Rupert Murdoch – World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Since Friday, it has emerged that News Corp, parent company of HarperCollins, may also be considering a move for Penguin following confirmation that Pearson and Bertelsmann were at the early stages of talks about a merger between Penguin and Random House. The…
Publishers Lunch | ASI-Pearson Deal – Related Links
Publishers Lunch » Penguin Acquires Self-Publishing Service Author Solutions For $116 Million One significant area this Publishers Lunch coverage does raise is the argument that the POD bubble may be on the wane. ASI has put a great deal into the launch of Booktango, as an ebook self-publishing platform, and the sale of ASI may…
Breaking: Pearson Acquires Author Solutions Inc From Bertram Capital
The breaking news this afternoon – and probably this year on the self-publishing landscape – is the announced acquisition of the largest global self-publishing provider, Author Solutions Inc, by Pearson, who own the Penguin Publishing Group. This could well represent the sea-change in the publishing world we have been expecting for quite a while. I…
Independent Publishing: The Game Has Changed But The Values Have Not
About five years ago I was asked to give an address to a writers’ workshop in the west of Ireland about my experiences as an author and the world of self-publishing. I’d self-published five books at that stage through my own imprint and Facebook was an incidental college social experiment by the boy Zukerberg. A…
Publishing Opportunities from Online Communities | Writing.ie
The quote from the piece below is a feature on Writing.ie this week. It’s a general overview about online publishing and communities and takes a look at three particular sites, Authonomy, Book Country and YouWriteOn. I’m not sure I’d agree with some of what is said, and there is a definite tendency to focus on…
Penguin Enters the Self-Publishing Service Arena with Book Country
Book Country Launches Self-Publishing Services PW: “Book Country, a free online writing community and publishing services venture launched by Penguin in April, has now added a suite of economically priced, easy-to-use self-publishing tools for its members. The launch of the fee-based self-publishing service makes Penguin the first big New York trade house to aggressively enter the…
Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair Competition
The Irish Writers’ Centre has today launched an interesting showcase style competition for aspiring first-time novelists. You can download an application form here. From the press release: Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair Competition Greetings! We are launching a brand new competition at the Centre. The inaugural Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair for first-time novelists will…
DBW Insights: David Shanks, CEO of Penguin USA
Digital Book World has an interview with Penguin USA CEO, David Shanks. Shanks discusses the challenges of publishing in both print and ebook, the future of handselling and high street stores, and also Penguin’s involvement in the venture, Book Country. Related articles Columbia publishing course shifts focus to include ebooks (teleread.com) Book Country – Old…
Book Country – Old Country For New Authors?
Later this year something is going to happen in the publishing industry that many analysts and experts told us would never happen. As far back as 2009, when Thomas Nelson and Harlequin launched their self-publishing service imprints, the naysayers maintained the ‘big six’ publishers would hold firm and the self-publishing service bug would never reach…
Reader Social Media Platform Bookish to Launch with Backing from Hachette, Penguin and Simon and Schuster
Press Release Venture is Backed by Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group (USA)and Simon & Schuster, Inc. AOL To Enter Into Strategic Alliance with New Site featuring Editorial Integration, Co-Promotion and Advertising NEW YORK, May 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Bookish (www.bookish.com), a new digital platform for readers, is set to launch this summer it was announced today. Backed…