Ballantine Bantam Dell publisher Libby McGuire has been promoted from svp to evp. She will continue to oversee the hardcover and mass market publishing programs for the division, reporting to RHPG president Gina Centrello. “With a sales and marketing background, Libby’s marketplace sensibility and decisive leadership is complemented by a wonderful eye for both fiction and nonfiction, for the publishing to support it, and by strong relationship with her colleagues, our authors, and the agent community,” Centrello said in the announcement. Amanda Cook will join Crown as vp, executive editor on February 6, responsible for developing the imprint’s non-fiction list. […]
Archives for January 2012
Barnes & Noble Reduces Expectations On Shortfall In Simple Touch Sales; A Sterling Sale Is Far Along
It’s already another fascinating year for Barnes & Noble, which surprised Wall Street with a number of post-holiday announcements. The success of their Nook Tablet, “which has exceeded expectations,” came at some cost to their less expensive eInk device, “with a shortfall in the expected sales of NOOK Simple Touch.” They say “the company over-anticipated the growth in consumer demand for single purpose black-and-white reading devices this holiday.” Primarily as a result of that Simple Touch shortfall, BN reduced their guidance to investors, projecting fiscal year sales of between $7.0 billion and $7.2 billion, EBITDA of $150 to $180 million, […]
Print Sales Tracked By Nielsen Bookscan Decline Over 9 Percent in 2011
With a particularly light week after Christmas (perhaps because of those post-holiday ebook downloads), unit sales of print books as measured by Nielsen Bookscan declined 9.25 percent for 2011. At 651 million units, the total was 66.3 million units lower than the total for 2010. (Remember our point from earlier in the week: BookStats counted trade ebook sales in 2011 of 76 million units. If that number doubled or more in 2011, the ebook gain could meet or exceed the decline in print units measured by Nielsen Bookscan.) Trade paperback sales, by far the largest category, declined 6 percent, at […]
Some Good News from BN: Holiday Print Book Sales Comps Rose 4 Percent, The First Growth In 5 Years
Barnes & Noble also reported on holiday sales on Thursday, and there the news is at least somewhat better. Over the nine-week holiday period, superstore sales rose 2.5 percent, at $1.2 billion. Same-store sales rose 3.4 percent, which is a positive, though not as strong as last year’s comp gain of 9.7 percent. In good news for publishers, “book sales were strong overall, fueled by strength across multiple categories,” and “physical book sales on a comparable basis increased by 4 percent, exhibiting growth for the first time in five years. More broadly, “retail core” comparable sales, leaving out digital merchandise, […]
eNews: eBooks Fill the USA Today Bestseller List; Patterson Sells Over 5 Million eBooks; and More
Heavy post-Christmas ebook buying is evident in USA Today’s latest bestseller list, published Thursday morning, on which ebook versions outsold print editions for 42 of the top 50 books. Below are the outliers that sold more in print (one of which, Wimpy Kid, is not available in ebook form). This time a year ago, USA Today suddenly showed 19 of the top 50 titles selling better as ebooks than in print; up until then, no more than two of their top 50 met that criterion. 11 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney 19 Inheritance, Christopher Paolini 23 […]
Barnes & Noble Seeks Bids for Sterling
While Amazon is investing in their in-house publishing program, Barnes & Noble is headed in the opposite direction as part of their repositioning as a technology company, with bankers currently eliciting bids for Sterling Publishing. The WSJ reported the development on Wednesday, citing “people familiar with the situation,” and a BN spokesperson would not comment. But sources with direct knowledge of the offering indicate to us indicate that it has been in circulation for at least two months if not longer. Someone acquainted with the sale’s progress indicates that there is considerable interest in the company. There will be at […]