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50 Biggest Publishers in the World in 2012

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Globus

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UK Publishing Pearson was already the world’s biggest publisher before they joined with Penguin-Random House (Bertelsmann Group, Germany). Seeing their revenues, one might wonder why they pay their authors such lousy royalties…

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Rank (2011) Rank (2010) Publishing Company (Group or Division) Country Mother Corp. or Owner Country Mother Corp. 2011 Revenue in $M 2010 Revenues in $M
1 1 Pearson U.K. Pearson U.K. $8,411 $8,097
2 2 Reed Elsevier U.K./NL/U.S. Reed Elsevier Corp. U.K./NL/U.S. $5,686 $7,149
3 3 Thomson Reuters U.S. The Woodbridge Company Ltd. Canada $5,435 $5,637
4 4 Wolters Kluwer NL Wolters Kluwer NL $4,360 $4,719
5 6 Hachette Livre France Lagardère France $2,649 $2,873
6 8 Grupo Planeta Spain Grupo Planeta Spain $2,304 $2,427
7 7 McGraw-Hill Education U.S. The McGraw-Hill Companies U.S. $2,292 $2,433
8 5 Random House Germany Bertelsmann AG Germany $2,274 $3,844
9 11 Holtzbrinck Germany Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck Germany $1,952 $1,512
10 10 Scholastic (corp.) U.S. Scholastic U.S. $1,906 $1,912
11 9 Cengage Learning U.S. Apax Partners et al. U.S./Canada $1,876 $2,007
12 13 Wiley U.S. Wiley U.S. $1,743 $1,699
13 12 De Agostini Editore Italy Gruppo De Agostini Italy $1,724 $1,843
14 15 Shueisha Japan Hitotsubashi Group Japan $1,714 $1,597
15 16 Kodansha Japan Kodansha Japan $1,551 $1,498
16 17 Shogakukan Japan Hitotsubashi Group Japan $1,444 $1,441
17 33 Readers’ Digest U.S. RDA Holding Co. U.S. $1,438 $1,460
18 14 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt U.S. Education Media and Publishing Group Limited U.S./Cayman Islands $1,295 $1,673
19 19 Springer Science and Business Media Germany EQT and GIC Investors Sweden, Singapore $1,138 $1,149
20 18 HarperCollins U.S. News Corporation U.S. $1,100 (est.) $1,269
21 20 Informa U.K. Informa plc U.K. $1,069 $1,039
22 21 Gakken Japan Gakken Co. Ltd. Japan $1,043 $956
23 22 Oxford University Press U.K. Oxford University U.K. $1,004 $941
24 24 Grupo Santillana Spain PRISA Spain $936 $852
25 23 Bonnier Sweden The Bonnier Group Sweden $909 $927
26 26 Kadokawa Publishing Japan Kadokawa Holdings Inc. Japan $904 $794
27 27 Simon & Schuster U.S. CBS U.S. $787 $791
28 28 Egmont Group Denmark/
Norway
Egmont International Holding A/S Denmark $703 $792
29 29 Woongjin ThinkBig Korea Woongjin Holding Korea $685 $723
30 25 RCS Libri Italy RCS Media Group Italy $667 $805
31 31 Klett Germany Klett Gruppe Germany $594 $617
32 32 Cornelsen Germany Cornelsen Germany $558 $584
33 34 Mondadori Italy The Mondadori Group Italy $506 $549
34 35 GeMS – Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol Italy Messagerie Italiane Italy $494 $525
35 39 Lefebvre Sarrut France Frojal France $467 $430
36 36 Harlequin Canada Torstar Corp. Canada $450 $468
37 37 Sanoma Finland Sanoma WSOY Finland $446 $464
37 40 China Education and Media Group (form. Higher Education Press) China (PR) China Education and Media Group China (PR) $445 $393
39 38 Media Participations France Media Participations Belgium $442 $434
40 46 Abril Educação Brazil Abril Group Brazil $411 $308
41 47 Perseus U.S. Perseus U.S. $350 $300
42 43 Westermann Verlagsgruppe Germany Medien Union (Rheinland-Pfalz Gruppe) Germany $339 $342
43 41 La Martinière Groupe France La Martinière Groupe France $335 $377
44 44 Bungeishunju Japan n.a. Japan $331 $337
45 55 AST Russia Privately owned Russia $330 $215
46 45 Groupe Gallimard France Madrigall France $329 $320
47 42 Shinchosha Japan n.a. (privately owned) Japan $319 $364
48 49 Kyowon Korea Kyowon Korea $298 $273
49 48 Weka Germany Weka Firmengruppe Germany $282 $277
50 52 Saraiva Brazil Saraiva Brazil $267 $249

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For the latest news about the publishing giants check out Publishers Weekly Financial.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

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Part 2 – Author Beware of Scams !!!

