[Writer Post] Happy Halloween and Scary Mergers
Happy Halloween! Tis the season to be spooked and scared. And the publishing industry has had its share this week. Two mergers/buyouts have been announced in the last few days. One that only concerns us peripherally – in the terms of jokes and cautious optimism. One that can directly impact all authors on a fundamental level – we just don’t know how yet.
Those in publishing have been making “Random Penguin” jokes (though I prefer Penguin House or even RANDOM PENGUIN HOUSE to disguise nervousness over the proposed merger of Random House and Penguin Books.
To the greater world, reaction to this announcement is “Who?” and/or “So?” To those of us who write, we’re going to watch this very closely. There are only SIX major publishers in this industry. This would take it down to FIVE and create a 500 lb gorilla. There’s a long way to go before this is a completely done deal, but yeah, we’re nervous.
WHY? Those two houses have a ton of imprints. They also have different ways of doing business. Mergers mess up the status quo (which wasn’t very “quo” to begin with). Will this mean a blending of imprints – leaving fewer avenues of publication? Will editors be shuffled? What does this mean fewer slots for new books as positions are shifted or lost? What will happen to marketing budgets and publication schedules that are already difficult to get onto?
These are scary, scary questions to writers. And though they don’t apply to me directly RIGHT NOW. These are issues facing friends, colleagues, and MY FUTURE. I’m watching this very carefully. When we said publishing needed to change to keep up with digital publishing and other new publishing issues — this was NOT what any of us had in mind.
The other merger – Lucas Films and Disney – that’s just giggly fodder. Who doesn’t want to see DARTH MICKEY???? I mean really? We are cautiously optimistic that this will mean the end of the constant tinkering with SOMETHING THAT IS NOT BROKEN. This could be something very good.
Now… let’s go get our scares on…