There Be Random Penguins Soon

News Flash:

Random House is negotiating a merger with Penguin

Wow. From the Big Six to the Five Left. The traditional publishers (and options) are shrinking.

Late night thoughts: I wonder what they will name the new company?

Penguin House
Random Penguin
Pendom House (that sounds like an erotica magazine, heh)
Ran-Pen Corp

I bet there was a huge noise on Twitter today about this piece of news. I haven't checked but this is big news. These are two of the biggest publishing houses--they have a huge stable of authors.

As a writer, there will be fewer traditional venues to send my manuscript to, with probably even fewer slots available. It's all very worrisome. I'm grateful that there are other options now, such as my current indie author (mostly) status. There are many smaller online publishers too, such as Belle Books and Samhain, two great companies I write for, who have done wonders for e-publishing.

I'm not sure it'll have much of an effect on readers, though. Most readers don't know which writer write for which publisher, except maybe Avon historical romance authors. That particular line is such a uniquely distinctive brand.

If this merger does happened and Random Penguin is formed, I have a feeling there will be many more freelance editors available for indie authors like me because mergers usually mean layoffs. And oh yeah. Amazon, expanding the last couple of years as a publishing company, is going to be even more powerful.

How is that going to affect:
The business?
Price?
Indie-publishing and competition?
Writers associations and guilds?
Agents and the way things were done?
E-book companies?

I told you there be random penguins around here soon.

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