Random House reported sales for the first half of the year of 791 million euros, up 57 million euros (or almost 8 percent) from a year ago, as operating EBIT doubled to a still-modest margin of 40 million euros. CEO Markus Dohle writes that “our performance was led by the US division, which combined bestseller dominance with lower physical returns.” Stieg Larsson’s sales of 6.5 million copies in the US and Germany were a “substantial” factor in the improved results. Dohle also points to the company’s “robust digital-publishing momentum.” He says that within the fiscal year, worldwide digital sales will […]
Archives for August 2010
Lunch Weekly for Monday, August 30
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut John Gubbins’s THE PROFOUND RIVER, the story of the final hours […]
Paper Claims Investors May Push for Waterstone’s Spin-Off
The UK offers two grain-of-salt stories today. In the first, the Guardian has suddenly noticed that leading bookselling chain Waterstone’s has been struggling and declares that “rebel shareholders” want HMV to consider selling the unit if margins do not improve soon. Who are these rebels and what kind of stake do they hold? Um, they cite one anonymous shareholder, “”Although Waterstone’s accounts for around a quarter of HMV’s turnover, it has a perfectly viable business without books. The day of reckoning is fast approaching.” And a second unnamed “investor” (which is different how from a shareholder?) says, “another investor said: […]
People and Distribution
Kobo has announced the opening of their New York office, focused on publisher relations andUS content acquisition. Ami Greko joins the company as senior manager, vendor relations, books. She was director of business development for GetGlue after having managed digital marketing for Macmillan. Jan Ehrlich has been hired as director, newspapers and magazines. She was most recently director of business development for Texterity. Kobo notes in the announcement, “Publisher relationships are something we take very seriously at Kobo. Our work with US-based publishers is growing at a frantic pace as we continue to add new vendors, deepen our retail relationships, […]
Film Partner Will Help Promote Sparks’ New Novel, Well in Advance of Any Movie Version
The WSJ reports on a promotional twist for Nicholas Spark’s September release SAFE HAVEN. Film rights licensee Relatively Media will promote the book, even though they won’t have a film version ready until late next year at the earliest. Plans include ads in US and Entertainment Weekly as well as “creating a social community” around the work and working with publisher Grand Central on a joint Facebook page for the new novel. (Relativity’s Facebook community for their successful DEAR JOHN movie adaptation has over 2 million enrolled fans.) It’s in Relativity’s interest to nurture interest in the work, though the […]
A Bestselling Business Author Who Makes His Money from Traditionally Published Book
Author of The Four-Hour Workweek Timothy Ferris offers his own detailed analysis of how most authors currently make money from their books, and includes some sensible advice for those considering their options. In his case, though his book has ranked high in the Kindle store and is one of the ten most highlighted Kindle books, on his end of 2009 royalty statement, ebooks comprised a grand total of 1.6 percent of units sold. He does know people who publish digital-only quite successfully–but “the downside is that you need to be a world-class marketer and understand affiliate and CPA advertising better […]