Random House

Random House (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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In a blog article from last fall we wrote: 10 Signs, Showing You Vanity Publishing TRAPS

We stated: “Reputable trade and independent publishers don’t ask the author for money, ever”. Random House’s imprint ALIBI doesn’t do this. However, what they do is to take away all the worldwide rights to the book in any form from the author. And: they will deduct all their book production and business costs including possible legal fees, from whatever royalty the author can expect in the future. If any at all. They will not reveal these costs or being open and accountable BEFORE – and certainly likely not after – signing the contract.
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John Scalzi  wrote another blog about Random House’s imprint ALIBI

“THIS IS A HORRIBLE AWFUL TERRIBLE APPALLING DISGUSTING CONTRACT AND NO WRITER SHOULD SIGN IT EVER. ”

“… preying on the writers, most at risk for being preyed upon, the new and the desperate. I’m wondering in what world I would think, paying authors no advances and shoving publishing expenses onto them, is somehow a reasonable business model.”

“Right here on the first page, the contract notes that ALIBI takes the exclusive right to print, publish, sell and license the contracted work, in every possible format, in whole or in part, in every language, in the entire world, for the full term of copyright ” (which is 70 years after the death of the author).

Another of John Scalzi’s points: … “transfers the cost of these services onto the most ignorant partner in the contract — which is to say, the AUTHOR. Yes, authors, I know. You are smart. But — can you tell me what “plant costs” mean? What about “conversion fees?” Can you give me a sum that you know with certainty what those costs and fees should be? Do you know how much it costs to print and bind a book? Is ALIBI printing them individually or in one large print run? How will that affect unit cost? What’s a reasonable sum for warehousing? You better know because the contract won’t tell you…”

Read John Scalzi’s article where he goes through all parts of this exploitative publishing contract and explains the disadvantages for authors in detail. 

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There are more “Scam News”:
Class Action Suit for Penguin and Author Solutions?

Emily Suess, author and editor, compiled a whole index of Author House (iUniverse) complaints in her blog.  Litreactor Magazine reported last week: “Penguin’s self-publishing service, Author Solutions, is headed for the courts after it was revealed that New York law firm Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart is investigating claims that the company hasn’t been meeting it’s obligations, or worse. The company’s questionable practices have been going on for some time: a Google search turns up loads of negative experiences with the company and its subsidiaries. Described by one blog poster as “a class-action lawsuit waiting to happen” and he gave plenty evidence to support this.

Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart LLP is currently investigating the practices of Author Solutions and all of its brands: AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford, Xlibris, Inkubook, and Wordclay. Authors using Author Solutions have complained of deceptive practices, including enticing authors to purchase promotional services that are not provided or are worthless, failing to pay royalties, and spamming authors and publishing blogs/sites with promotional material.”
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XLibris “publishing” contract outrageous!
A few days ago I got to see a contract from Xlibris, shown to me by an aspiring writer. Unbelievable what “services” they listed to justify their $3.700 plus contract, stating for example as one of their “services” the “Look Inside” function at Amazon and B&N websites! They are provided for free by these online retailers, and XLibris could be sued by Amazon and B&N for charging authors for that. We wrote and warned about Penguin’s and Simon&Schuster’s acquisition of these firms here on this blog. Now there might be a class action suit looming. If you have a case, contact the law firm here.

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Be aware when you see these company names showing up somewhere: Argus, Aberdeen Bay, Algora, All Craft Media, Amereon Press, AmErica House, American Book Publishing, Anchor, Angel Press, Appaloose Press, Author Solutions, Author House, Balboa, Bookwise, Brighton, Brookline, Brundage, Cambridge House, Capri, Capricorn, Century, Challenger, Cobblestone Press, Collegiate Press, Dandelion Books, Deep River, Dorchester Publishing Dorrance, 1st Book, iUniverse, Tafford, West Bow, Xlibris…. even so some change their companies name frequently.  Ask for referrals by other writers and use the internet to do your research.

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Hopefully every writer learns to prevent traps, shares these blog posts with writer friends and colleagues and gets a lawyers’ opinion before signing any of their rights away – or better: decides to author-publish. It is relatively easy to publish books, distribute and market them on your own.
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Did you know that until the 1920’s authors self-published and publishing houses were a rarity? Only during the last 90 years, publishing houses established and grew bigger and bigger. Now we have a reverse of this trend and more and more books and e-books will be author-published.

Just get help with all these publishing steps and coordinate your own enterprise. We offer 3-month publishing / marketing consulting for a very small fee and will explain you in detail every step on your way to author-publishing.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks

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Posted by on March 11, 2013 in Marketing

 

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Author Beware of Scams !!!

