Of the big 6 publishers on the American scene, only one is actually headquartered in New York.

There are only 6 major players in the publishing business. These are the companies who contract with writers to publish their books, either as a mass market publication or a trade paperback. According to Jerry D Simmons in his ReadersWriters newsletter, there are only 6 major publishers who determine what the American public will be reading:

(1) Random House, Inc., a division of Bertelsmann AG a German Corporation, is the world’s largest English-language general trade book publisher.

(2) The Penguin Group, also referred to as Penguin Putnam, is owned by Pearson of the United Kingdom, is the second largest publisher in the United States and Canada and the largest in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and India.

(3) Simon & Schuster, Inc., is the publishing arm of Viacom the lone major American trade publisher.

(4) Harper Collins, a subsidiary of the News Corporation Limited is an Australian company and has annual revenues of over $1 billion.

(5) Hachette Book Group USA formerly the Time Warner Book Group Inc. is French corporation.

(6) Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings, headquarters in Germany.

Of the major publishers, only Simon & Schuster is an American based corporation.

What does this mean for the reading and writing public? It means that small, independent publishers are the ones closest to the American scene. All of our reading habits are being dictated by companies in Germany, England, and Australia.

Like the independent bookstore, the independent publisher struggles to keep track of the reading pulse and provide the public with what it desires to read.

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