The AAP’s July StatShot report shows another good month for trade publishers. Sales of $705 million were up 9.3 percent from $645 million a year ago (which was a very strong month). The gains came entirely from a jump in trade paperback sales: Adding $35 million in adult books, and $27 million in children’s and YA books. Digital audio sales of $58.9 million were up less than 6 percent ($3.1 million), and ebook sales of $82.7 million were down more than 15 percent from $98.1 million a year ago.
International News
Harper UK to Buy Pavilion Books
Harper Collins UK will acquire Pavilion Books, including six of its imprints: Collins & Brown, Pavilion, Portico, Robson, National Trust and Pavilion Children’s. Pavilion owner and publisher Polly Powell will keep two imprints, Batsford and Pitkin, and operate under the name BT Batsford. (That’s the previous name, under which Batsford operated until going into receivership in 1999, with Chrysalis Books buying their assets. Chrysalis became Anova, when then became Pavilion.) The deal is expected to close on November 30. Executive publisher Lisa Milton will oversee Pavilion’s adult non-fiction, which will become part of the HQ and Mills & Boon division. […]
Imprints: Bonnier Books UK Adds “Mission-Oriented” Line
Bonnier Books UK will launch Footnote Press in early 2022, “an independently run, disruptive publisher” planning on 10 to 15 books a year of “stimulating and politically-engaged fiction and non-fiction.” Former co-owner and business development director at the radical publishing collective Zed Books Vidisha Biswas is managing director, reporting to ceo Perminder Mann. Video games and esports industry veteran Sujoy Roy is a co-founder, “using his digital skills to drive customer conversion and retention, and exploring new ways of aiding discoverability through gamification.” Mann says in the announcement: “I was blown away by Vidisha and Sujoy’s vision for Footnote Press, […]
France Passes Legislation Requiring Minimum Shipping Rate
French parliament has passed, but not enacted, a law requiring a minimum shipping fee for books, Reuter’s reports. The legislation is clearly aimed at Amazon, which charges as little as one cent for shipping, after France banned free shipping in 2014 in an attempt to level the playing field with independent bookstores.
Awards: Governor General’s and Cundhill Finalists
Two big Canadian literary prizes announced their nominees. The Governor General’s awards named English-language nominees in seven categories, including Fiction, where the field includes Rachel Cusk’s SECOND PLACE. Winners will be revealed on November 17. The Cundhill History Prize named their nominees as well (with the winner to be announced December 2.)
Frankfurt Deal Trends Show Good Activity, But Lag Last Year’s Records
Recently we reported on third-quarter dealmaking trends in the US, with a relatively strong performance falling a little below last year’s big quarter — just as Bookscan-monitored print sales have been strong but ebbing a little in comparison to 2020. We also flagged a falloff in debut fiction sales. Now we turn to another of our longstanding comparisons, looking at dealmaking in the shorter “pre-Frankfurt” window of the last five weeks plus two days. (Frankfurt is a week later than usual this year, so our count includes one extra, starting the Monday after Labor Day; the last longer season like […]