On Wednesday WH Smith issued a short trading notice in advance of their annual results on August 31, saying the report will be “in line with expectations.” Simple enough. That release inspired an equally short but potentially confusing Bloomberg piece that declares, “In the era of Facebook and Twitter, a British newspaper seller pre-dating Queen Victoria is providing bigger gains for investors than modern technology. Over the last five years, WH Smith shares have eclipsed an index that also includes Apple and Google, even as its sales have maintained a steady decline.” Yes, WH Smith’s stock rose sharply between January […]
International News
Merchandise Sales Lift Indigo
Canadian “book, gift and specialty toy retailer” Indigo reported results for their fiscal first quarter, ending July 2. Sales rose 4.4 percent, or $8.2 million, to $193.1 million for the quarter, “driven mainly by the continued double digit growth of key general merchandise categories.” Book sales were up on a same-store basis, but flat overall because they operated one less superstore and three fewer small-format stores than a year ago. Online sales rose 3.8 percent, to $24.9 million. Their net loss was the same, at $9 million. Since a year ago, general merchandise has grown to 34.1 percent of sales (from 30.6 percent) as print has ebbed […]
People: Hugh Van Dusen Retires, and More
Longtime Harper vp, executive editor Hugh Van Dusen will retire from the company on August 30 “after an astonishing 60 years with HarperCollins.” He first joined what was then Harper & Brothers on June 21, 1956 and helped launch Torch Books, later becoming closely involved with the Perennial paperback imprint and rising to his current position in 1990. Among van Dusen’s authors were Jacques Barzun, Fernand Braudel, Robert Bly, James Hillman, Robert Remini, Trevor Corson, and Harper Lee (including her estate). “It may sound too eccentric or romantic to be believed, but there have been very few mornings in the […]
Briefs: Pocket Constitution Sales Rise After Khan Speech; A Local Line for S&S India; and More
Khizr Khan’s speech at the Democratic National Convention has boosted distribution of the US Constitution. A $1 Pocket Constitution published by The National Center for Constitutional Studies — similar to the one Khan displayed during his speech, but not the same edition — moved 45,000 copies on Amazon between Saturday morning and Monday night, spokesperson Dan Sheridan told the WSJ. After announcing they would give free copies of their pocket Constitution until Election Day, the American Civil Liberties Union says it has received approximately 80,000 orders. Little Brown celebrated the recent launch of James Patterson’s BookShots with a press release declaring he “has ignited a […]
Briefs: Cooke International Bought Out By Its Agents; Hachette Titles on Tapas App
In Canada, Suzanne Brandreth and Ron Eckel are now full owners of The Cooke Agency International, the foreign rights branch of The Cooke Agency, after both being responsible for its day-to-day operations for the past three years. Dean Cooke and Sally Harding will remain owners of the originating agency, and will continue to personally represent their extensive list of authors. Brandreth and Eckel will continue to represent their own authors through The Cooke Agency as well as all their clients at Cooke International. Tapas Media, a mobile app offering bite-size content from books and comics, has partnered with Hachette Book […]
People, Etc.
At Franklin & Siegal Associates, Danny Yanez has been promoted to director of adult scouting. In addition, both Nicole Sohl and Joshua LaMorey have joined as literary scouts. Sohl was most recently associate editor at Thomas Dunne Books and Macmillan Entertainment, while LaMorey was previously a literary scout at Barbara Tolley & Associates. Zaneta Jung has joined Chronicle Books as assistant editor. Previously she was an assistant editor, children’s books at Sterling. Politics & Prose has promoted Liz Hottel to director of events, succeeding Susan Coll, who is taking a leave of absence to focus on other projects. In addition, […]