Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reported fourth quarter 2013 sales of $299 million, up 6 percent, though trade sales for the period fell $6 million (or 12 percent) to $46 million, “as revenues normalized following higher Tolkien licensing revenue in 2012.” Trade’s adjusted EBITDA was much lower, down $8 million to $5 million. Companywide, HMH had adjusted EBITDA of $55 million, and an operating loss of $60 million, compared to a loss of $28 million a year ago. For the full year, however, trade sales still reached an all-time high, at $171 million, driven by the expanded culinary line (thanks to the […]
Archives for March 2014
Booksellers Object to LAT Festival’s Amazon Links
On Tuesday the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books posted the list of authors scheduled to appear at this April’s event — and in contrast to previous years, they appended “buy” links next to each author’s name, which usually lead to Amazon pages (via affiliate links). Local bookseller Skylight Books has spoken out, objecting to the Amazon links, and other booksellers are starting to do so as well. Last year, when Kobo was a sponsor of the festival, the author listings linked to informational sites rather than retailing pages. LAT director of communications Hilary Manning wrote in a statement that […]
PEN/Faulkner Finalists
The finalists for this year’s PEN/Faulkner Awards were announced in Washington this morning: Daniel Alarcon, AT NIGHT WE WALK IN CIRCLES (Riverhead) Percival Everett, PERCIVAL EVERETT BY VIRGIL RUSSELL (Graywolf) Karen Joy Fowler, WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES (Putnam) Joan Silber, FOOLS (Norton) Valerie Trueblood, SEARCH PARTY: Stories of Rescue (Counterpoint) The winner will be announced in early April and honored at a ceremony at the Folger Library on May 10.
Another Doniger Book, ON HINDUISM, Also Pulled in India
Weeks after Wendy Doniger’s 2009 book THE HINDUS was withdrawn from sale in India after Penguin India settled a lawsuit with the group Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti alleging the book’s contents were “derogatory and offensive to Hinduism,” another book by Doniger has been pulled from bookstores after the same group complained it was “malicious and offending.” The Times of India reports bookshops across Bangalore received calls from representatives of Aleph Book Company seeking return of all copies of Doniger’s ON HINDUISM. Aleph confirmed they were recalling copies of the book, published in 2013: “We don’t want to get involved in any […]
Harlequin Results Fall Again
Sales and earnings fell again in the fourth quarter for Harlequin, continuing a pattern of quarterly and annual declines. Sales of $95 million (CA) for the fourth quarter were down $10 million from a year ago, with EBITDA of $11.5 million (compared to $16.8 million last year). Most of the sales drop was in North America, blamed on ebook price wars, as “digital revenues in North America were believed to be negatively affected by increased discounts being offered on digital sales of other publishers’ bestselling titles.” For the full year, sales of $398 million were down 6.75 percent and EBITDA […]
People: Rebecca Smart to Lead Ebury, and More
CEO of Osprey Group Rebecca Smart will move to Penguin Random House UK at a date to be determined to take over as managing director of Ebury. Longtime Ebury leader Fiona MacIntrye is retiring after nearly 30 years with the unit. PRH UK ceo Tom Weldon says that MacIntyre had postponed her retirement until after the Penguin Random House merger was completed: “I confess I was stunned when Fiona told me last year that she had decided to retire and I am deeply grateful that she agreed to stay on for 12 months, so she could support me and her […]