The AAP’s monthly StatShot report for April provides some of the first concrete evidence of the effect of COVID-19 shutdowns on book publishing dollar sales. Note that as usual it reflects data reported from the major mainstream trade publishers, and therefore does not show some of sales boon in products like educational workbooks from some independent publishers. Instead of focusing on the usual “net” sales numbers, though, this time the real indicators are in publishers’ gross shipments to accounts, and the returns processed. Shipments were down markedly, as you would expect, and returns were far lower than usual. Adult trade […]
Wiley Reports Moderate Fourth Quarter Sales Decline, Records Steep Net Loss
Wiley announced fiscal fourth-quarter sales for the period ending April 30 of $475 million, compared to $491 million in the same period a year ago — a 3 percent decline, or 6 percent when acquisitions and $7 million in foreign exchange impact are taken into account. They incurred a big net loss of ($158) million, compared to net income of $63 million last year. As expected given global school and office shutdowns, education publishing was down 12 percent, to $84 million from $95 million, and professional learning declined 23 percent, to $66 million. The net loss reflects approximately $110 million […]
New Books Publishing June 9
This week brings another strong showing in summer fiction, alongside new non-fiction works from Stacey Abrams and others. As in previous weeks, our sample Bookshop and Aerbook store carousels provide easy displays of books publishing today in need of attention and support, featuring: 14 new works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-june-9 https://aerbook.com/store/publishers_lunch/New_Fiction_Publishing_June_9/217087 4 new nonfiction titles https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-june-9 https://aerbook.com/store/publishers_lunch/New_Nonfiction_Publishing_June_9/217088 More new children’s/YA books https://bookshop.org/lists/new-children-s-titles-publishing-in-june https://aerbook.com/store/publishers_lunch/New_Childrens_Titles_Publishing_in_June/216958 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 sure your key titles are on our radar, now you […]
Publishing Pushes Back: A Day of Action Protests Industry Racism, A Hashtag Reveals Low Advances for Black Authors, and More
Over the weekend, close to 1,500 people from across publishing houses, literary agencies and more added their names to a Statement of Solidarity from Workers Across Publishing, which had been posted as a public google document. Addressed to the ceos of the five largest trade publishers, a little over half of the signatories work for those companies. The statement committed to today as “a day of action in solidarity with the global uprisings in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and the many, many others in the long history of Black people murdered […]
LSC Approved for Full DIP Loan, with June 30 Deadline to Decide on Sale or Restructuring
LSC Communications has until the end of the month to make a formal decision on whether to plan to exit chapter 11 through a sale or a restructuring, a deadline that’s part of the terms of a $100 million DIP financing package approved by US Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane at a June 1 hearing. That allows LSC to draw down the remaining $27.5 million of the financing. The final terms of the financing agreement included an automatic 90-day maturity extension if the company chooses to restructure, and eliminated a requirement that potential buyers be willing to assume the prepetition revolving […]
Judge Throws Out Lenny Dykstra’s Defamation Suit
A New York Supreme Court judge dismissed former NY Mets player Lenny Dykstra’s defamation and libel lawsuit against Ron Darling, ruling that Dykstra’s “reputation for unsportsmanlike conduct and bigotry is already so tarnished that it cannot be further injured.” Dykstra claimed that Darling owed him monetary, compensatory, and punitive damages for writing in his book 108 Stitches that Dykstra had shouted “every imaginable and unimaginable insult and expletive …. foul, racist, hateful, hurtful stuff” at Red Sox pitcher Dennis Boyd while he was warming up for Game 3 of the 1986 World Series, which Boston went on to lose. In […]