Yes, Virginia, Norton Will Make Money on the Book The success of Norton’s authorized edition of the 9/11 Commission Report continues to cause befuddlement far and wide. At least today’s NY Times article clears up the notion that the — given their reported sales figures — publisher was going to lose money on the project. Company president Drake McFeely admits that now it’s only a question of whether it, “Will pay something like normal profits or above-average profits.” (Of course Slate’s Explainer still maintains, “There’s no guarantee that Norton will ever make a dime off this particular deal.” Does anyone […]

Norton Reports Big Sales for Report; Orders Second Printing Norton announced a 200,000-copy second printing for the 9/11 Commission Report yesterday. The publisher now estimates that they sold 350,000 copies through Sunday. (The company previously reported opening day sales that started at a low of 75,000 copies and crept up to 150,000 copies.) BN’s Bob Wietrak says the book, “Is flying out of our stores.” Both he and Borders’ Jenie Dahlmann, “Expect sales will slow, but they say the report could remain a best seller given interest in the election and in whether the commission’s recommendations are followed,” USA Today […]

Penguin Strong In US, As Currency and Warehouse Problems Weigh Down Overall Results US sales and profits for the Penguin Group were “up significantly” for the first half of 2004, while worldwide sales for Penguin fell compared to last year and profits dropped. Sales of $627 million for the group were down 7 percent, though the company says results were even on an “underlying” basis. Operating profits fell by 52 percent to $18.4 million (termed a 15 percent “underlying” drop). The company says that, “The weakness of the dollar is the principal reason for the decline in reported profits,” along […]

All Kinds of Jobs Just as busy as our deals page is our terrifically efficient Job Board. With 22 listings in the last 7 days and over 70 in all, we’ve got great openings in all departments and from all over the country. For employers, we provide by far the single-largest audience of book publishing people available online (well over 27,000 a day to be precise) — and we do it at what is by far the lowest price. If you haven’t tried our Job Board since we relocated it to PublishersMarketplace earlier in the year, you’ll be surprised at […]

All Kinds of Jobs Just as busy as our deals page is our terrifically efficient Job Board. With 24 listings in the last 7 days and over 70 in all, we’ve got great openings in all departments and from all over the country. For employers, we provide by far the single-largest audience of book publishing people available online (well over 27,000 a day to be precise) — and we do it at what is by far the lowest price. If you haven’t tried our Job Board since we relocated it to PublishersMarketplace earlier in the year, you’ll be surprised at […]

Please Note I’m out of town with limited access the next couple of days; today’s Lunch is abbreviated, and tomorrow and Wednesday will see something similar or — more likely — no Lunch at all. Links and anything else important will be posted at the PublishersMarketplace home page. People in Tehran Says Nafisi’s Version is “Dated” Azar Nafisi’s READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN “May be a huge bestseller in the United States, but it has yet to be translated into Persian. As a result, almost no Iranians have even heard of the book. Fewer still have read it.” Since Nafisi left […]