Posts tagged with "Simon & Schuster"

Above, author Stephen King. (Photo source: Shane Leonard/Oregon Public Broadcating)

Stephen King to testify for government in book-publisher merger trial

August 3, 2022

As the Justice Department bids to convince a federal judge that the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster would damage the careers of some of the most popular authors, it is leaning in part on the testimony of a writer who has thrived like few others: Stephen King, reports ABC.

The author of “Carrie,” “The Shining,” and many other favorites, King has willingly—even eagerly—placed himself in opposition to Simon & Schuster, his longtime publisher, ABC says. He was not chosen 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 biggest publishers into what rival CEO Michael Pietsch of Hachette Book Group has called a “gigantically prominent” entity.

“The more the publishers consolidate, the harder it is for indie publishers to survive,” King tweeted last year.

One of the few widely recognizable authors, known for his modest-sized glasses and gaunt features, King is scheduled to take the witness stand Tuesday, August 2, the second day of a federal antitrust trial anticipated last two to three weeks.

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

King’s affinity for smaller publishers is personal. Even while continuing to publish with the Simon & Schuster imprint Scribner, he has written thrillers for the independent Hard Case Crime. Years ago, the publisher asked him to contribute a blurb, but King instead offered to write a novel for them, “The Colorado Kid,” released in 2005.

“Inside I was turning cartwheels,” Hard Case co-founder Charles Ardai would remember thinking when King contacted him.

King, himself, would likely benefit from the Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster deal, but he has a history of favoring other priorities beyond his material well-being. He has long been a critic of tax cuts for the rich, even as “the rich” surely includes Stephen King, and has openly called for the government to raise his taxes.

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

On Monday, attorneys for the two sides offered contrasting views of the book industry. Government attorney John Read invoked a dangerously narrow market, ruled tightly by the Big Five— Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishing, Macmillan and Hachette—with little chance for smaller or startup publishers to break through.

Attorney Daniel Petrocelli argued for the defense that the industry actually is diverse, profitable, and open to newcomers. Publishing, he said, means not just the Big Five, but also such medium-size companies as W.W. Norton & Co. and Grove Atlantic. The merger, he contended, would in no way upend the ambitions so many hold for literary success.

“Every book starts out as an anticipated bestseller in the gleam of an author’s or an editor’s eye,” he said.

Research contact: @ABC

Above, the cover of Mary Trump's book, showing a young Donald Trump. (Photo source: Simon & Schuster)

Court sides with publisher; Simon & Schuster to release Mary Trump’s tell-all book on July 14

Revealed: A family member has turned on Trump

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June 16, 2020

Every family has its secrets—and the Trumps are no exception. Now, the president’s niece, his deceased older brother Fred’s daughter, is set to publish a tell-all book this summer that will reveal “harrowing and salacious” stories about Donald just weeks ahead of the Republican National Convention, The Daily Beast reports.

Mary Trump, 55, the daughter of Fred Trump Jr. and the eldest grandchild of Fred Trump Sr., is scheduled to release Too Much And Never Enough on August 11.

One of the most explosive revelations Mary will detail in the book, according to people familiar with the matter, The Daily Beast says, is how she played a critical role helping The New York Times print startling revelations about Trump’s taxes—including how he was involved in “fraudulent” tax schemes and had received more than $400 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire.

As she is set to outline in her book, Mary was a primary source for the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation, supplying Fred Trump Sr.’s tax returns and other highly confidential family financial documentation to the paper.

Details of the book are being closely guarded by its publisher, Simon & Schuster, but The Daily Beast has learned that Mary plans to include conversations with Trump’s sister, retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, that contain intimate and damning thoughts about her brother, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Mary Trump has kept out of the public eye and has not spoken publicly in decades—but in 2000, amidst a bitter family court battle over Fred Trump Sr.’s will, she told the New York Daily News, “Given this family, it would be utterly naive to say it has nothing to do with money. But for both me and my brother, it has much more to do with that our father [Fred Jr.] be recognized,” she said.

Fred Trump Jr., the firstborn son and once the heir apparent to his father’s real estate empire, worked for Trans World Airlines after turning his back on the family business.

He died in 1981, aged just 42, from a heart attack owing to complications from his alcoholism; leaving behind a son, Fred the 3rd, and daughter Mary, who has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. The circumstances of Fred Trump Jr.’s descent into alcoholism also are detailed in the book, with allegations that Donald and Fred Trump Sr. contributed to his death and neglected him at critical stages of his addiction.

In a 2019 interview, Donald Trump admitted to pressuring his brother over his career choices but said he had come to regret it. “I do regret having put pressure on him,” Trump told The Washington Post. Discussing his brother and the family business Trump said it “was just something he was never going to want” to do.

After Fred Jr.’s children brought their messy court case against the family—contesting their grandfather’s will and alleging it was “procured by fraud and undue influence” on the part of Donald and his siblings—they highlighted Donald’s callous treatment of family members as he, along with siblings Maryanne and Robert, cut off the medical benefits to his nephew’s sick child William, who was born with cerebral palsy. The move, the family said at the time, was payback for Mary and Fred the 3rd’s challenge to the will.

That court case produced a treasure trove of confidential and highly sensitive Trump family financial documents, including Fred Trump Sr.’s tax returns, which almost two decades later would fall into the hands of The New York Times and form the basis for one of the most “stunning pieces” of journalism in recent years, The Daily Beast notes.

In the upcoming book, Mary Trump will out herself as a source for the Times and detail her involvement in cracking the story, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

This is the first time a Trump family member has written a tell-all that is highly critical of the president.

“My aunt and uncles should be ashamed of themselves,” Mary Trump said about Donald Trump and his siblings in a rare 2000 interview, which provides a preview of the tone of her book. “I’m sure they are not.”

Research contact: @thedailybeast

https://poll-vaulter.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/59Above, First Lady Melania Trump. (Photo source: Posted by thebest16384 on #melaniatrump/Instagram)