Monday, April 8, 2013

The Publishing Industry & Salter's All That Is


From Friday's Guardian article "Penguin and Random House merger approved by EU regulator:"
The creation of the world's largest book company has come a major step closer with European competition regulators giving the green light to the merger of Fifty Shades of Grey publisher Random House and Penguin, home to authors including Jamie Oliver and Pippa Middleton.
The European commission said on Friday that it had unconditionally cleared the deal because the new combined venture, which will account for about one in four books sold in the UK, will "continue to face several strong competitors" including from Rupert Murdoch's HarperCollins, supermarkets and online giant Amazon.
For a novel that touches on the publishing industry, try All That Is by James Salter, which came out earlier this month:
From his experiences as a young naval officer in battles off Okinawa, Philip Bowman returns to America and finds a position as a book editor. It is a time when publishing is still largely a private affair—a scattered family of small houses here and in Europe—a time of gatherings in fabled apartments and conversations that continue long into the night. In this world of dinners, deals, and literary careers, Bowman finds that he fits in perfectly. But despite his success, what eludes him is love. His first marriage goes bad, another fails to happen, and finally he meets a woman who enthralls him—before setting him on a course he could never have imagined for himself.

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