High-street sales fell 6 percent at WH Smith in the first half of their fiscal year, at 522 million pounds, and profits of 47 million pounds declined by the same percentage. Same-store book sales declined less, at 3 percent, and the company says “we saw further good share performance versus the general high street with strong market shares in kids books…and celebrity autobiographies.” They add that “we increased the focus on kids books with major range reviews leading to wider ranges being introduced in areas such as picture books.” Smith release The new owners of UK wholesaler Bertrams also reported […]
International News
It's a Rights Fair
So it’s looking a lot more like the third day of BEA here in London as the hard-core continue their work (often with suitcases nearby for tonight’s getaway) and the rest have fallen away, lightening aisles and rights tables alike. Even many of the scouts aren’t crazed with appointments today, which should tell you something. But anecdotal reports continue to indicate that a smaller, less frenized show has still been a fine show for the basic renewing of relationships and presentation of books for translation and secondary sales, along with ancillary international business of all kinds. As always, actual deal […]
UK CEOs Consider Emerging eBook World
A packed London Book Fair panel today gathered today four UK-based big houses ceos: John Makinson from Penguin, Tim Hely-Hutchinson from Hachette UK; Gail Rebuck from Random House UK; and Victorian Barnsley from Harper UK; each expressing varying degrees of the requisite “enthusiasm” about digital opportunities current and future. True to form Hely-Hutchinson remains the most cautious member of this group: ebooks “will have a place in the market, but its not the end of the story.” (He sees ebooks as only 5 percent of the market in five years.) He warned that it would be “very foolish to be […]
Penguin International Deals Include Chinese eBook Partner
True to the international spirit of the London Book Fair, Penguin made multiple announcements at a press briefing this morning related to its far-flung English-language empire. Starting in May, they will issue the full range of digitized Penguin UK and Dorling Kindersley titles (now comprising over 2,000 books) as ebooks in China with Beijing-based partner Founder Apabi Group in the company’s proprietary format. Founder Apabi is save to have an estimated 80 percent share of the ebook market, with over 500,000 tiles from Chinese publishers. Approximately 80 percent of the market is in library sales, with consumers comprising the remainder, […]
Harper Has Tolkien eRights Worldwide
Harper Collins UK, which publishes JRR Tolkien, has acquired worldwide electronic rights to the authors work. Six titles are available today for direct download, including The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, and The Children of Hurin, followed by The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales on May 5, “with further titles later in the year.”Harper UK is selling epub files directly from their site, served by technology partner Overdrive, with files also available Waterstone’s. In the US, the books are available in multiple formats, serving all major devices and platforms. And Harper says that the […]
Random UK "Enhances" eBooks
Under the Banner of Book and Beyond, Random House UK is launching enhanced ebooks with “a range of additional content such as videos, games, quizzes, photos, author interviews, interactive graphics and the option to listen to or read the text at the start of each chapter.” (In other words, they do not work on current dedicated ereaders, running Adobe Digital Editions, but are fine on computers–but then there are very few ereaders in consumers hands in the UK anyway.) The first ten titles include Nothing to Lose by Lee Child (with a digital graphic novel); The Book Thief by Markus […]