Authors and publishers are angry about owner KKR due to ties with Israel. ‘We have been complicated’

Writers and employees of publishers Atlas Contact and Ambo Anthos, says Geert Mak, « sitting in the belly of the whale. » That whale is not only the Dutch publishing group VBK, owner of the two large publishers. It is also not only Simon and Schuster, the American publishing giant who took over VBK last year. It is mainly KKR, the large private equity fund (in total good for more than $ 700 billion in investments) that is behind that again. A « financing sample, » Mak calls it.

What the certainly fifty writers and employees had to say about KKR on Monday evening in an Amsterdam room was, according to Mak, also present, then also as ‘squeaking of small mice’. Such a « moloch, » he says, « you don’t get a meter in motion, that feels incredibly powerless. »

That they met had everything to do with other investments that KKR makes: in Israeli data centers, infrastructure and organizations that would have ties with illegal settlements on the western Jordoever. These investments have led to unrest in the music world, especially in the music world. Several artists recently withdrew from the Black Cross festival, which is indirectly owned by KKR. Festivals that are organized by a company that falls under KKR are also under fire abroad.

Poet Diet Groothuis ‘shocked’ when she read over the ties with KKR. In recent weeks, she and other authors have bombarded their editors at publishers, she says. And they were also shocked. When VBK was taken over by Simon and Schuster, few also had their eyes focused on the party that was behind it again. This, says author Daan Heerma van Voss, « is what happens at small companies that merge in larger companies that merge with larger companies that merge with larger companies. » You have no grip on it, he and other authors.

Heerma van Voss initially responded cynically to the whole issue. « I thought: I still have to come across the first euro bill that we use that is not soaked in blood. But I am very happy that I went. » During the meeting, authors and publisher were found on the same side. The editors with whom the authors make their books were also angry and felt powerless. Some had recently participated in the red line demonstrations in The Hague. And now did their employer themselves have controversial ties with Israel?

Threaten with departure

A handful of authors has now announced that they will leave the publishers: they are not going to publish a new book, or want to wait with publication until the ties with KKR are broken. Other writers would threaten with a departure, although within the literary world you can hear that it is just waiting to see if that soup is eaten as hot as it is served. Among them is Freek de Jonge, who, according to those present, stated that he would go up during the writers meeting and afterwards said he still wanted to have Hella with his wife. At Atlas Contact he works on a series of memoirs.