WH Smith presented the market with a pleasant surprise, reporting sales of 1.352 million pounds, up 4 percent for the year, with profits rising 15 percent to 76 million pounds, above analysts’ expectations. Like-for-like book sales were “flat excluding the impact of last year’s Harry Potter release” (aka “down”). “Gross margin was up year on year. We were pleased with our share performance versus the general high street,” the company said. And among their travel stores, “extended books charts, improved display of chart titles and strong promotions have contributed to our books performance and we have also seen an encouraging […]
International News
UK Publishers Think Thrifty
We’re headed into uncharted waters in gauging the effect of economic crisis on the consumer publishing business, and the Guardian looks for some signs. UK chain Waterstone’s “has seen 200% increases in sales of two titles about keeping chickens in recent weeks.” And Weidenfeld & Nicolson publishing director Alan Samson is looking for threads of string: “Books on saving string, thrift in World War Two – publishers would be well advised to check out their backlist and see if they’ve got these sorts of books.” More broadly, Viking editorial director Joel Rickett says, “We’re thinking more widely about the kind […]
Bertram's Stabilizes?
Managing director of UK wholesaler Bertram’s Michael Neil assures the Bookseller that “conversations have concluded and we are now trading normally” with publishers following the cancellation of some credit insurance policies for their parent company Woolworth’s. But since the company never acknowledged a problem in the first place (“From our perspective and from our customers’ there hasn’t been any disruption to our service. Our warehouse is full of books and sales have been better than ever”) that’s only worth a certain amount. The financial condition of Woolworth’s a whole remains perilous. Separately, the FT reports today (and Woolworth’s confirms) that […]
Surprise Giller Nominees
“Gasps of surprise” greeted yesterday’s announcement of the nominees for Canada’s Giller Prize, since many of the nominees are little-known. They are: Anthony De Sa’s debut story collection, Barnacle LoveMary Swan’s first novel, The Boys in the TreesMarina Endicott’s debut Good to a Fault (from new publisher Freehand Books)Joseph Boyden’s Through Black SpruceRawi Hage’s Cockroach National Post
Amazon's UK POD Play
In April Amazon UK said they had “no plans” to bring BookSurge’s print-on-demand services to the UK, but they also hedged their bets by noting “we do not comment on future plans.” Now they have very concrete plans for a POD program, and the company says publishers who will participate include Harper UK, Cambridge University Press, Wiley, and Faber & Faber. Their ambition, according to vp of media Chris North, is “to bring hundreds of thousands of books to Amazon.co.uk’s customers that might never have otherwise been available.” The company has not disclosed their vendor for the printing, which will […]
Vodafone UK Launches Mobile Books
Vodafone UK is launching a program to provide books on cellphones starting today in association with GoSpoken.com, run by Toby Lynch and author Andy McNab. The company says they have over 2,500 books available for download. Originally designed to play as audiobooks, the site says that they are adding the ability to read titles via the phone screen as well. Charges go directly to the user’s cellphone bill with a “one-click” purchase model. Titles are expected to cost between 5 pounds and 15 pounds each. A story in the Times says GoSpoken has “signed up every leading publisher in Britain, […]