The ongoing subversion of Random House
and the "mainstream" of which it is an example
There has been some consternation expressed the last year or so in Left Blogistan as to how authors formerly limited to the Regnery kennel (which as I can attest firsthand, did not stop them from being carried by Big Name Chain Bookstores in the Mall, however before Falafel O'Reilly's book they were basically special-order leftovers that got shelved on an ad hoc basis) are now being published by mainstream, supposedly-non-ideological presses like Random House. Case in point, Ann Coulter, whose book Godless was put out by Crown, an imprint of Random House dedicated to serving conservative readers, according to their own website.
I found another one this weekend, at B&N, en route to the bathrooms, on the endcap in the Religion section. Now, at first glance, WaterBrook Press is one of those small imprints dedicated to putting out what the owners feel is important. But I suspected, because I used to work in publishing and bookselling and guess what, those endcaps don't come cheap. Little indy houses usually can't afford that kind of placement. I looked inside. Hey presto! in the fine print, it turns out that WaterBrook Press (with a deer logo, of course, as well as once-trendy capitalization) is actually part of Random House, too. It's out of Colorado Springs, home of Focus on the Family, (on Oracle Drive!) which says to me that it's probably originally an indy fundy house that was acquired by RH rather than something they spun off from within, but that's just a guess and not a certainty.
So Random House, whether they are just pandering to sectarian division or have authentically bought in to it, is happily doing their part providing the Apocalyptic Morons™ and warmongering Tashlanites with grist for their rhetorical mills.
There has been some consternation expressed the last year or so in Left Blogistan as to how authors formerly limited to the Regnery kennel (which as I can attest firsthand, did not stop them from being carried by Big Name Chain Bookstores in the Mall, however before Falafel O'Reilly's book they were basically special-order leftovers that got shelved on an ad hoc basis) are now being published by mainstream, supposedly-non-ideological presses like Random House. Case in point, Ann Coulter, whose book Godless was put out by Crown, an imprint of Random House dedicated to serving conservative readers, according to their own website.
I found another one this weekend, at B&N, en route to the bathrooms, on the endcap in the Religion section. Now, at first glance, WaterBrook Press is one of those small imprints dedicated to putting out what the owners feel is important. But I suspected, because I used to work in publishing and bookselling and guess what, those endcaps don't come cheap. Little indy houses usually can't afford that kind of placement. I looked inside. Hey presto! in the fine print, it turns out that WaterBrook Press (with a deer logo, of course, as well as once-trendy capitalization) is actually part of Random House, too. It's out of Colorado Springs, home of Focus on the Family, (on Oracle Drive!) which says to me that it's probably originally an indy fundy house that was acquired by RH rather than something they spun off from within, but that's just a guess and not a certainty.
So Random House, whether they are just pandering to sectarian division or have authentically bought in to it, is happily doing their part providing the Apocalyptic Morons™ and warmongering Tashlanites with grist for their rhetorical mills.