At Putnam, Ashley Hewlett has been promoted to senior publicist while Sarah Grimm moves up to associate publicist. Following the sales of Santillana’s trade book business to Penguin Random House, Maria B. Campbell Associates is now the US literary scout for all of the company’s Spanish-language (and Portuguese-language) book divisions: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial in Spain and Portugal, Companhia das Letras and Objetiva in Brazil. With further hostage developments in Paris following Wednesday’s Charlie Hebdo attacks, Michel Houellebecq has stopped promotion of his novel SUBMISSION (with the exception of a pre-recorded interview that will air on Canal+ Friday night) and has left […]
Booksellers
Whatever Is Happening with Tablet and eReader Sales, Apple’s App Store Had Record New Year’s
There are a variety of indications that sales of dedicated ereading devices as well as tablets (or at least non-Apple tablets) were weak over the holiday period — perhaps because those who want them already have them, and the devices are all solid enough that they do not require continuous replacement cycles. Apple announced in a press release that “the first week of January set a new record for billings from the App Store with customers around the world spending nearly half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases, and New Year’s Day 2015 marked the single biggest day […]
Barnes & Noble Happily Flat for Holiday Sales
Barnes & Noble reported a not-terrible nine-week holiday sales period: Total sales at the division comprising the BN stores and BN.com were basically flat at $1.1 billion (up 0.2 percent), though that result was helped by “favorable timing of the fiscal nine-week period, which ended on January 3 this year as compared to December 28 last year,” which made up for some of the sales lost due to store closures. Sales would have been down 1.6 percent absent the schedule gain. Bookstore comp sales declined 0.6 percent because of Nook declines; “core” store sales, leaving aside Nook devices and accessories, rose […]
UK Booksellers Report Good Holiday Sales (And Low Kindle eReader Sales)
Two UK bookstore chains reported encouraging holiday sales. Waterstones says print book sales were up 5 percent in December, and Foyles said same-store book sales were up 11 percent for the holiday. With 290 stores, Waterstones now expects to open a dozen or more new stores during 2015. Both booksellers also reported weak sales for ereading devices — which should hardly be a surprise, as most consumers have moved on tablets and ereading loyalists are most likely to buy directly from their platform of choice rather than stumbling on devices through a third party. Waterstones said Kindle device sales “disappeared to […]
BN Pays Microsoft $62.5 Million In Nook Buyback
In a series of complex SEC documents, Barnes & Noble indicated that they have paid Microsoft $62.5 million to buyback their 16.8 percent share in Nook Media LLC, along with 2.74 million shares of BN stock (valued at $62.5 million, though that stock is worth less already). That implies a “fair market value” of about $700 million for Barnes & Noble College and Nook combined. Given that it cost Barnes & Noble $431 million to purchase College from the Riggio family (the last payment for which was just made in September), you can infer that puts a value on Nook […]
Barnes & Noble Disappoints Again with Lower Earnings; Terminates Microsoft Nook Partnership
There was a suspicious spate of financial articles the last couple of days tipping the idea that the worst is over at Barnes & Noble and Nook and earnings would be up — but the results announced before the opening of the market on Thursday proved those hopeful stories wrong again. Analysts hoped earnings per share would more than double to 31 cents — but instead consolidated net earnings fell $1 million, to 12 cents a share. Analyst John Tinker at Maxim Group had convinced the WSJ Nook would only lose $14 million (they lost almost 3 times that) on […]