Publishers, Weakly: What The Penguin/Random House Merger Really Means
By: Michael Levin

When I saw the word “synergies” applied to the proposed merger of publishing giants Penguin and Random House, I laughed out loud. “Synergies” is Wall Street-speak for “Let’s merge two failing companies, fire half the employees, run the resulting business more cheaply, suck out all the money we can as quickly as we can, and then leave the wounded, gasping beast that is the resulting company to die a miserable, public death.”

Which is exactly why “synergies” best describes the merger of two of the biggest names in the publishing industry, which is wringing its hands over the immediate consequences of this deal, which really represents one more death rattle of the once thriving book publishing trade.

Here’s what happens now: lots of editorial, marketing, and other jobs will vanish. Agents will have fewer places to sell books. Fewer books will be published. Authors will get even less money (if that’s even possible, since some publishers are paying zero advances whenever they can get away with it). And the pontificators will pontificate on what it all means to society (not much, since most of society has already given up on reading books).

Here’s what happens next: the remaining major publishers will find it harder to compete, because the resulting publisher (Penguin House?) will be able to produce books more cheaply. So they’ll fire people, merge, fire more people, and eventually roll over and die.

All because publishers never figured out how to deal with the Internet and how to sell books in a wired world.

All because publishers considered themselves “special” and thought they could get away with selling products they didn’t market.

All because publishers are English majors wearing Daddy’s work clothes and pretending to be business people, running their businesses on whim and gut feeling instead of figuring out what people want and giving it to them, the way smart businesses work.

I have no pity for the fallen publishers. In Wall Street terms, there isn’t enough lipstick in the world to make these pigs kissable. They had the responsibility to shape society by providing it with books worth reading, to create a cultural legacy for our generation and generations to come. And instead, what did they give us?

Ann Coulter, Navy SEALs, and Fifty Shades of Gray.

The publishers will blame everyone in sight for their predicament, but this is a self-inflicted wound; what the Brits would call an “own goal.”

You can’t run a successful business passively waiting for people (in this case, literary agents) to tell you what you should produce.

You can’t run a successful business by throwing 10,000 strands of spaghetti (or 10,000 books a year, in Random House’s case) against the wall of public opinion and seeing what sticks.

You can’t run a successful business selling information in the form of printed books by putting them on trucks to distant cities, hoping that booksellers (anyone who can fog a mirror, run a cash register and repeat the phrase, “We don’t have it but we could order it for you”) will actively work to sell your stuff to people.

Bottom line: you can’t run a successful business when you are essentially competing with yourself. If Barnes & Noble doesn’t sell a Simon & Schuster book within three weeks, it sends the book back to Simon & Schuster, at Simon & Schuster’s expense, only to have that same space on the shelf filled with…wait for it…a different Simon & Schuster book.

That’s not marketing.

That’s masochism.

A New York editor who worked at Penguin once told me that his boss called all the employees into a meeting and said, “If there’s any merger talk, you’ll hear about it from me and not from the New York Times.”

A few days later, he was reading The New York Times on the subway on the way to work, and read that Penguin was merging with another publisher.

Here we go again.

If it weren’t for Fifty Shades of Gray, Random House (and Barnes & Noble, for that matter) would have been on life support. There would have been nothing left to merge.

Penguin’s owner, Pearson LLC, is the smartest guy in the room, dumping off Penguin’s trade publishing on Bertlesmann, a German conglomerate which somehow still thinks it can make money selling books.

And now a few thousand more publishing employees are going to leave the world of books and hit the bricks.

So let the handwringing begin. The collapse of a once proud industry has taken a giant step forward. And there ain’t no synergies in that.

New York Times best selling author and Shark Tank survivor Michael Levin runs www.BusinessGhost.com, and is a nationally acknowledged thought leader on the future of book publishing.

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Author Interview with Sherry Foley

I am a long-time researcher of Civil War history. I have written for most of the jobs in my life and probably have had 3,500 articles published in my career.

I do a great deal of research on each book, following historical events as they happened and then filling in the spaces to create believable historical fiction.

My general audience is folks who have an interest in the Civil War but don’t necessarily want to read
about troop movements or the minutia of the battle strategy. I write about the ordinary soldier in the field and try to convey what they were feeling and show how they were basically bored, tired and hungry, but willing to sacrifice for what they believed was a noble cause. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life?

