Revenue from sales at UK High Street booksellers (like Waterstone’s and WH Smith) fell 12.7 percent in the week ending December 6–almost five points worse than the overall decline in sales tracked by Nielsen BookScan. The Telegraph says “high street book sales are plummeting as discounting, the growth of internet operators such as Amazon and dwindling consumer spending hits retailers.” As a result, “Discounting is becoming more aggressive as retailers fight to win customers with consumer spending dwindling in the wake of the economic downturn.”Telegraph
International News
BookScan UK: Sales Down Again
For the last week, sales revenues tracked through Nielsen BookScan in the UK were 6.9 percent below the same week from a year ago, “the biggest weekly decline since July” (when the comparison was to last year’s Harry Potter release.) For the year, however, sales are just slightly negative, down 0.8 percent.Bookseller
Canada's Thomas Allen Postpones Spring Until Fall
Similar to the recent move by Atlas & Co., Canada’s Thomas Allen Publishers is “postponing” most of their planned spring 2009 releases until the fall. The company “generally releases only 10 to 12 books per year,” the National Post notes. President Jim Allen says, “We are postponing a few of our spring titles due to the fact that we’re not ready to publish them. This happens from time to time in book publishing for a variety or reasons, and given the literary nature of our list and the economic climate we’re in, we have to be absolutely certain that we […]
There is Good News–In Canada, and Currency Markets
BookNet Canada, which tracks point-of-sale data covering approximately 75 percent of the market, says that for the four weeks ending November 23, dollar sales rose 2 percent and unit sales rose 4.9 percent, concluding that “Canada might be the only English book market still in positive territory.” Unfortunately, that could be due in part to the relative cheapness of books in Canada compared to the US, with the Canadian dollar still trading at a very low .80 against the US dollar.Release In general, the dollar has retained its recent strength, which for the time being helps lift the performance of […]
Canada's Globe and Mail Changes Book Coverage
This has to be the most artful press release I’ve ever seen about a newspaper eliminating their stand-alone book section. Toronto’s Globe and Mail says at the very end of this exuberant announcement that “the Books section will physically join The Globe’s award-winning Focus section on Saturdays, starting January 10.” Editor-in-chief Ed Greenspon gushes, “The Focus section is one of the most high-profile, best-read sections of the paper so the Books content should reach even more readers.” The main focus of the news in on a Books web site the paper is establishing. Former deputy features editor Peter Scowen, is […]
UK Prize for The Rest Is Noise
A prize a day keeps the blues away. This time last year Alex Ross’s THE REST IS NOISE was making multiple Top 10 lists in the US and now it is the “the clear and undisputed winner” of the Guardian First Book Prize in the UK. Guardian literary editor Claire Armitstead, said: “In some quarters this book has been seen as not having a popular appeal. Our prize – which, uniquely, relies on readers’ groups in the early stages of judging – proves that, on the contrary, there is a huge appetite among readers for clear, serious but accessible books.”Guardian