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Magnifierglass

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The reason I started https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com initially, was to warn authors of traps they can fall in, after a friend of mine has been deceived by a so-called vanity publisher. Well, she was very naive and did not seek the help of a lawyer, specialized in contract law, nor the advice of her well-meaning author friends or her writer’s group. After having her manuscript sent out to several dozens of publishers and receiving only rejections, she was so eager to get published, that she did not want to hear any warnings and signed her rights away for 70 years after her death! Not only this, she also paid more than $6.000 to have her print book published. Until now (3 years past the initial launch) the vanity “publisher” failed to format it into an e-book, despite his many promises.
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Vanity Publishing
For those who do not know what a “vanity publisher” is: These companies take on almost every book authors pitch to them, without concerns if the book is marketable, they charge authors outrageous amounts for editing, book cover and printing or e-book formatting.  Many of these companies are printers who get their machines running this way. Others are just agents for author services, who receive healthy commissions from their sub contractors.

“Vanity publishers” don’t make money selling a book, they only make money producing it!

Now it seems that reputable, traditional publishers step into the foot prints of these “vanity publishers” and go into the business of deceiving authors.  Many jumped on the bandwagon of the success of e-books and created imprints for digital books, such as “Hydra”, “Flirt” or “Alibi”an imprint of Random House, or “Blackfriars” an imprint of Little&Brown in the UK.
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They ask writers for a life-of-copyright contract that includes both, primary and subsidiary rights! (See the story of my friend above).  No advance. Only the NET proceeds (means, after all costs of the “vanity publisher” is deducted) will be split between both sides. Deductions for e-books include, among others: the overhead and administrative costs of the “publisher”, costs for editing, cover art, formatting plus a publicity fee of 10% etc. – so the author pays for all these in the end.
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Publishing – but not under these conditions!
And if there is a print version, printing and binding costs,” plus 6% of GROSS sales revenue (NOT the NET sales!) to cover freight and warehousing costs.  One has to do the math, calculate all this and realize that it makes absolutely no sense to sign up such an unfavorable contract. There is only one who makes money with the authors work: The “vanity publisher”.
Yes, the authors don’t have to pay upfront costs, on the other hand they don’t know what they will earn per book, while the publisher is assured that their expenses will be paid for as soon as the book sells.
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See what John Scalzi wrote in an open letter to Random House on his blog:

“Dear Random House: It’s clear you’re targeting new, un-agented authors here because no agent who is not manifestly incompetent would allow his or her client to sign such a terrible contract. But here’s the thing: New authors don’t actually need you to sell their work online. They can do it themselves — and are, and some of them are doing quite well at it. You are working under the assumption that these newer authors are so eager to be with a “real” publisher that they will suddenly forget that publishers are no longer a bottleneck to being published, or that you are offering nothing they can’t do themselves (or have done for them) and offering them nothing for the service — indeed your business model appears predicated on sucking as much as possible from them in fees and charges while offering as little as possible in way of compensation. Hydra is a vanity publisher, in sum.
Do you genuinely believe these new authors are that stupid? And if so, do you genuinely want an entire imprint of your publishing empire populated by such people?”
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We will cover more examples of unfavorable ways of publishing in the next days – and can only warn you: Author beware, beware, and beware even more.  What’s the benefit of Google?  You can type in the name of a company and the words  “complaint” or “complaints” and see what comes up. Read these posts carefully!

Find out more about this topic in our former blogs, and spread the word, re-blog the articles, so that other writers can learn about the publishing industry and make informed decisions:

First Penguin – now Simon & Schuster Wants Your Money

Victims of Vanity Publishers

Comparison of Vanity Presses

10 Signs, Showing You Vanity Publishing TRAPS

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks

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Posted by on March 10, 2013 in Marketing

 

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E-Book Sales


E-book sales are “far out-stripping even the most ambitious industry predictions”

Markus Dohle, chief executive of the worldwide Random House / Bertelsmann group, has reported triple-digit-percentage growth in digital-publishing sales, up 250% from the previous year. According to the company, some US fiction titles now have as much as half of their first-weeks sales in the e-book format.

The messages are clear here:

  • it is publishing globally, though with local expertise
  • it is investing in new emerging technologies, including apps and enhanced content
  • and is working to keep the established supply chain profitable

Marcus Dohle started an e-book offensive that will make thousands of additional Random House titles available in digital form. “The digital age is now. E-books are the format of choice for a steadily growing group of people who like to read books on a screen,” believes the Random House CEO. 

Random House

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Posted by on July 3, 2011 in e-Books, Publishing

 

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