Driven by the purchase of multiple Globe Pequot Press imprints last May and the Alban Institute’s book business in January, Rowman & Littlefield says that book and journal sales rose to $60.3 million in 2014, up from $51 million the year before. Client sales through their distribution businesses NBN and NBN International were almost flat at $78 million, down $1 million. R&L says digital products comprised 11.5 percent of publishing sales.
Archives for February 2015
People: On George Nicholson, and More
Sterling Lord Literistic agent George Nicholson, 77, died on Tuesday. Before joining SLL in 1995, he founded Delacorte Press and Yearling Books, and was publisher of Books for Children at The Viking Press. At Hachette Book Group, recently-appointed svp group sales director Chris Murphy announced a reorganization of the sales group to “better align individuals to make the very most of their skills, and position us as a strong, well-rounded sales team.” Dave Epstein moves up to vp, retail sales, and will hire an executive director of children’s sales to fill his former position. Linda Jamison is promoted to executive director of mass merchant sales, reporting to […]
And Then There Were Three: New Hachette Agency Pricing Trickles In
Hachette Book Group officially implemented their new ebook agency pricing on February 1, feeding new pricing data to retailers in that evening’s ONIX feed — and ever so slowly, you can start to see those changes showing up in the marketplace. On Amazon, the new Kindle pricing is most evident on some pre-orders — such as Jeffery Deaver’s SOLITUDE CREEK, with an ebook price of $14.99 and a print price of $28 — and some high-priced print titles. The ebooks with new pricing carry the telltale signifier, “this price was set by the publisher.” For some reason, retailers have not yet […]
More Details From Harper and Nurnberg On Forthcoming Harper Lee Novel
The rediscovery and forthcoming publication of Harper Lee’s GO SET A WATCHMAN dominated Tuesday’s cultural news cycle, as excitement over the novel, said to have been written in the 1950s and set 20 years after the events depicted in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, was played against some skepticism over Lee’s current condition and how the manuscript was found. Two representatives from Lee’s publisher Harper Collins shared thoughts and background with the media. Harper vp, publisher Jonathan Burnham told NBC the company “instantly read it, devoured it” while asserting his confidence the manuscript was, in fact, Lee’s: “Everyone had believed it to been lost, […]
Merch Sales Lift Results At Indigo
Canada’s Indigo — the country’s “largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer” — reported results for the quarter ending December 27, with sales rising 2 percent to $339 million (CA), and adjusted EBITDA increasing $8 million to $41 million. Same-store sales were up 5.5 percent at their superstores and down marginally in their smaller format stores, while online sales rose 10.6 percent, to $46 million. The improvements were driven by the company’s expanding merchandise sales, with “continued double digit growth in lifestyle, paper and toys, including the highly successful American Girls” boutiques. The company insists that “the core trade books […]
Buzz Books for Spring/Summer and Winter Institute: Nonfiction
As usual, our free adult spring/summer Buzz Books ebook sampler opens with Sarah Weinman’s broader surveys of over 100 notable books from the forthcoming season. We’ll be running portions of those overviews the next couple of days in advance of the ABA’s annual Winter Institute next week in Asheville, NC. You can read the complete previews anytime in the new editions of Buzz Books, and start reading exclusive pre-publication excerpts of almost 40 forthcoming adult titles and over 25 YA and middle grade books. In today’s installment, we look at forthcoming nonfiction. And also as usual, publication dates may have changed, […]