Penguin Random House

A kindly correspondent shared with me an email signed by Markus Dohle, CEO of the newly-merged Penguin Random House, that has been circulated to the new mega-publisher’s agents—in the same spirit as Bertelsmann’s welcoming website banner pictured above.

Here is the full text for your edification:

To Our Literary Agents,

Today, I am proud to write to you from the officially united Penguin Random House.

Over the past few months, we have been working through the many financial, legal, and logistical arrangements necessary for the merger to become a reality. But despite the tasks already accomplished, we are really still just at the starting line when it comes to building our new company. The process of creating a unified Penguin Random House platform of systems and operations will be gradual, providing plenty of time for us to learn and evaluate from all sides of our company the best ways to bring together our programs, resources, skills, talents, and ideas in order to best serve authors, booksellers, readers, and all of our marketplace partners.

Penguin Random HouseI realize that you are eager to understand how our merger will affect you and your clients. The answer is that we will continue to work with you together just as we have separately. Our publishers will continue to be encouraged to publish in the independently entrepreneurial way they always have. You and your clients will continue to benefit from an extraordinary breadth of publishing choices, editorial talents, and experience. Our publishing leadership remains endowed with tremendous autonomy and financial resources to decide which books to publish, and how to publish them. We expect this to continue in our new business, as we seek new books from both the established and the debut authors you represent.

I am sure that, over time, as we learn from each other, and continue to invest in our print and digital publishing, marketing, sales, and distribution programs, there will be changes for us to consider and to discuss with you and our other partners. That is, however, for the future.

Today, I thank you for your many and ongoing contributions to our success. Your authors and their books have been, and will remain, at the heart of everything we do.

NO COMMENTS

  1. Dear Mr. Markus Dohle:

    I am impressed with your message to literary agents, as well as with your enthusiastic response to the merger of Penguin Random House.

    I am a retired psychologist who has written a book on stress management, entitled, “It’s All in Your Head.” It is a 10 chapter self-help book that I am sure will be a best seller some day. Oh, I know you probably heard that before. But, seriously, as you know how difficult it can be for a first time author with no celebrity reputation to try and find a publisher (or literary agent). So, I am hoping you or a designated editor will be willing to spend a few minutes reading three sample chapters of my book. If you are interested and are willing to risk spending a few minutes time, I will gladly send you an e-mail with my resume and sample chapters. I am sure you will find the book interesting, down to earth, and effective in helping to lower the reader’s stress level. Thank you for your time and your kind assistance. Sincerely, Duane Pajak, dpajak@charter.net

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.