The release late last week of HarperCollins's results for the first quarter of fiscal 2006 capped a busy period of sales and earnings reports from many of the key players in trade publishing. The Time Warner Book Group and HarperCollins—which had a 7.4% increase in its third quarter—appear to have had the best period. Earlier this month, S&S reported that sales were down 6% in the quarter, while revenue at Penguin was about even with the comparable period in 2004. Bertelsmann had little to say about the performance of its divisions in the period, noting only that profits were up in most subsidiaries.
HC president Jane Friedman is looking forward to a big fourth quarter. In particular, HC's children's division should see solid gains over the holidays, driven by sales of Narnia books, plus Lemony Snicket and Shel Silverstein titles. Friedman noted that on October 3, HC shipped more than $19 million worth of children's books, a company record. Houghton Mifflin, which had a 2.2% decline in its trade and reference group in the quarter, is hoping the release of the movie Zathura, based on the Chris Van Allsburg book, will boost several tie-ins. HM is also looking for big things from Buzz Bissinger's Three Nights in August and expects sales of cookbooks to pick up in the quarter.
Strong sales in its general books group drove the gains in the second period of fiscal 2006 at Thomas Nelson, and president Michael Hyatt expects a solid second half of the year. Max Lucado's Cure for the Common Life, John Maxwell's 360 Degree Leaderand The Great Physician Rxby Jordan Rubin are expected to do well around the holidays, but Nelson's biggest book will come early in calendar 2006: Billy Graham's The Journey: Living by Faith in an Uncertain World, which has a 300,000-copy first printing.
