Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and the Hachette Book Group have all made news in recent years with companywide reorganizations. Simon & Schuster, purchased by KKR in late 2023, is now in the midst of a global expansion. Meanwhile, Macmillan—the fifth largest of the Big Five publishers—has quietly been posting record-breaking sales numbers. And in a conversation with Lakeside Book Company CEO Dave McCree at the Book Manufacturers’ Institute’s annual meeting on October 28 in Naples, Fla., Macmillan CEO Jon Yaged said the publisher is enjoying another strong year.
Sales in 2024 to date are up more than 18% over the same period in 2023, Yaged told PW in a follow-up interview. He attributed the growth to strong frontlist sales led by “fabulous results” for Kristin Hannah’s The Women, stronger than expected backlist sales, and gains in digital audio and e-books. Another factor: a strong performance from Macmillan’s distribution group, whose clients include Entangled Publishing, home to Rebecca Yarros’s blockbuster Empyrean series. (A third volume, Onyx Storm, is set to be published in January 2025.)
At the BMI meeting, Yaged told the assembled book manufacturers that Macmillan has doubled the number of print copies it’s sold over the past decade, adding that he remains a firm believer in print, and in the importance of books as objects—a belief exemplified by the company’s recent launch of Fabelistik, a “collectables” business. Yaged also said Macmillan has done more printing in the U.S. in recent years and would like to do more, if the price is right.
Yaged’s remarks on Macmillan’s performance came after the publisher endured a rough period beginning in late 2020, when longtime CEO John Sargent was let go by the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, Macmillan’s parent company. Yaged, who took the Macmillan helm in 2022, succeeding Don Weisberg (who went on to cofound upstart hybrid publisher Authors Equity), said the publisher has entered a period of stability. “We have been right sized for a while now, and that continues to benefit us as we invest for growth,” he noted.
While one motivation in the restructuring by Macmillan’s larger competitors has been to streamline their operations, Yaged said Macmillan’s imprints and divisions have long had their own personalities. “You know a St. Martin’s Press book is different from a Farrar, Straus and Giroux book,” he explained. He’s also grateful that Holtzbrinck is a private company and thus isn’t fixated on meeting quarterly financial targets that public companies must address. “We are investing for the long term,” he added.
As for the long term, Yaged said Macmillan’s investments will remain focused on organic growth rather than acquisitions. Just this year, he pointed out, Macmillan has launched the aforementioned Fabelistik; Saturday Books, an imprint focused on the new adult market; and 23rd Street Books, an adult graphic novels imprint. In February, Macmillan took on the Balzer + Bray children’s imprint, which had previously been housed at HarperCollins, with Alessandra Balzer and Donna Bray building a new list of picture books, middle grade, YA fiction, and graphic novels for Macmillan Children’s Books. And these initiatives follow the success of Bramble, a romance imprint launched last fall by Macmillan’s Tor Publishing Group.
Yaged said he is generally optimistic about the current state of publishing, pointing to the increase in the number of bookstores as one positive sign. He also believes that inventory levels at most accounts are low, which should result in healthy holiday orders.
And while Yaged acknowledged the growing role of quality digital printing, he said he still believes in doing large print runs. With the industry in a period when many accounts are choosing to keep initial orders low, he explained, Macmillan doesn’t want to get caught short when a book takes off. “Things happen quickly,” he said, pointing out that a BookTok influencer’s endorsement, for example, can quickly “set the flywheel spinning.”
Yaged is confident Macmillan can keep its own flywheel spinning—and perhaps even move up in the Big Five rankings. “If our growth initiatives go according to plan, I think fourth is in the cards,” he said. “Maybe third.”
