Conversation has been so focused lately on the Penguin Random House acquisition of Simon & Schuster (see our other piece in this issue) that it’s been easy to forget that HMH Books Media—by some measures, the sixth biggest trade publisher in the United States—is also for sale. HarperCollins has reached an agreement to buy HMH Books Media from its corporate parent, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (The parent company will now focus on K-12 educational publishing and technology; the sale of its trade division helps pay down its debt.) HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray told Publishers Weekly that its decision to buy was motivated by HMH’s valuable catalog of 7,000 titles, which includes the Lord of the Rings series. Previous acquisitions by HarperCollins include Thomas Nelson and Harlequin.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
