Dec 4 2008
From Publishers Marketplace : http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6617082.html?q=twilight HarperCollins and Penguin has a pay raise freeze. HC's is in effect until January 1. HC may still be cutting jobs . Macmillan (FSG, St. Martin's Press, Tor) said that he "could not guarantee everyone would have a job going forward" In the good news, Hachette is essentially printing money with the(…)
Dec 3 2008
As part of the 12 days of Christmas, Harlequin is offering a half off sale for all eBooks. Just use the coupon code "HALFOFF" at the Checkout. It's a coupon good for only today. Thanks Sunita for the link. Edited to add some suggestions: I like Helen Brooks, Sara Craven and Susan Napier of(…)
Nov 20 2008
Celebs are getting paid million dollar advances on books that will likely never sell out their advance, but Random House has decided to freeze the pensions of current employees and totally eliminate pension for future hires. The current employees' pensions will no longer grow, however, the existing 401K matching plan of up to 6 percent(…)
Nov 11 2008
Carolyn Reidy addressed publishers at the Evangelical Christian Publisher's Association CEO Symposium and Publishing University in Illinois last week. She stated that because of a combination of things "significant decrease in retail traffic, less consumer purchasing, a gloomy economic forecast, declining backlist sales, brand name authors continuing to sell but 'everything else is far off(…)
Nov 10 2008
PW published an excellent mini Q&A with the major publishers of the day regarding the state of digital publishing. Highlights include: Penguin Group USA's net e-book sales are up 500% over 2007, and we expect e-books to continue to sell strongly. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Our e-book sales are 10 times a month now what they(…)
Nov 5 2008
The numbers in this report is so shocking to me that I still don’t know if I am reading it right. Unrelenting costs pressures combined with a 4.5% decline in sales to drive down first quarter operating profit at HarperCollins to $3 million from $36 million in the last year’s fiscal first period. Revenue(…)
Nov 3 2008
The Scotsman finds that the victor in economic depression is Mills & Boon , the purveyor of romance books, of which one is bought every three seconds. Mills & Boon, celebrating its centenary this month, is enjoying its most successful year to date. We may be tightening our belts, but that doesn't mean that there's(…)
Oct 30 2008
We’ve been reading about authors leaving Bantam, a subdivision of RandomHouse, and now it appears the belt is tightening further. At Doubleday, another subdivision of Random, 16 people or 10% of the workforce have been let go from every area of publishing: editorial, publicity, advertising, marketing and administrative staffs. I’ve read other places that agents(…)
Oct 28 2008
A sign of the economic times or a sign of the dying print media? Hard to say, but Times, Inc. is laying off 6% of its workforce which equals about 600 employees. Time Inc. owns over 24 national magazines and will re-organize those titles into three sections: news, lifestyle and entertainment. I was surprised at(…)
Oct 27 2008
The Canadian dollar is falling to “levels not seen since mid 2005.” Harlequin is based in Canada and it’s economic outlook can be hugely affected by a fluctuating Canadian/U.S. dollar exchange rate. In the past, the decreased value of the US dollar has led to lowered profits so perhaps the increase of the US dollar(…)
Oct 16 2008
I am always fascinated by the vagaries of Playboy Magazine because if porn isn’t successful in print, what can be? According to an article on Gawker, Playboy is laying off 55 people, cutting 80 jobs, and ending DVD production. Instead, Playboy will focus on selling its digital archives and merchandising. I suppose with the rise(…)
Oct 15 2008
There was an article on Gawker the other day that NYTimes is planning to cut 20% of its editorial staff in 2009. I’m not sure what number that translates into but the report goes on to say that most of the cuts will be in the newspaper’s “softer” sections. Is Arts & Leisure a “softer”(…)
Oct 15 2008
I chatted with an author the other day who mentioned how grateful she was to be at a certain point in her career given the economy. Looking at the news this morning, I am thinking she might be doubly grateful. According to the New York Observer, publishing is tightening its belt and if you don’t(…)
Oct 13 2008
Ask anyone with a business degree and they’ll tell you that the business publishing model is broken. For example, isn’t it crazy that unsold goods get to be returned for credit? What other business model allows for the manufacturer to shoulder all the risk? It’s either time to change or watch the traditional publishing industry(…)
Oct 11 2008
I’ve been keeping a worksheet this year to track the trends of book sales for the calendar year of 2008. It’s been interesting to see how individual categories of books have sold over the year. The biggest gains have been achieved by ebooks. Even though ebooks haven’t broke into the mainstream, ebook sales are growing(…)
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