A leading authors' body has warned that Penguin's $116m (£73m) acquisition of self-publishing giant ASI could threaten and undermine the rights of budding writers.Penguin, the publisher of titles including Kathryn Stockett's The Help and Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, said that the deal to buy US-based Author Solutions Inc would allow the book giant to capture a major share of the burgeoning self-publishing market.

The splash caused by self-publishing superstars such as Amanda Hocking and EL James, the author of worldwide success Fifty Shades of Grey, has encouraged traditional publishers such as Pearson-owned Penguin to break into the market."Self-publishing has moved into the mainstream of our industry over the past three years," said John Makinson, the chief executive of Penguin, who described the deal as vital to the future of the company.

"This acquisition will allow Penguin to participate in perhaps the fastest-growing area of the publishing economy".However Kate Pool, the deputy secretary general of the Society of Authors, warned that Penguin's deal was giving a lustre of credibility to a company which, she argued, did not provide a great deal for budding writers looking to self publish."What worries me is that authors will get misled by these deals thinking that a tie-up with Penguin means they are getting either a full publishing or self publishing service, when in fact they are getting neither of those," she said. "It is very misleading for authors".

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Source: The Guardian