Independent Publisher Group (IPG) announced internally “a difficult decision…to significantly reduce staff, specially in the Chicago Review Press publishing program.” Following a “challenging” year in 2022, they “started the year by reducing title count by roughly half, and are now making proportionate staff reductions to the size of the list.” Seven jobs were eliminated on the publishing side, and another two positions were cut from distribution staff, where “the distribution side of our business is also struggling to reach sales and revenue targets this year, as we are experiencing poor sell-through and higher than normal returns.” CEO Joe Matthews noted […]
Open Road Launches Metadata Service
Open Road is launching an enterprise SaaS program, offering metadata-as-a-service to all publishers on an annual pay-per-title basis. The initiative is designed to “continually optimize metadata and maximize title discovery” by using machine learning and proprietary data on Open Road’s consumer audiences “to automatically and continually optimize metadata.” (The service is a good example of how machine learning can sometimes provide unambiguous benefit, without encroaching on anyone’s rights.) The service is also being provided to publishers who participate in the Open Road’s ebook backlist marketing service at no additional cost. But the SaaS offering gives Open Road a product that […]
Layoffs at Penguin Random House Follow Their Retirement Offer
On Monday, Penguin Random House US managers executed selected layoffs in publishing groups and functions across the company. The company declined to provide any specifics about the number of people affected, though the layoffs are thought to number about 60 according to multiple people. Interim ceo Nihar Malaviya wrote to staff about the changes on Tuesday morning: “We are halfway through 2023, and while the book market has grown, particularly over recent years, we have also faced significantly increased costs in all areas across the board, and we expect these increases, as well as inflation, to continue. “We have been […]
Bookstat Posts Monthly Bestseller Lists
Bookstat, which imputes online book sales in real time, has started posting monthly ebook and digital audiobook bestseller lists on LinkedIn. While the service’s promotional materials tout their monitoring of self-published sales, the inaugural lists are dominated by titles from publishers. Two self-published authors make the ebook list: Catharina Maura (#13) and Emily Rath (#16).
Dealmaking Rebounded In the Second Quarter
The year opened with a weak first quarter of dealmaking, following two record years, but the market appeared to have been held back by the strike at Harper Collins, along with later dates for the spring book fairs. Now, we can see with more clarity that deal reports rose modestly in the second quarter, up 2.7 percent overall. The main weakness was in children’s books, which has looked overbought for a while. Indeed, children’s sales fell 9.8 percent, back to their level from 2020. Adult fiction continued its strong run — matched by consumer sales — rising 7.1 percent in […]
Booker Prize Moves to Late November, After National Book Awards
The Booker Prize, usually conferred in mid-October right around the Frankfurt Book Fair, is moving to late November. The six-title shortlist will be announced on September 21, and the winner will be named on November 26. That means the Booker will follow the National Book Awards, which will be awarded on November 15.