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By the time you read this column, the big merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster publishing companies may be resolved. At this time, however, the U.S. Department of Justice is listening to arguments for and against the merger.
In this case, the United States Justice Department needs to convince a federal judge to block a merger of two of the "Big Five" book publishers. It has argued the deal would lead to lower advances for some authors.
Why would I feel the need to write about this? After all, businesses merge, change and grow all the time and this particular case has been in the planning stage for almost two years. My concern is the same concern as the justice department. But I add, won't this create a lack of competition and as a result, increase the cost of books?
Actually, I'm happy that so many people are showing concern for this issue. Stephen King, who has always been concerned for small publishing companies, has gotten involved. Stephen King, living legend and author of "The Stand," and "The Shining," and so many other books I can't list them all, is openly critical of the 2 billion dollar deal. "The more the publishers consolidate, the harder it is for indie publishers to survive," King tweeted last year. He also testified, "I came because I think that consolidation is bad for competition." The way the industry has evolved, he said, "it becomes tougher and tougher for writers to find money to live on."
Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster deny the claim that competition will be limited. They say that they will bid against each other for an author's work. But that doesn't really make any sense. If they are one company, would one really try to outbid the other? Just read Penguin Random House's name? It used to be Penguin Publishing Company and Random House Publishers. I'm sure back in the days of that merger, the two didn't bid against each other.
We have the Big 5: Penguin Random House, Hachette, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan. If this merger happens, we will only have four major publishing companies.
"The Big Five are pretty entrenched," Stephen King had said. And he would know. He first published "Carrie" in 1974 through Doubleday. Doubleday merged with Knopf Publishing Group in 2009 and now Knopf is part of Penguin Random House. Stephen King also worked with Viking Press and now it's gone, too. And in 2015, it was big news that Scribner acquired and was the sole publisher of 27 of Stephen King's novels. Yeah, you guessed it; Scribner is now part of Simon & Schuster.
According to my research, Stephen King has always sided with "the little guy." Several years ago, Hard Case Crime Publishers asked King to write a cover blurb for one of their books; you've read cover blurbs, "This book was great!"– Stephen King. Instead, he wrote them a novel! That was in 2005 and he's written more books for them since. And for being THE best horror novelist of our time, he's very humble. At the hearing, when he was asked to state his name, he said, "My name is Stephen King. I'm a freelance writer."
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Susan Miriello is the Executive Director of the Mifflin County Library. She is currently reading Miss Morton and the English House Party Murder, published by Kensington.