• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Penguin Random House Buys Simon and Schuster

S

Smiley

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
The Big 5 publishers are turning into the Big 4. Penguin Random House has won their bid to purchase Simon and Schuster, beating out Harper Collins.

https://bookriot.com/penguin-random-house-to-buy-simon-schuster/

First, let me say that I hope no Pocket Books editor or author loses their job or work opportunities as a result of this M&A event. I am not sure what the effect will be on the publishing lines in general and Star Trek books in particular.

If you have information, comments, or speculation based on industry knowledge, please post them here.
 
From the Times piece:

"In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Karp said that Simon & Schuster would maintain its editorial independence and would continue to publish the same volume of books under its new ownership.

“This is a company that respects the creative autonomy of publishers,” he said. “We’ll all still be competing against each other. Publishing is a business driven by individual passions for books and for writers.”

Relax. Breathe regular. :)
 
Penguin Group, at least, has a long history of high quality literary TPBs. My copies of Steinbeck's Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday (the latter a sequel to Cannery Row, adapted from his book for the musical comedy, Pipe Dream) are Penguin editions, as is a rather thick short story anthology that was a required text for a writing class I took some years ago.
 
Isn't Del Ray also part of Penguin Random House? So won't this mean that the Star Trek and Star Wars are sort of coming from the same company?
 
JD said:
Isn't Del Ray also part of Penguin Random House? So won't this mean that the Star Trek and Star Wars are sort of coming from the same company?
Click to expand...
They'll share a parent company in their publishing hierarchy. It won't be clear for some time (possibly a year or more) whether they will end up sharing the same imprint.
 
David Mack said:
They'll share a parent company in their publishing hierarchy. It won't be clear for some time (possibly a year or more) whether they will end up sharing the same imprint.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Bantam (70's Trek novels), Ballentine and Del Rey (TAS novelizations and 70's Tech Manual tie-ins) and Simon & Shuster (1980 to present novels) are now (or soon will be) all owned by the same corporate parent.
 
David Mack said:
They'll share a parent company in their publishing hierarchy. It won't be clear for some time (possibly a year or more) whether they will end up sharing the same imprint.
Click to expand...
Ah, I wasn't sure how tight the relationship was between the different parts of Penguin Random House.
 
Donald G said:
Interesting. Bantam (70's Trek novels), Ballentine and Del Rey (TAS novelizations and 70's Tech Manual tie-ins) and Simon & Shuster (1980 to present novels) are now (or soon will be) all owned by the same corporate parent.
Click to expand...

We all know it's only a matter of time before Disney assimilates every other media company on Earth...
 
Interesting news about Penguin books buying Simon and Schuster and Gallery books imprint.I wonder how this will change the books schedule coming out for the different Star Trek series in the next year or so:vulcan::)
 
So Simon & Schuster now becomes a regular competitor for the Trek license when it expires, as opposed to being the odds on favorite due to their corporate relationship with Viacom and CBS?
 
Just because S&S doesn't have a corporate edge doesn't mean the license is necessarily going to change hands. PRH has held the license for adult Star Wars novels for over twenty years at this point.

(Yes, Random House merged with the company who had the license beforehand; but since that happened after the license changed hands, it doesn't seem fair to count for longevity purposes.)

Financially I think sticking with S&S is probably CBS's best bet. Paltry though the Star Trek novel release schedule seems compared to its heyday, it's still more ambitious than any tie-in line out there that I can think of except Warhammer/Warhammer 40,000. (And that probably doesn't count as a tie-in, since it's the IP owners themselves publishing the books.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top