Quercus reported results for calendar year 2011, with the big dropoff in Stieg Larsson’s sales far bigger than the gains in other parts of their program. Total sales of £24,759 million were 22 percent lower than £31,784 million in 2010, and consolidated operating profit fell to £5,898 million, down from £7,635 million. Exemplifying how the announcement plays their results, the company contrasts the sales decline against the earnings by saying “however consolidated operating profit held up well”–yet it declined the same 22 percent. The biggest drops came in their core market of the UK, and non-core territories beyond the US […]
Archives for May 2012
Standoff Ends: IPG and Amazon Agree to Terms on eBooks and Titles Are Restored
Three months after Publishers Lunch first broke the story that independent distributor IPG and Amazon had not renewed their contract for the sale of ebooks and IPG-client titles were removed from sale on the leading ebookstore platform, we can report exclusively again that the contractual standoff is over. IPG president Mark Suchomel confirms to PL “we have come to terms” and IPG-distributed ebooks have been restored to the Kindle store on Friday, May 25. Any titles that are not restored today should be available “in the next day or two.” Suchomel declined to discuss what broke the stalemate, and said […]
Ingram CEO Prichard Leaving Company
Ingram ceo and president Skip Prichard will leave the company on June 8 after more than five years, in a abrupt announcement somehow trying to hide itself on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. Current chairman John Ingram will assume the duties of ceo when Prichard departs. In a statement John Ingram said that Prichard “rebranded and refocused our efforts within Ingram Content, and through a well designed strategy, hard work and energetic leadership repositioned our companies to succeed in the fast changing publishing environment.” Prichard indicates, “I now will do some consulting and then look for a new […]
Summer Reading Roundups From the NYT, WSJ, USAT, NPR
We may be focused on the fall season (as our Buzz eBook sampler can attest) but the largest news outlets have all unveiled their summer reading roundups in time for Memorial Day Weekend. Janet Maslin returns in the NYT with her annual survey, gently chiding the selections, including new novels by Hilary Mantel, Gillian Flynn, Colin Cotterill, Karen Thompson Walker, and G. Willow Wilson, for not being as easily categorized as they once were. The WSJ makes more of the “genre-bending” nature of this summer’s selections, highlighting Walker’s “big debut” as well as upcoming books by Megan Abbott, Tana French, […]
Publishers: U. of Missouri Press to Close; Page Celebrates “Legacy”; Penguin Launches A Pintail
University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe apparently surprised staff with the announcement Thursday that the UM Press will close. Started in 1958, it currently publishes about 30 titles a year, and has issued approximately 2,000 books since its founding. Wolfe said they “take seriously our role to be good stewards of public funds, to use those funds to achieve our strategic priorities and re-evaluate those activities that are not central to our core mission.” The Press has been receiving a $400,000 annual subsidy. A phase out of operations will begin this July. “Ten employees will be affected,” the Columbia Daily […]
Bookselling: RJ Julia Still Searching For New Owner; ABA’s New “Why Indies Matter” Ad Campaign; And More
In the three months since owner Roxane Coady announced that R.J. Julia Booksellers was for sale, no buyer has been found yet, though Coady told the Madison Patch there have been “a few nibbles.” Coady, who repeats that there’s no deadline to sell, said she has received inquiries from people who have money, as well as from those who would be ideal to run a bookstore, “But the people who have money have never run a bookstore. And the people who could run a bookstore have no money.” She is also considering “opening a shared office space operation that could […]