The Six Sisters of Publishing

Most industries in the United States are controlled by less than ten corporations. America's literary industrial complex includes six conglomerates, most foreign-owned that dominate trade publishing:

(Germany): Bertelsmann AG owns 70 imprints including Random House, Knopf, Ballantine, Crown, Pantheon, Vintage, Bantam Dell, Broadway Doubleday, Anchor, and Villard, Del Ray, Fodor's and Fawcett that are divided into three groups

(US): Simon & Schuster includes Pocket Books, Free Press, Scribner, Touchstone, Fireside, and Atria Books

(France): Hachette Book Group, USA owns Little Brown and Company and Grand Central Publishing, which has ten imprints

(Australia/News Corp.): HarperCollins includes Harper Paperbacks, Harper Mass Market, HarperOne, HarperBusiness, Avon, William Morrow, and Ecco

(United Kingdom/Pearson): Penguin Group (USA) includes Penguin, Putnam, Viking, Berkley, Signet, Plume, Grosset, Ace, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Dutton, Penguin Press, Perigee and Portfolio

(Germany/Holtzbrinck): Macmillan U.S. includes Henry Holt and Company, St. Martin's Press, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Three important midsize houses:

•    Hyperion, part of Disney, so it has deep pockets

•    Perseus, which has 13 imprints

•    John Wiley, which only does nonfiction

Adapted from How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen.

Michael Larsen-Elizabeth Pomada Literary Agents
Helping Writers Launch Careers Since 1972
415- 673-0939 / Members: AAR
1029 Jones St. / San Francisco, CA 94109
larsenpoma@aol.com / www.larsen-pomada.com

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The Six Sisters of Publishing

Understand How Agents and Publishers Work There's a cartoon that shows an editor sitting across a desk from a man who looks like Charles Dickens, and the editor is saying, "Make up your mind, Mr. Dickens. Was it the best of times or the worst of times? It could scarcely have been both."

Develop Your Craft The author Somerset Maugham once said, "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."

Make a commitment to your career.

Understand How Agents and Publishers Work

There's a cartoon that shows an editor sitting across a desk from a man who looks like Charles Dickens, and the editor is saying, "Make up your mind, Mr. Dickens. Was it the best of times or the worst of times? It could scarcely have been both."

Develop Your Craft

The author Somerset Maugham once said, "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."