Harper Collins UK has decided not to publish any more books by bestselling children’s author David Walliams, the Telegraph reports. The company launched an investigation into Walliams last year after claims that he had “harassed” junior female staff at the publisher. “After careful consideration, and under the leadership of its new CEO, HarperCollins UK has decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams. The author is aware of this decision,” a Harper UK spokesperson said. “HarperCollins takes employee wellbeing extremely seriously and has processes in place for reporting and investigating concerns. To respect the privacy of individuals we […]
People 12/19
The Amendments
Congratulations and apologies to a few revisions to the editor credits for our consensus best books of the year: David Ebershoff at Hogarth edited The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny along with the original editor Robin Desser. Jennifer Hershey at Ballantine edited Atmosphere. (The author moves to Atria in her new deal.) Jynne Dilling at Riverhead edited A Marriage At Sea.
Scholastic Sees Trade, Book Fair Gains
Scholastic reported earnings for the second quarter ended November 30, with sales up 1 percent to $551 million. Operating income for the quarter rose 11 percent to $83 million and operating income excluding one-time items increased 20 percent to $95 million. Adjusted EBITDA grew 13 percent to $122.5 million. In the Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution segment, sales were $381 million, up 4 percent, and operating income was $109 million, up 6.6 percent—increases attributed to improvements in trade and book fair sales. Trade sales were up 7 percent to $110 million thanks to a new Dog Man book. Book club […]
2025: The Year in Finance
Publisher sales figures were stable this year, with most reporting companies just slightly ahead of or behind where they were in 2024. (Bloomsbury is the exception, falling from their record-breaking year in 2023, which had a new book by blockbuster romantasy author Sarah J. Maas.) Industry print sales monitored by the AAP ebbed while ebooks remained flat and audiobooks inched higher (now past the big boost from Spotify), outselling ebooks for the second year on record. (But also, AAP stats are missing data from growing publishers such as Sourcebooks and Entangled.) Here’s our roundup of results from the publicly trade […]