Melinda Todd:  Yes, my ‘real’ job is being a wife and mother. My husband and I have four children and my family always comes first, even when a character is trying to chat in my head. Sometimes I jot some quick notes because I can’t sit down and type out a scene that’s playing in my head. Then I pray that I remember it when I can get back to writing.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Melinda Todd:  Deep down, I have always wanted it. I wrote a lot of poetry in high school to get through some tough times and sort through those feelings. I won several contests with a few of them. I started my first ‘book’ in fourth grade. Someday, I may have to pull it out and type it up for others to read. Nothing like a fourth grader’s imagination!

What compels you to be a writer?

Melinda Todd:  It really started a few years ago when I decided I wanted to be able to help people who have been through what I’ve survived. If could heal and move forward, I knew my story would give hope to others.

Tell us a little bit about your book/s. What are their titles; which is your favorite if you have more than one, and briefly let us know what they are about. Pay particular attention to your most recent book and/or your first book:

Melinda Todd:  My first book was, How I Forgave My Molester. This will always be my first love because of what it means to me. While I intend to write fiction from here on out, this book is my heart poured out in order to help another sexual abuse survivor find healing.

Are you currently working on any writing projects our readers should watch for release soon?

Melinda Todd:  Yes, I have two novels I hope to have released in the next couple of months. One book is a mystery and the other deals with attempted suicide and cutting.

How did you feel the day you held the copy of your first book in your hands?

Melinda Todd:  It was surreal. My name on the cover of a book I wrote. There’s nothing like it.

What type of music, if any, do you listen to while you write?

Melinda Todd:  I can’t listen to music when I write. I have to have silence or I am easily distracted and singing along to the music or watching the tube instead of writing.

What about your family? Do you have children, married, siblings, parents? Has your family been supportive of your writing?

Melinda Todd:  I am married to my high school sweetheart. We’ve been together 18 ½ years now. We have four children; 3 boys and 1 girl, in that order. They are 15 (almost 16), 10, 8, and 6.

The main characters of your stories – do you find that you put a little of yourself into each of them or do you create them to be completely different from you?

Melinda Todd:  There’s always a little of me in my characters but I find it enjoyable to put myself into someone else’s shoes and imagine what they think and feel. I’ve always been a people watcher. People fascinate and intrigue me and not always in a good way.

Is there an established writer you admire and emulate in your own writing? Do you have a writing mentor?

Melinda Todd:  I am a huge fan of Janice Hanna Thompson. She is a witty author who interacts with her readers and cares about them. I love that I have been able to take some of her online classes and feel as though I’m a friend even though we’ve never met. There is something special about an author who will take the time to authentically engage their readers. Kathi Macias, Ginny Ytrupp, and Michelle Sutton are just a few who do exactly that and do it well.

When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?

Melinda Todd:  I grew up reading Judy Blume books. I grasped for anything that could make me laugh. And then I graduated to The Babysitters Club and read every single one of them, always wishing I could create my own club.

Do you have any pets? What are they? Tell us about them.

Melinda Todd:  Yes, we joke we have a small zoo here but we do live on 5 acres. We have two dogs, 4 cats, 1 duck, and 15 chickens.

How long did it take you to write your most recent (or first) book? When you started writing, did you think it would take that long (or short)?

Melinda Todd:  Well, in reference to the two books I hope to release in the next couple of months, it has taken a while. The mystery has only been a few months. It’s not as complicated as the second one that deals with cutting and attempted suicide. The second book I have been working on for over a year. It’s a delicate subject matter and I want to take my time and be very deliberate with how it is presented.

Is there any one particular book that when you read it, you thought to yourself, “Man, I wish I’d written that one!”?

Melinda Todd:  Yes, The Hunger Games come to mind! I submerged myself into that series. It’s so easy to imagine our own society falling into the same extremism as the colonies in the books.

Thinking about your writing career, is there anything you’d go back and do differently now that you have been published?

Melinda Todd:  I would have started sooner. I didn’t think I was good enough. I have the crazy imagination for writing but I’m still working on the craft of it. I wish I’d realized this is what I wanted to do with my life a little sooner.

What is your main goal or purpose you would like to see accomplished by or with your writing?

Melinda Todd:  I want to go beyond entertaining folks. I want my stories to have meat to them and make people think. I want them to imagine themselves as the characters and gain some insight and empathy into their own lives.

Now, use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know. Include information on where to find your books, any blogs you may have, or how a reader can learn more about you and writing.

