Push and pull

In the aftermath of the UK’s Brexit vote in 2017 the late, and much missed, head of Simon & Schuster Inc Carolyn Reidy said the decision would effectively end the advantage UK publishing companies have in terms of exclusive rights in the European market. With the surprise repurposing of Penguin Random House’s distributor GBS into a fulfilment site for its US company PRH US to supply books into continental Europe, could her claim come true?

This week at the Independent Publishers Guild Conference, Rebecca Gray, the newish managing director of UK indie Profile Books, called the development “alarming”, especially as US publishers are often so protective of their own market. “Hearing that it’s now going to be a warehouse for PRH US books is alarming for a lot of us, and there are a lot of things that we really need to find out about and take into account.” It is easy to demonstrate Gray’s point. Its 2023 run-away hit Murdle is published by Macmillan in the US: as Gray explained at the conference, in terms of format, and the look and feel, both the US and UK editions are largely the same, though the US edition is slightly cheaper. I do not know if Murdle is a big seller on the continent, but we know plenty of English-language editions are, and we know UK publishers would rather that market was not compromised by competing US editions.

Many digital-first publishers acquire rights to sell their books all over the world

This is not to suggest that either Macmillan (in this example) or PRH US have such grand designs. But with indies already bruised by their ejection from GBS, it is easy to see why they are alarmed. Territoriality is important to this business: Murdle has been more successful in the UK than it has been in the US, and Profile’s ability to invest in such books is largely based on its assumptions around where it will sell and in what numbers. Leakage – books from other markets travelling across borders either with agreement or not – compromises such judgements and ultimately undermines local publishing.

There are, however, twists on this. HarperCollins operates Harper360 which publishes titles globally where those rights have not been sold into local markets, and other large groups operate similar models, including PRH. Many digital-first publishers such as Boldwood or Joffe Books already acquire rights to sell their books all over the world, using Amazon or Ingram to make them available as e-books or via print-on-demand. Some believe this to be the future model for many trade titles. A year ago Amazon told US publishers it would no longer ship US titles into Europe in order to be more sustainable, meaning American publishers now have to hold a certain level of stock overseas if they are to operate in those regions. Meanwhile, many agents and local European publishers would rather English-language editions were not taking up space in “their” bookshops, with exports threatening foreign language editions. Brexit makes some of this stuff more likely, but in some ways this has long been a direction of travel.

I do not know if Penguin Random House US’ intentions are part of a firmer market push, or if this is just responding to the pull from demand: but Gray is right to ask the questions, and if she were still here Reidy would no doubt be willing to supply the answers.