It’s the master of horror’s turn to be “worried” : Stephen King, author of frightening best-sellers, confided Tuesday, August 2 before an American court, his fears in the face of the growing concentration in the publishing sector. Author of shining and Thathe denounces the proposed merger between Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House, an operation valued at nearly $2.2 billion.
The US government opposes the birth of a behemoth with a “disproportionate influence on the authors and works that are published, and on the sums paid to the authors”and asked Stephen King to be his star witness during the trial.
Dressed in a gray suit and tie reflecting the seriousness of the issues, the 75-year-old writer described for almost an hour the developments in the sector during his long career. “I’m here because I think consolidation is bad for the competition”he explained. “I’ve been in the book business for about 50 years. When I started there were literally hundreds of publishers. the door”, he detailed. Consequently, “it has become harder and harder for writers to find enough money to live on”.
At the heart of the file: the advances on receipts that the publishers offer to their authors before the writing of the works. Newcomers generally have little or no right to it, but for successful authors, publishing houses compete and sometimes outbid each other.
Stephen King said his first check in 1974 was for $2,500 for Carrie, whose sales exploded after its film adaptation. After a handful of other bestsellers, including shining, he had proposed to his publisher to reserve his next three books for him in exchange for 2 million dollars. He had refused “bursting out laughing”.
Stephen King had gone elsewhere, had played the competition and had had a string of successes in the 1980s with renowned publishers, while continuing to publish some of his books for more confidential and less profitable houses. “I was lucky to be able to afford it, to no longer have to follow my bank account, to follow my heart”declared Stephen King who had already distinguished himself in 2012 by pleading to strengthen the taxation of the richest, including on his own fortune.
Well aware of being privileged, he deplored that his colleagues operate in “a difficult world”. On leaving the hearing, he added that he was “very worried”, while signing autographs. The trial is expected to last two more weeks.