Riding a strong run for Stieg Larsson, the UK’s Quercus said sales for the first six months were up by more than 50 percent to 5.55 million pounds–but they still lost over 260,000 pounds. Chief executive Mark Smith tells the Bookseller they are almost paying authors on time now: “We’re pretty much there with catching up with [the agents]. We have made great headway in dealing with that issue.”
Report
Also in the UK, after failing to sell dictionary line Chambers Harrap, Hachette is closing the units Edinburgh office and eliminate up to 27 jobs, the Bookseller reports. They will merge Chambers into Hodder Education and Harrap into France’s Larousse.
Bookseller
In an exchange with The Stranger, MacAdam/Cage editor-in-chief Pat Walsh admits “we’ve been having kind of a cash crunch for a few years now,” and have been “unable to print all the books we wanted to print.” At least a few current releases have been delayed because of the cash shortage. Walsh adds that “every month our backlist sells a little more,” and “he predicts that the publisher will be out of their financial hole by November.”
Stranger