Pearson has said in a press communication today that operational profits will be below initial expectations for 2016 and it will not now achieve its target of £800 million in 2018. Pearson reported that North American higher education market sales in 2016 were worse than forecast, with a poor fourth quarter and a revenue drop of 30% compared with the last quarter of 2015. The press release reveals…
Breaking up is hard to do: Penguin Random House has Sold Author Solutions
Penguin Random House (PRH) has sold its self-publishing division Author Solutions to an affiliate of private investment firm, Najafi Companies. PRH parent company Pearson purchased Author Solutions in 2012 for $116m from Bertram Capital. Following the merger of publishing goliaths Random House and Penguin, Author Solutions became a part of the Penguin Group. Over the…
Bertelsmann Eyeing Up Buyout of Penguin Random House
Almost a year to the day TIPM produced and posted an article and infographic to illustrate the global media corporations which control the so-called ‘big five’ publishers and the involvement major publishing houses now have in self-publishing service providers. You can still download this infographic here. One of those global corporations is Bertelsmann, current co-owners (with…
Penguin Looks For Removal While Author Solutions Seek Full Dismissal in Lawsuit
Lawyers acting for Penguin and Author Solutions, in a lawsuit filed against them by three authors, have asked for the court to dismiss the action. Regardless of any decision made on the motion to dismiss by Judge Denise Cote, lawyers have also asked for Penguin to be removed as a named defendant in the suit. From PW… Penguin and its…
Class Action Complaint Against Penguin/Author Solutions – Part 2
The class action complaint lodged with the New York court at the end of April alleges that ASI misrepresent its company and services with the intention of luring authors in with claims that its books can compete with “traditional publishers,” offering “greater speed, higher royalties, and more control for its authors.” The suit also alleges…
AuthorLounge Revamps for The Great Unpublished | LBF 2013
The AuthorLounge presence at the London Book Fair has been a feature of the event for several years and this year it gets a complete revamp and will focus on unpublished authors. LBF organisers have partnered with UK book marketing and author consultancy, Authoright. I’ve noticed a significant increase in the number of exhibitors specifically focused…
DOJ Approves Random House Penguin Merger in the Blink of an Eye
If you blinked yesterday then you might have missed some very significant publishing news. It is strange how one of last year’s biggest stories in the industry just sort of, well… slipped off the radar. And it’s not because Penguin hasn’t been banging its drum with announcements already this year. In the past few weeks…
Book Country, You’ve Been Book-Tango’d!
When Pearson bought ASI (Author Solutions), the self-publishing goliath and owner of multiple self-publishing imprints like AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibris and Trafford, we had the usual gnashing of teeth and countless toys tossed from cots—none more so than from the self-publishing community. Savvy authors don’t like to see their fellow brethren, however naïve, fork out money…
P-p-p-pick up a penguin: When Six Becomes Five
In about seven weeks many in the publishing industry will gladly embrace the Christmas and New Year hiatus with added enthusiasm, and never more so than at the offices of Penguin Books. The company has been at the centre of the two biggest stories in the publishing industry this year—the purchase by Pearson of self-publishing…
Anyone Fancy a Random Penguin? It’s A Done Deal! | Penguin Random House (Updated)
Bertelsmann and Pearson have confirmed talks are underway to combine their respective publishing divisions, Random House and Penguin. Some weeks ago on TIPM’s Facebook page I posted that we would soon see some major changes in the publishing industry. The discussions to merge the two largest publishers in the industry is further signs that we are entering a serious…