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Penguin

Is it ghostwritten? Does it matter?

15 December 2014

There's been quite a lot of talk about ghostwriting this last week.  Read more

The year ends with a surprise

31 December 2012

December ended with a piece of news combining the two big news stories of the year - the continued rise of the ereader market and the efforts of Pearson to work out a future for itself.  Read more

More merger talk

12 November 2012

Things are settling around the idea of Random House and Penguin merging, but there are plenty of dire predictions. Some think it will change the nature of publishing as we know it, others that it will lead to further consolidation.  Read more

Launch of We give books

24 May 2010

The Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation have launched an interesting new charitable venture, designed both to get children reading and to encourage them to become charitable givers. When a child reads a book online, they are able to donate another book to be sent to a reading charity and can choose from four options as to where their this book is sent.  Read more

Penguin to cut 100 jobs

13 July 2009

The London book world was shocked last week by Penguin's announcement of 100 redundancies, 10% of the workforce. The company had seemed to be relatively unscathed by the recession and to lead a charmed life when other large companies in the UK, such as HarperCollins and Random House UKPenguin Random House have more than 50 creative and autonomous imprints, publishing the very best books for all audiences, covering fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s books, autobiographies and much more. Click for Random House UK Publishers References listing, were announcing 5% redundancies.  Read more

Decibel Penguin forced to back down

22 January 2007

Following the recent furore relating to the Decibel Penguin Prize, the organisers have been forced to back down. This scheme to encourage writers from an Asian, African or Caribbean background started with the best of intentions.  Read more

China's booming book market

4 September 2006

The Beijing International Book Fair, running from 30 August to 2 September, has provided a fascinating window on a booming book market. China is the largest publisher of books, magazines and newspapers in the world. Its book trade is at last opening up to foreign publishers, presenting significant opportunities which mirror those available in other industries.  Read more

Penguin in trouble

7 March 2005

The Penguin Group worldwide suffered a 41 per cent fall in profits in 2004. Its parent company Pearson saw an improvement in results both for the Financial Times and for its core educational business, fuelling probably unfounded rumours that Pearson might be looking to sell the 70-year-old publisher.  Read more

Will authors threaten legal action?

1 November 2004

As everyone in the British book trade knows, Penguin UK's disastrous move to a new warehouse using the latest software system has already cost the company dear in terms of lost sales.  Read more

InsideSessions Runs into Difficulties

17 June 2002

A recent piece by Katharine Mieszkowski in Salon (www.salom.com) has put the spotlight back on Penguin Putnam's InsideSessions, a joint venture between the US publisher and Universal Music Group. InsideSessions' Internet-based learning programme claimed, for a fee, 'to teach you everything you need to know to transform your passion for writing into a published work'.  Read more

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19 August 2019 - What's new

August 2019
  • ‘I was often accused of having an overactive imagination as a child and I was an avid reader. I used to fib to my mum, saying I was going out to play with the other kids and actually having a book in my pocket. I'd built a den on the waste ground at the far end of the housing estate where I grew up and I would hide there and read.
  Read more

The Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry

Information

Closing date: 
15 September 2019
Entry: 
Open to unpublished poems from poets from all over the world writing in English £7 for the first poem, then £4 for every subsequent poem
Prize: 
First prize £5,000, second prize £2,000, third prize £1,000

The Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry is a major international award for poems embracing ecological themes.

The Prize aims to highlight the role poetry can play in raising awareness, gaining insight, and provoking concern for the ecological imperatives of our time.

First prize is £5,000, second prize is £2,000, and third prize is £1,000.  Read more

'An overactive imagination'

19 August 2019

‘I was often accused of having an overactive imagination as a child and I was an avid reader. I used to fib to my mum, saying I was going out to play with the other kids and actually having a book in my pocket. I'd built a den on the waste ground at the far end of the housing estate where I grew up and I would hide there and read.  Read more

'Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.'

— Stephen King