Anyone even remotely interested in book publishing knows who the Big Five trade publishers are—if not necessarily in what order they rank. For the record, Penguin Random House sold the most units through NPD BookScan outlets last year, followed by HarperCollins. Simon & Schuster was in third place; last week, S&S reported that its worldwide revenue was $767 million in 2016, down 1.8% from 2015. The Hachette Book Group was #4 in units sold in 2016, a total that includes units from the Perseus Books Group, which Hachette bought last March. Macmillan rounded out the top five.
 
What is more of a mystery is which is the sixth-largest trade house. The company that finished behind the Big Five in 2016, based on unit sales made at retailers that report to BookScan, was Scholastic.
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