The five largest publishers: Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan
The Big Five are the five largest English-language book publishers in the world, accounting for about two-thirds of all books published in English. The Big Five are Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.
The Big Five were created in 2013, when Penguin and Random House merged. The other three companies are subsidiaries of large media conglomerates. Hachette is owned by Lagardère Group, HarperCollins is owned by News Corp, and Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS Corporation. Macmillan is the only one of the Big Five that is not owned by a larger media conglomerate; it is owned by the German company Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.
The Big Five have been criticized for their dominance of the publishing industry, and for the prices they charge for e-books. They have also been criticized for their treatment of authors, particularly in the case of Hachette and Amazon.
The Big Fivepublish a wide variety of books, from bestsellers to literary fiction to non-fiction. They are the primary publishers of children’s books, and they also publish a significant number of romance novels, cookbooks, and self-help books.
The Big Five are the five largest publishers in the United States: Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan. They control a large majority of the market, and as a result, they have a lot of power. They can dictate terms to authors and bookstores, and they can make it very difficult for new authors and small presses to get their books into the market. However, they also publish a lot of great books, and they have the resources to invest in marketing and promotion. So, while they may not be perfect, the Big Five are still an important part of the publishing industry.