Hachette UK head Tim Hely Hutchinson said on Radio Four’s Today show he was cancelling Hodder & Stoughton’s plan to sell Glen David Gold’s new book exclusively at Waterstone’s in hardcover ahead of the fall paperback release to the trade. In what he terms “a historic climbdown,” he announces: “We got this wrong, and so I’m cancelling the exclusivity with the kind permission of Waterstone’s. In retrospect it was a mistake anyway, and choosing between confusion and conspiracy it was definitely in the confusion camp.” He noted, “Although the hardback [of Carter Beats the Devil] did not do very well, […]
International News
Weak Currency Drives Strong Finish for Harlequin
Harlequin record a strong fourth quarter, with sales of $126 million (CA) up over 18 percent from a year ago, and ebitda of $18.4 million up more than 30 percent. Good results were made even stronger by the decline of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar, and they say that “Harlequin’s revenues, to date, have not been significantly affected by the global, and in particular, U.S. economic situation.” But parent Torstar suffered overall, with writedowns producing a net loss of $211 million for the quarter. They are cutting their dividend in half, and “as part of a planned transition,” […]
Lonely Planet to Shrink Staff by 10 Percent
With travel (and travel publishing) in a slump due to the recession, Lonely Planet is eliminating approximately 50 jobs worldwide, or about 10 percent of their workforce, with up to 40 of the layoffs in Australia. Spokesperson Adam Bennett says “it represents the decline of the guidebook market in tough times.” Some reductions will come through not renewing employment contracts, and others from direct layoffs. (There will be modest cuts in the UK and US offices as well.) Acting chief executive Stephen Palmer notes, “Even the most optimistic forecasts do not predict any sustained recovery until 2010 at the earliest, […]
Vintage Broadens Spanish-Language Publishing
Vintage Español has announced a significant expansion through a co-publishing agreement with their parent company’s co-venture Random House Mondadori. Starting this fall, Vintage will reissue approximately 50 of RH Mondadori’s bestselling backlist titles, including all of the Spanish-language editions of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s work, along with works by such authors as Pablo Neruda, Federico GarcÃa Lorca, Ken Follett, John Grisham, Cormac McCarthy, and Mary Higgins Clark. Vintage will also publish 15 new frontlist titles in Spanish (mostly in paperback) annually as part of the initiative. The program is being directed by Vintage Espanol publishing director Milena Alberti and overseen by […]
Having Asked for Consumer Fair, Canadian Publishers Start to Snub New Reed Effort
Reed Exhibitions created their proposal for a consumer book fair in Toronto in the fall in response to publisher requests (and complaints about the inefficacy of Book Expo Canada). But now Random House Canada has announced that they are disappointed in the plans for the new fair and will not participate. Spokesperson Tracy Turriff says in a statement, “We attended a presentation about the plans for the show, and a number of challenges were raised, including basic elements like the venue and timing for the show. We are concerned that it will be difficult for this show to achieve success […]
Currency Helps/Hurts Indigo
Reporting results for their fiscal third quarter, ending right after Chrismas, Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo recorded sales of $330 million, up $7.4 million from a year ago. The Indigo and Chapters superstores rose 2.2 percent on a same-store basis, while the small format Coles store comps rose 3.2 percent. Online sales fell 2.6 percent to $30 million. The plunging Canadian dollar helped sales themselves hold up, but it hurt the company’s margins. Pre-tax earnings fell 3.6 percent to $40.1 million, while net income dropped considerably at $26.8 million, down from $49.2 million last year due to various tax line items. […]