Hachette Results Fall On Meyer Comps, As eBooks Reach 20 Percent

PublishersLunch

Lagardere reported sales for the first half of the year, with Lagardere Publishing recording declines in both sales and profits. Sales of 900 million euros were down 7.7 percent on a reported basis, and 6 percent on a like-for-like basis, compared to 975 million euros a year ago. Similarly, EBIT declined to 71 million euros, down from 101 million euros a year ago.

But the company says that "when stripping out the Stephenie Meyer phenomenon, net sales were stable in the US and in the UK" and they "anticipate that the division will resume growth and profitability" in the second half of the year, when the Meyer comps "will no longer be a factor."

US ebook sales were 20 percent of revenues (and digital was 21 percent) and UK ebook sales comprised 8 percent of sales, with 5 percent of all Lagardere Publishing revenues (or 45 million euros) coming from ebooks.

Briefs: JK Rowling Anthology Intro; USA Today Fall Books Preview; and More

JK Rowling will write the foreword to Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self, edited by Joseph Galliano (Atria) which will be released on October 25. In the foreword Rowling writes that she was touched by the letters' "commonality ... Nearly everyone who wrote, whether their letter is jolly or poignant, seems to have looked back on their younger selves with compassion." A portion of the book's proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.
USA Today

Speaking of USA Today, their Fall Books Preview highlights 31 titles, with special emphasis on upcoming, much-covered titles by Susan Orlean, Colson Whitehead, Lee Child, Brian Selznick, as well as Pottermore.

Chronicle Books president Jack Jensen will receive the 2011 Jack D. Rittenhouse Award for lifetime achievement from PubWest, recognizing "his extraordinary career and his lifetime of work with Chronicle Books that has shaped and inspired the book publishing community." Jensen will receive the award at PubWest's conference scheduled for November 3-5 in Henderson, NV.

Kobo's German-language Touch eReader will be available for 149 euros as of October 1.
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