|
Literary Review
Godawful news
ANN GODOFF was president of the prestigious Random House trade group in New York, and editor for The God of Small Things — among other bestselling titles. Those were the days. She's recently been sacked for making a paltry two million dollar profit, far short of the target her new bosses set her when Random House merged with Ballantine Books, a publisher of mass-market thrillers and romances. Many of her authors, says The Guardian, have threatened to abandon Random House because they too "feel fired".
Commerce is the ghost in publishing machines everywhere, from gutter presses to university presses. The general books department in Dorling Kindersley India, also a sales disappointment, is apparently about to stop operations. Its editors and designers, its editorial director Anita Roy included, are in the process of "resigning". This seems like retrenchment in disguise, but then the publishing world is all about nice covers.
Dorling Kindersley was acquired a couple of years ago by Penguin India's global "owner" Pearson. Pearson also owns a textbook company called Pearson Educational. Both will now function under Penguin India, making it the biggest publishing conglomerate in the country. HarperCollins, another multinational that was trying to squeeze a space for itself on the none too capacious Indian bookshelves, began in a partnership with Rupa Books, with Renuka Chatterjee as chief editor. Some months ago it ditched Rupa and joined up with India Today; Renuka Chatterjee has now "resigned".
ANURADHA ROY
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
|
