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Where the Major Papers Stand
The recession, combined with the boom in readers turning away from print and to the Web, was a one-two-punch that forced most major American newspapers to cut back their book review coverage—or drop their review sections altogether
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Podcast: PW's Week Ahead for Friday, February 24
In her weekly review of PW reviews, Rose Fox brings word of “a completely G-rated romance.”
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Tracking Amazon: Kindle Favors Fiction, Physical Favors Nonfiction in Movers & Shakers
Amazon's Movers & Shakers, the ranking of books that see the biggest sales increase in the past 24 hours, is dominated by fiction titles on the Kindle side and nonfiction titles on the physical side.
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Tracking Amazon: Preorders Still Favor Hardcovers
One area that Amazon's physical bestseller list still trumps the Kindle bestseller list is in preorders.
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Tracking Amazon: Changes at the Top of the Bestseller List
Though mainstays like The Hunger Games series and Steve Jobs are still selling, there are a few newcomers to the Amazon Top 10, including the new #1 book: Yes! Energy: The Equation to Do Less, Make More by Loral Langemeier.
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11% of Students Rent Textbooks, New BISG Study Finds
The first part of Volume Two of BISG's "Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education" has been released, finding that students want more value at lower prices from their textbooks.
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S&S Makes Changes to Royalty Format
Simon & Schuster has sent a letter to its authors touting some changes to the way it presents its royalty statement. The house claims the new format "flows more logically" while noting that "of course, the method by which royalties are calculated has remained unchanged."
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Savannah Book Festival Wraps Record Fifth Year
The Savannah Book Festival this past week—from Brad Thor’s Wednesday night dinner to Sunday’s closing ceremony with Stephen King—was another success for the 115 volunteers who make the fest a reality.
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Educational Distributor and Publisher Launches in St. Louis
The founder of school book distributor Knowledge Industries starts the Classroom Library Co., an educational distributor and publisher for K-8.
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News Briefs: Week of February 20, 2012
Open Road, George Deny ‘Wolves’ Charges and more.
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Disney to Hachette
Disney Book Group, Hyperion Books, and Marvel have signed a preliminary agreement to move to the Hachette Book Group for book distribution services.
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Profits Rise Again at Simon & Schuster
Since e-books first became a meaningful part of a publisher’s business in 2009, results at Simon & Schuster have followed a familiar pattern—a decline in revenue but an increase in earnings. Between 2009 and 2011, total sales at S&S dipped 0.7%, but adjusted operating income has jumped 84%. Margins at the company improved from 5.8% in 2009 to 10.8% last year. And despite revenue falling by almost $100 million since 2007, S&S’s earnings and operating margins are almost the same as they were five years ago.
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Bringing Synergy Back
The word synergy, in the world of book publishing, feels like a term that died in the ’90s. Back then, almost every publisher housed within a media conglomerate was touting the ways it would use its TV-making or movie-making sister companies to sell books. Fox would boost HarperCollins. Viacom/CBS would boost Simon & Schuster. Not much came of all that talk. But Ellen Archer, president and publisher of Hyperion, is reviving synergy. In fact, Archer thinks it will be one of the keys to the success of her house in 2012.
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Top Cow Looks Back to Go Forward
Top Cow Productions, having survived for two decades as a comics publisher, is mixing it up, experimenting with genres and crossover series, as well as rebranding. And of course, digital delivery is a big part of it.
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Frances Coady Out as Picador Restructures
Frances Coady, who has been overseeing Macmillan's Picador imprint since 2000, is leaving the company. PW has learned that Coady will be stepping down on March 2.
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John Wiley Acquires Inscape Holdings
John Wiley has acquired Inscape Holdings, parent company of Inscape Publishing, for $85 million.
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Podcast: PW's Week Ahead for Friday, February 17
Organized by the iconoclastic technology publishing house O’Reilly Media, the annual “Tools of Change” conference offers a stage for what PW’s Andrew Albanese calls, “a classic clash of traditional publishing institutions and new technology.
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Facts & Figures: Deadline Extended, New Threshold for Adult E-books
For our March 19 issue, in which we compile 2011 book sales figures from publishers in hardcover, paperback, and e-books, we are extending the deadline for submissions to Feb. 22 and also upping the threshold for adult e-books to 25,000, from 10,000. The threshold of children’s and YA titles remains 10,000 for e-books.
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Request for Sales Figures
Publishers Weekly is once again getting ready to compile its annual bestseller list based on publishers’ sales reports in four categories: hardcovers; paperbacks (including mass market and trade paper), and e-books. The children's department is also compiling list. This information will be printed in a Special Report on 2011 Facts & Figures in the March 19 issue. We need to hear from you no later than Friday, February 22.
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