Total third quarter sales at Lagardere Publishing fell 7.3%, to 580 million euros, but sales were up at its American subsidiary, Hachette Book Group. Revenue in the U.S. rose 11% driven by sales of The Longest Ride, The Cuckoo’s Calling, Mistress, David and Goliath, and Break Out!. HBG CEO Michael Pietsch is optimistic about the fall list which he called “one of HBG’s strongest ever” with books by Donna Tart, Scott Turow, Malala Yousafzai, David Baldacci, Lemony Snicket, Michael Connelly, and James Patterson.
Worldwide sales were hurt by a decline in both education and trade sales in France and a 21% drop in sales in Spain. In the U.K., sales fell 3.9% due mainly to a “sharp” downturn in results in New Zealand and Australia, Lagerdere reported.
E-book sales were up across the board and accounted for 9.4% of total revenue at Lagardere in the third quarter compared to 6.4% in the third quarter of 2012. In the U.S., e-books represented 27% of trade sales compared to 20% in the third quarter of 2012; in the U.K. e-books jumped to 30% of the adult trade market up from 20% in the third quarter of 2012).
For the first nine months of 2013, total sales at Lagardere Publishing were down 2.2%, to 1.5 billion euros, but were flat excluding the impact of foreign currency translation.