I am the author of How I Forgave My Molester and Trailing After God. My books are available on my site at, http://melindatodd.com and amazon.com. I love watching America’s Got Talent each spring and summer. While I enjoy encouraging people, I wouldn’t make it being a judge on a talent show where negative feedback would be required. I’d absolutely hate telling someone that they had no talent and/or to give up their dream.

Melinda Todd is published with TTM through their digital downloads TTM eShorts. Her story, Quarrelsome Fools, can be purchased directly through TTM here or via Kindle Direct on Amazon.com here. For other formats, check out the Smashwords page here.

I’d like to present a special guest-blog post by author A Jacob Sweeny, entitled: The Psychopathic Author. I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to click the links to visit the author’s website or pick up her book if you’re interested. Enjoy!

A Psychopathic Author

I sometimes wonder what people think about me personally after they read the violent scenes I include in my novels. Do they wonder, just like I have so many times, if the author is just a bit psychotic to write down, let alone imagine and come up with such frightening and gruesome details?

Well, I can’t tell you about everyone else, but I can tell you that for me it was rather difficult to convey violence and gore and yet I found it necessary to do so in detail. If I didn’t make the scenes believable, I would fail as an author. I didn’t put in gory details for the shock value alone, in fact, in the beginning the few violent scenes in my first novel, Pulse of Heroes, were very sanitized and glossed over. But after reading them I realized that I wasn’t making an impact like that. If I wanted to make the reader think, feel, fear and regret, I had to bring the action not only into their minds, but into their eyes and their noses, and their ears.

I would like to make it clear that I do not in any way glorify violence, but if I’m writing a war scene, especially a historical one, like the ones I depicted in A Sword for His Women, which deals with Vlad III (AKA Dracula) campaigns’ against the invading Turks, I wasn’t going to neutralize what we know as a historical fact. However my first violent scenes left me quiet disturbed, and the first time I read them out loud in front of someone, they looked at me in surprise, and I had to apologize and tell them that it’s not me that is violent, but the characters and the situation. In fact to prove this point I will share with you a true story:

In Pulse of Heroes there is an ‘almost’ rape scene. I say almost, because the idea of rape sends such horrors to my brain that I refuse to let even my characters suffer such torture and fear. At this point in my life I can no longer stand movies that show sexual violence against women. There is too much out there, to the point where I personally feel that as a society we have been desensitized over them; they are like a no brainer, put sex and violence together and tickets sales go up. What this means about our society can be left to a whole different blog, essay, or an entire book. But going back to the scene I wrote, I felt compelled to include it because I was building up one of my villain’s characteristics; simply a womanizer/abuser. Writing the scene was very difficult as I had to put myself in the victim’s position. I had to feel the fear, the exposure and the humiliation. I had to make it real in my mind as if it were happening to me in reality. The results? An amazingly realistic scene that gives my readers’ goosebumps and heart palpitation, and for me? After finishing it, that same night, I had a nightmare about being raped. Never had one before and I woke up sweating and in fear.

As for my second novel Of Blood and Pulse, as you can imagine with a title such is this, I attacked it as a professional, and it definitely has blood in it and will definitely raise your PULSE-promise!

Author Interview with Jennifer Walker

Author Short Bio: Rev. Dr. Deborah Simpson

As a clear channeler and automatic writer, Rev. Dr. Deborah Simpson is the author of several inspirational and spiritual books including her bestselling metaphysical book, The Constellation of Omens, incorporating world predictions and signs of the end times. An ordained minister and spiritualist, Dr. Simpson has made appearances on various radio shows such as Paranormal Palace Radio, The Mortal Vampire, The Mix Talk and PairaNormal providing live, on-air psychic readings. As host of D’s Roundtable Radio Show she has given her callers psychic advice on the air and discussed paranormal phenomena.

Dr. Simpson has been described as the poet of our generation. With a critically acclaimed, unique writing style, her verse has been scrupulously compared to our celebrated greats of yore. If you relish the works of Keats, Shelley, Poe, Dickinson, e.e. Cummings and Hemingway, Rev. Deborah’s work is sure to captivate your literary senses. Her metaphysical works have been compared to such world famous psychics as Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus.

It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life? 

