6 is now 4: The Penguin in a Skirt and Moustache

[Matthew Cissell]

In Al Siverman's "The Time of Their Lives" he quotes Katherine McNamara about a lunch her husband, Lee Goerner of Atheneum, had with Pynchon; at the end of the lunch Pynchon said "Only publish good books". This and a number of other things go to show how TRP is not just a writer but someone invloved in the the republic of letters and, more specifically, that branch of production called publishing.

The fact that Penguin is being absorbed by Bertelsmann (with that dark mid-20thc. past) can't have escaped the notice of the author that wrote that Intro for Orwell's 1984 in 2003.

Anybody willing to entertain the idea that the publishing world somehow gets worked in there?

speculatin'
mc




________________________________
 From: Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: "bandwraith at aol.com" <bandwraith at aol.com> 
Cc: "pynchon-l at waste.org" <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 3:22 AM
Subject: Re: 6 is now 4: The Penguin in a Skirt and Moustache
 


Thanks. Had not seen this...family story is fascinating, at least. 

Here's one simple aspect from this week's industry news not in this story in any way. But
RH ( soon RHPenguin) has signed an exclusive deal with a company to sell their ebooks direct.

Here is some of the significance: of the Big 6 publishers, soon 5, only two now sell direct at all. 
Amazon has threatened for years now in this way: if you,Publisher, sell direct to customers,the price you offer will be the price at which we start discounting..significant because a publisher could sell at a very steep discount and still make money because wholesalers and Amazon take @50% of List price per sale.....

So, one question is: can RHPenguin be big enough to buck Amazon w direct selling at a discount? (So big might RHPenguin be that not even AMZN could afford losing money on every book for any length of time) 

Sent from my iPad

On Apr 9, 2013, at 8:35 PM, bandwraith at aol.com wrote:


Ah, but it's always more complicated, is it not? Mark? Kai?
> 
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9740879/Liz-Mohn-the-woman-behind-Penguin-Random-House.html
> 
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2308415.stm