brought it forth. This trend will hold and a merger of two of
the Big 6 will create a large company focused still focused on producing
bestselling books. Their slush pile will increasingly be the successful digital
publishing ventures of the independent and entrepreneurial author. Win, Win for
us all.
