12.04.13 | Joshua Farrington - The Bookseller In 2012 the company had a turnover of more than £9.6m, a rise of £1.9m (25%) on 2011’s turnover, adjusted for the sale of its 70% share in Australia’s Text Publishing. Canongate’s pretax profits were £974,400 in 2012, up 214% from 2011 (£310,348).
Byng said: “I feel very happy with the results, considering that publishing is not easy in the current conditions, and considering in particular the year we had in 2011. After previously having back-to-back years of growing the business and profits, 2011 was very sobering, for reasons we have dwelled on. It has been good to move past the distraction of Julian Assange and focus on publishing our exceptional books.”
Canongate saw a 19% year-on-year turnover decline in 2011 and reported an operating loss of £406,633. The publisher attributed the poor performance to troubles over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s autobiography.
Byng said: “In 2012 we had five books in the Sunday Times list, which we’ve never achieved before. Having Yann Martel’s Life of Pi go to number one 11 years after it was released is the kind of thing publishers dream of. We knew the film would give it a boost, but we weren’t prepared for the business it did, and continues to do.”
Life of Pi was also sold for 20p on the Kindle for several weeks. Byng said the promotion had been “mind-boggling”, and helped Canongate’s digital sales grow 223.8% year on year, rising from £739,000 to £2.5m. He said: “We saw huge success for Life of Pi and Karl Pilkington’s An Idiot Abroad in the Kindle offer, and it obviously contributed to our success there.
“But we’ve been seeing digital increase across the board on both frontlist and backlist titles—around 25% of sales are coming from digital. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain sold more in ‘e’ than in hardback, and even books like Richard Holloway’s Leaving Alexandria are seeing strong digital sales.”
International sales have also grown, by 34%—from £1.02m to £1.37m. Byng attributed part of the success to distributing through Allen & Unwin in Australia and New Zealand, saying: “They understand our books and have been proactive in promoting the list. It’s one of a number of strong partnerships we have internationally, which continue to get stronger.”
Byng added: “This year has started very well for us too, but we can never be complacent. We have more strong books this year from people like Pilkington, and a début novel from J J Abrams. I feel very positive that we can keep up our performance and make this one of our best years ever.”
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