Stephen King appointed to testify for the government in the book merging trial

Washington While the Department of Justice is trying to convince a federal judge that the proposed merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster would harm the professional careers of some of the best-known authors, that depends in part on the testimony of a writer who has thrived like few others: Stephen King.

The author of “Carrie”, “The Shining” and many other favorite books, King willingly – even eagerly – set himself up against Simon & Schuster, his longtime publisher. He was chosen not by the government just for his fame, but for his public criticism of the $2.2 billion deal announced in late 2021, joining two of the world’s largest publishers in what rival CEO Michael Beech of Hachette Book Group described as a “preeminent” entity. Significantly”.

“The more standardization publishers get, the harder it is for independent publishers to survive,” King tweeted last year.

One of the few widely known authors, known for his modestly sized spectacles and meager features, King is expected to take the witness stand Tuesday, the second day of a federal antitrust trial expected in two to three weeks.

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He may not have the commercial knowledge of Beech, the Department of Justice’s first witness, but he’s been a published novelist for nearly 50 years and knows well how much the industry has changed: some of his former publishers have been acquired by larger companies. “Carrie,” for example, is published by Doubleday, which in 2009 merged with Knopf Publishing Group, now part of Penguin Random House. Another former King publisher, Viking Press, was a Penguin imprint that joined Penguin Random House when Random House merged in 2013.

King’s affinity for small publishers is personal. Even while continuing to publish with Simon & Schuster’s Scribner, he wrote independent solid-state crime thrillers. Years earlier, a publisher asked him to contribute to a blurb, but King instead offered to write a novel for them, “The Colorado Kid,” which came out in 2005.

Charles Arday, co-founder of Hard Case, remembered thinking when King called him: “Inside I was turning the wagon wheels.”

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King himself is likely to benefit from the Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster deal, but he has a history of favoring priorities other than his material well-being. He has long been a critic of tax cuts for the rich, even though the “rich” certainly include Stephen King, and has publicly called on the government to raise his taxes.

“In America, we all have to pay our fair share,” he wrote for The Daily Beast in 2012.

On Monday, lawyers for the two sides presented opposing views on the book industry. Government prosecutor John Reed invoked a dangerously narrow market, heavily governed by the “Big Five” – ​​Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishing, Macmillan and Hachette – with little chance for smaller or emerging publishers to penetrate it.

Attorney Daniel Petrushelli argued for the defense that the industry was in fact diversified, profitable, and open to newcomers. Publishing means not only the Big Five, but also medium-sized companies such as WW Norton & Co. and Grove Atlantic. He stressed that the merger will in no way upset the aspirations that many hold to achieve literary success.

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“Every book begins as a bestseller in the eye of the author or editor,” he said.

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