Amazon just listed their editors picks for the 2014 Best Books of the Year. This is the overall list for the Adult titles. The Amazon editors did a very good job selecting the right mix of literary and popular – with a few execptions. It is a list that for the most part reflects the publishing industry, except it is corporate publisher dominated.
Of the 100 books listed, 41 are from Penguin Random House and another three are from publishers distributed by PRH. So, 44% of the entire list of the “Best” books of the year are from one corporation. The list encompasses over a dozen imprints within the Big House. Although the imprints are independent of one another, they are still part of one massive publishing entity. As long as Penguin Random House has this cache of rich content, they can negotiate on equal or stronger status with Amazon.
- HarperCollins has 12 titles.
- Simon & Schuster has nine titles.
- Macmillan has nine titles.
- Hachette has only four titles.
The corporate five have almost 80% of the entire list. Penguin Random House has as many titles as the next four corporate publishers combined. Harper, S&S and Macmillan are bolstered by their literary imprints Ecco, Scribner and FSG. Has the Hachette feud influenced the list? Who knows? But only four titles does seem small compared to the size of the publisher.
A few other things of interest:
Grove-Atlantic has seven titles and combined with Basic and Nation each having one, gives Perseus nine titles. The same as S&S and Macmillan. Add Perseus Distribution (adding in PGW) to the list of the “Big 5” and almost 90% of the titles come from six corporations.
Amazon Publishing has two titles as does HMH, Norton and Bloomsbury.
A handful of publishers have a single title.
I didn’t review the Children’s list yet but a quick scan on the YA titles and Penguin Random House has five of the top seven. Penguin’s children’s books are especially strong on the list (and also on the latest NYTimes YA fiction list with six of the top eight books).
The Amazon-Hachette issue has been written about ad nauseum. I have no desire to add that debate. But I don’t fear Amazon “ruining” the culture for their list is thoughtful although it does protect the status quo.
As long as Penguin Random House has so much top-notch content, Amazon will not be in complete control.
Children’s books have changed a lot over the years. I guess so has so much of the media aimed at kids. I was reading a classic, CURIOUS GEORGE to my two-year old last night, I came across this one picture of George relaxing after a hard day smoking a pipe. Ok, this was written during the MAD MEN era. But I still found it rather funny, Then I started thinking of other cartoons that were from my childhood that were doing inappropriate things.
Every so often it is time to clean out the books on my nightstand. Each of the following are titles that I am either currently reading, browsing or have finished. I enjoyed each one but for different reasons. This is a circumstance that physical books are better than ebooks. I can pile them up and grab what I want. Sureit can be done via digital too, but I like the “feel” of the physical.
6) HOW THE STATES GOT THEIR SHAPES (Mark Stein — Smithsonian Books) — When I first saw this book, I immediately bought it. I thought to myself, “this is a great idea, I can’t believe it has not been done before.” I didn’t read this book in sequence (although the author suggests doing so). But I have read it enough times that I understood it all. Again, just like so much about history, many states shapes ended up that way by a quirk of fate. Some because someone just asked or even there was enough money to influence Congress. It also illustrates that the “firm borders” many think are set is stone are all relatively recent and are not sacred. They can be changed again and again if desired.
It has been over six weeks since my last post. I have always tried to put up something at least 2x a month and my original goal was 4x a month. I generally have kept to that schedule. Some of the time it is a short post and just to get a thought conveyed. Some of the time it is a longer post that has depth. I have even taken to drawing and then making a post based on that.
I am entering my sixth year of consulting. When I started, I just figured I would “do a few projects” while I was looking for full-time work. But one gig lead to another. Then as I was talking to people, new contacts would develop. So, each meeting would generally spur on a few others.
So it is the end of the year. Time for everyone to have their ‘best-of’ and ‘predictions for’ posts. I am no different. But I also want to state upfront that I reserve the right to change my mind at any time as new information presents itself.
The BCS is coming to an end after 16 years. Although many college football fans want to complain, their track record of having the top two teams in college football play for the championship worked. It was far better than the previous system of using polls and allowing teams to claim #1 even if they didn’t play anyone of note in the bowl game.