Deborah Simpson:  Excellent question and you couldn’t be more right. Aside from being a writer, I am also an ordained minister and spiritualist so I do work in the paranormal field as well as aiding persons on a daily basis. And, aside from that, I am a full-time paralegal. Most do not know that I spent 13 years of my life bartending part-time and I’ve worked many odds-and-ends jobs such as being a cashier in food stores, retail stores and I have even had my hand in working in a major fast food chain.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? 

Deborah Simpson:  I never actually thought about being a writer, although I’ve been writing since the age of 9 on a daily basis to satisfy my passion for writing. Being a published author was an avenue that I was talked into doing by others who had read my work.

What compels you to be a writer? 

Deborah Simpson:  Without sounding cliché, what compels me to write is what compels living creatures to breathe.

Are you currently working on any writing projects our readers should watch for release soon?

Deborah Simpson:  Yes. I am currently working on another metaphysical novel, Divination alongside a self-help book entitled Hardboiled Egg.

How did you feel the day you held the copy of your first book in your hands? 

Deborah Simpson:  It was a nostalgic experience. It was a huge personal accomplishment and at the same time, one of the most humbling experiences I have experienced.

What inspires you and motivates you to write the very most? 

Deborah Simpson:  When I receive a comment from a reader telling me how my work has changed their life, I believe that is all the motivation I will ever need.

What one thing are you the most proud of in your life? 

Deborah Simpson:  Without a doubt, my beautiful son.

Hey, let’s get morbid. When they write your obituary, what do you hope they will say about your book/s and writing? What do you hope they will say about you? 

Deborah Simpson:  Cute question. Quite honestly, although I haven’t thought about it, off the cuff I would say the only thing I hope for is that my writing had enough of an impact to be talked of at all. What do I hope they will say about me? For those that knew me to say they loved me.

Thinking about your writing career, is there anything you’d go back and do differently now that you have been published? 

Deborah Simpson:  Honestly? I wouldn’t change a thing. It was and is who I am. If I could do anything differently, I would have been sacrificing too much.

What is your main goal or purpose you would like to see accomplished by or with your writing? 

Deborah Simpson:  I have but one goal: May my words today fall unexpectedly graciously upon the ears, within the minds and throughout the hearts of them, so that but one may be touched by needed hope or faith or strength that before was misplaced in their life; and may the seeds these words plant today grow into vines that they may continue their crusade upon the ears, within the minds and throughout the hearts of them, so that but one more may be touched.

How has having a book or being published in a book changed your life? 

Deborah Simpson:  I am now responsible for every single word I have ever uttered in print. It has changed my life drastically.

It’s said that the editing process of publishing a novel with a publisher is can be grueling and often more difficult than actually writing the story. Do you think this is true for you? How did you feel about editing your masterpiece?

Deborah Simpson:  Out of all of the editing projects on my books, I think the most grueling was with The Constellation of Omens. Three months of editing. I believe I was reciting the book in my sleep. It is much more difficult than writing. I would agree 1000%.

Now that you are a published author, does it feel differently than you had imagined? 

Deborah Simpson:  Oh yes. On the one hand, it’s a huge personal accomplishment just as I imagined, however on the other hand, it brings so much more responsibility than I ever could have thought.

For more information on books and services, please visit Rev. Dr. Deborah Simpson’s website at www.deborahsimpson.org or her Amazon.com Author Page.

Short Author Bio for Rhetta Akamatsu

I am an online journalist and author with a wide range of interests. My books cover the paranormal, a lesser-known part of Irish history, and blues music, and I also have smaller books about children’s crafts and Christmas traditions! Online I write about Atlanta blues music, Atlanta steampunk, and Atlanta Historic Places and I write about business and technology news for Gather.com. I live in Metro Atlanta in Marietta, GA, the subject of my book, Haunted Marietta, with my husband and my cat, near my grown children and 4, soon to be five, grandchildren.

~~~Author Interview with Rhetta Akamatsu~~~

Donald Jacques was born in 1957, as an air force brat. He has lived in ten states over the years enjoying 8 kids, 6 grand kids. Don spent fifteen years as a computer programmer, worked as a teacher, a pro dance instructor, security guard, and commercial handyman. The HandyMan is his third book.

It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life?

Donald Jacques: I currently work as a commercial handyman. I repair, or perform preventive maintenance on plumbing fixtures, lighting, and wall repairs. In the past, I spent 15 years as a computer programmer, 10 years instruction in classrooms and corporate training, even did a few years as a ballroom dance instructor.

What compelled you to write your first book? Read the rest of this entry »