Following Macmillan ceo John Sargent’s indication that they will, with some reluctance, “test subscription in the coming weeks,” Oyster announced that their collection now includes over 1,000 titles published by Bloomsbury.
Harper UK has disclosed their annual results for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014. Sales fell to £179 million, down £11 million from the prior year, while profits rebounded from terrible to just low, with pre-tax earnings of £7.2 million (still, much better than £2.8 million the year before). The company said profits were held down by £3.5 million related to their planned relocation to new offices in 2015. The Bookseller reports that the results also disclosed former Harper UK ceo Victoria Barnsley was paid £1.39 million when she left the company and was replaced by Charlie Redmayne.
In store news, Joseph-Beth co-founder Neil Van Uum‘s latest venture The Booksellers will add a second location in Dayton, OH in September 2015 at the Austin Landing development. He tells the Dayton Daily News, “There’s a different model coming, and there’s an opportunity in some markets to do a second-generation bookstore.”
In the UK, former publishing colleague Alison Morrison, 45, was attacked and died from stabbing wounds yesterday, the BBC reports. They say a man is in custody for the murder, and Scotland Yard is examining what happened. Morrison had been chair of the Booktrust board after working at Walker Books, Egmont, and Penguin UK.
Target has announced its Book Club picks for both January and February 2015. January’s is Nathan Filer’s THE SHOCK OF THE FALL (St. Martin’s Griffin) and February’s is SHOTGUN LOVESONGS by Nickolas Butler (Griffin)