HarperCollins will rebrand its Eos imprint in the US as Voyager–a name the company already uses for similar sci-fi, fantasy and horror publishing in the UK and Australia/New Zealand. The change will take place with their January 2011 releases. CEo Brian Murray says in the announcement, “uniting our sister companies in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia/New Zealand allows readers globally unparalleled access to books and authors. This move enables us to offer authors a strong global publishing platform when signing with HarperCollins — whether the acquiring editor is in New York, Sydney, or London.” Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone […]
International News
Blair’s Book JOURNEY Begins
Tony Blair garners considerable coverage on both sides of the Atlantic following the release today of A JOURNEY: My Political Life. The book is expected to rank as the bestselling UK political memoir ever. Released at the steep fake list price 25 pounds, the press is yet again surprised that the book is already deeply discounted. (Blooomberg has an amusing typo, listing the 720-page book as weighing 25 pounds.) As promised, the book offers the closest thing to candor you can expect from a former leader, as he admits to deep emotions over the UK’s participation in the Iraq war […]
People
Hachette UK has hired Matthew Cashmore for the new position of digital director, charged with evaluating their digital strategy and finding new online revenue streams. He was innovation and ecosystem manager at Lonely Planet.
Sales and Profits Rebound At Random House
Random House reported sales for the first half of the year of 791 million euros, up 57 million euros (or almost 8 percent) from a year ago, as operating EBIT doubled to a still-modest margin of 40 million euros. CEO Markus Dohle writes that “our performance was led by the US division, which combined bestseller dominance with lower physical returns.” Stieg Larsson’s sales of 6.5 million copies in the US and Germany were a “substantial” factor in the improved results. Dohle also points to the company’s “robust digital-publishing momentum.” He says that within the fiscal year, worldwide digital sales will […]
Paper Claims Investors May Push for Waterstone’s Spin-Off
The UK offers two grain-of-salt stories today. In the first, the Guardian has suddenly noticed that leading bookselling chain Waterstone’s has been struggling and declares that “rebel shareholders” want HMV to consider selling the unit if margins do not improve soon. Who are these rebels and what kind of stake do they hold? Um, they cite one anonymous shareholder, “”Although Waterstone’s accounts for around a quarter of HMV’s turnover, it has a perfectly viable business without books. The day of reckoning is fast approaching.” And a second unnamed “investor” (which is different how from a shareholder?) says, “another investor said: […]
Bloomsbury Does Better with Publishing than Investments
Sales at Bloomsbury rose 4.5 percent in the first half of the year, to 36.8 million pounds, though pre-tax profit fell by a little more than half, at 949,000 pounds. Profits on the publishing side fell by 23 percent, mostly due to the inclusion of the new Bloomsbury Professional unit (based on their acquisition of law and tax publisher Tottel), “which is typically loss making in the first half of the year.” Investment income on the mountain of residual Harry Potter cash declined much more sharply, down from 842,000 pounds to 180,000 pounds, reaffirming that the company is much better […]