The Bonnier Group released full year 2020 earnings last week, with Bonnier Books reporting sales of SEK6.11 billion ($664 million), up from SEK5.77 billion ($611 million) in 2019, driven mainly by the publishing business and the audio and e-book service BookBeat. As we’ve seen in the US, increased ebook sales combined with cost-cutting improved profitability. Operating profit (EBITA) was SEK392 million, up from SEK250 million — or 12 percent, which the company said was due to increased market shares, accelerated sales of digital formats, and consistent cost reductions. Bonnier Books in Germany had their best sales and earnings yet. In […]
Archives for February 2021
People, Etc.
Jodi Weiss has been promoted to the newly created position of chief sales officer at Workman Publishing, unifying the Workman sales teams under a single leader for the first time. She reports to ceo Dan Reynolds, who says: “Jodi is extremely hardworking and a natural problem solver; she understands the importance of getting to know the book, she collaborates with both the publisher and the editor, she partners with other departments including customer service and IT, and she is immersed in the data that helps guide her. And she is notably relentless about getting our books into very competitive and […]
Briefs: DOJ Drops Wolkoff Lawsuit; SLJ Apologizes; More on Bookshop
The Justice Department dropped its unusual lawsuit against Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, author of Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady. The lawsuit, filed during the final months of Donald Trump’s administration in October 2020, claimed the book violated the author’s White House nondisclosure agreement. A Justice Department official told the Washington Post, “The Department evaluated the case and concluded that dismissal without prejudice was in the best interests of the United States based on the facts and the law.” Bookselling The Boston Globe ran a profile on Bookshop.org and founder Andy Hunter, celebrating […]
New Books Publishing February 9
This week’s haul of new fiction includes thrillers from Alex Berenson and CJ Tudor, Cate Quinn’s polygamous twist on the whodoneit, as well as Buzz books selection WE RUN THE TIDES, by Vendela Vida. The nonfiction offering includes the memoir of Kareem Rosser, captain of the first all-black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo championship. 13 new works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-february-9 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Fiction_Publishing_February_/218752 8 new nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-february-9 https://shop.aer.io/publishers_lunch/cl/New_Nonfiction_Publishing_February_/218753 We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming three months through this reference page. But if you want to make […]
People, Etc.: Maria Guarnaschelli Dies
Maria Guarnaschelli, 79, “the editor behind the most highly acclaimed and successful cookbooks of our time, including the monumental 1997 revision of The Joy of Cooking and the new classic The Food Lab,” died February 6 of complications of heart disease. During her four-decade book publishing career, most recently at Norton from 2000 to 2017, she introduced and edited books by culinary visionaries including J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Judy Rodgers, Rick Bayless, Maricel Presilla, Jim Lahey, Stella Parks, Dave Arnold, and Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, among many others. She also acquired and edited works by authors including David Quammen, Steven […]
Briefs
Awards Max Gross‘s novel The Lost Shtetl won the Association of Jewish Libraries Jewish Fiction Award. Nicole Krauss’s To Be a Man and Colum McCann’s Apeirogon were selected as honor books. Bookselling A number of large UK retailers, including Waterstones, have yet again called on the government to reduce or remove their business rates (a tax on property used for business). Waterstones ceo James Daunt said in the Sunday Times,”The government’s failure to do anything on business rates is mind-boggling … how long can they go on year after year, wringing their hands and saying, ‘We’re thinking about it’? It’s pathetic.'” Daunt […]