Penguin Random House is dominating this season's literary award longlists. Is that a bad thing?

This year, half of the books longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction and more than half of the books longlisted for the Giller Prize are published by Penguin Random House. 

A monopoly is rarely ideal in any business, but what happens when one company becomes so powerful that it not only corners the market, but also begins to define our cultural tastes?

Today on Commotion, writer and book critic Maris Kreizman joins host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to unpack PRH's dominance and the current state of the book publishing world.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: How did you feel when you first saw the longlist for the National Book Award this year?

Maris: I was so excited. They chose a ton of excellent books — some of my favourites of this year. It was only when I stopped to think about it, and checked out who their publishers were, that I got a little bit of a sinking feeling.

Elamin: Tell me about that sinking feeling. Why did the sinking feeling come up?

Maris: Well, I can't imagine that anybody having a monopoly in any kind of creative industry is healthy, and I feel like people have been saying for a long time that the book industry is in trouble. It feels like it's getting there.

Elamin: We should also make it clear that you don't think everybody ended up on these longlists based on who published the book. That's not the thing we're talking about, right?

Maris: Absolutely not. The National Book Award judges are trying to elevate the books that they think are the best. I believe that. It's a lot of work. It just so happens that PRH is putting out a lot of good books, which is weird because it's really exciting and then it's also a little unsettling.

Elamin: Even with PRH having all this power, the thing that people fear hasn't happened, and I think that's important to name. It's not like they're only publishing incredibly commercial books and nothing else. You acknowledge, and I think I would also acknowledge, that the good books are still getting published and getting out in the world. So help me out here: what does it mean to have a company largely kind of shaping our tastes in books right now?

Maris: Yeah. PRH, along with four other major imprints, are known as the Big Five in the U.S., and the Big Five really controls a lot of the conversation about literature these days. There are so many different voices that don't get to be a part of the conversation then, when the corporate publishers have all that power. Indie authors need our help, I think.

Elamin: How does one support more independent publishers? Because that's always the answer you get back in these moments: there are independent publishers, and they're trying their best at this moment. How do we turn the spotlight towards them, you think?

Maris: I would say first and foremost, there is one National Book Award nominee from a small press that I want to shout out, and that's Sam Sax's novel Yr Dead from McSweeney's. It does take a little work. I would name some indie presses that I think are great, like Graywolf and Catapult, but it does take a little more work.

Elamin: Yeah, I think that's the part that's often missing in this conversation, right? The idea that it takes more work on the consumer to go out and find the work that small publishers are publishing. 

You've also written about another publishing company that launched earlier this year, which is Authors Equity. Authors Equity has an entirely different business model. Can you explain what that business model looks like?

Maris: Yeah. Instead of being paid advances on book earnings, authors published by Authors Equity will share in any profits the book generates. That's exciting in many ways. Except they're relying on, for each book, a publishing team that includes editors, publicists and marketers who will be assembled from a growing pool of freelancers. 

Rather than offering book workers the stability and the benefits of full-time employment, Authors Equity will rely on the gig economy. "Growing pool of freelancers" is a terrible euphemism for "jobs are disappearing, and more and more of us are fighting for scraps by competing for freelance gigs."

Elamin: I tell you this, Maris, somebody listening to this conversation is going to go, "Wow, I knew the book publishing industry was in a bit of a crisis, but is there any reason whatsoever for hope?" And so I want you to speak to that person who is looking for a glimmer of hope. Do you see one out there right now?

Maris: The books are still good! The books keep coming and they are still good, and the majority of the people who work in publishing are also very good — the ones on the ground in particular. So that's the thing that guides me every single day.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

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