Shelf Awareness posted an article with an update on the Penguin-Random House merger and “Four days after officially confirming that Pearson and Bertelsmann were in discussions about combining their book publishing operations, the companies announced this morning that they are creating a joint venture named Penguin Random House. Bertelsmann will own 53% of the joint venture, and Pearson will own 47%.” There was quite a bit of talk in the article about eBooks and further research reveals that the powers-that-be are interested in countering Internet retailers — Amazon.com was specifically mentioned. I have to wonder if the cost of eBooks will go up… My primary worry about this is the publishing house(s) hunkering down even more and cutting back taking on authors. At the least, payments to authors may well go down. It certainly reduces the number of publishing houses to whom an author can submit a manuscript. Dohle of Random House claims “the combined Penguin Random House would value them” and that its all about the books. This from the publishing house that published the Fifty Shades Trilogy. So, obviously it’s not about the writing.