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BLOOMSBURY IN HARRY POTTER’S 20TH YEAR
J K ROWLING BOOSTED
Strong adult consumer arm sees revenues grow at Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury Group revenues grew by 4% to £75.3m in the six months ending 31st August, up from £72.1m in its previous set of accounts. The indie publisher saw
profit before tax grow by 13% to £2.9m, up from £2.5m, not allowing for associated costs around the acquisition
of I B Tauris—of around £5.8m—in May. In the adult consumer division, revenue was up 22% to £15.9m (from £13m), with crime and thriller imprint Raven Books performing well, the publisher said. Sales of the Harry Potter series grew by 5%, but overall Children’s
sales dipped, by 1.8% to £31.1m.Excluding Harry Potter, Children’s sales were 9% lower, which the publisher attributed to Sarah J Maas publishing two books this year, down from four in the previous comparable period. There was a strong performance from academic and professional, with revenue growth of 9% to £18.0m (from £16.6m). Bloomsbury also
announced the launch of digital resources Screen Studies and Bloomsbury Early Years, as well as a five-year contract with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales (ICAEW), to enable ICAEW members to access its online UK tax and financial reporting. The deal will help the firm “further leverage our professional content on new digital platforms,” chief executive Nigel Newton said.
volume 3.55m Rights deal
Secret Barrister to return with Picador Picador has bought another book from the anonymous author of The Secret Barrister. The as-yet untitled new book promises to “reveal the stupidity, malice and incompetence behind many of the biggest legal stories of recent years”, with publication slated for spring 2020. The author will cross-examine the evidence to build what is billed as a hilarious and alarming defence against the abuse of law, human rights and democracy. Editor Kris Doyle top signed UK and Commonwealth rights from Aitken Alexander’s Chris Wellbelove.
WEEK ON WEEK 4.2%
Book of the Week
Weekly TCM
This week’s most read
Milkman by Anna Burns wins Man Booker Prizer
Rights deal
Strout’s Olive returns Viking will publish a new novel from Elizabeth Strout, Olive, Again, in September 2019. Venetia Butterfield bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Denise Cronin at Random House US, as part of a two-book deal. Olive, Again will pick up where Strout’s novel Olive Kitteridge left off, and follow the next decade of her heroine’s life. Strout also wrote My Name is Lucy Barton, the theatre adaptation of which returns to the Bridge Theatre, London, in the New Year.
TheBookseller.com
Maramenides to leave S&S Children’s in early 2019
Hodder withdraws sociology textbook
Alexandra Maramenides has resigned from her position of managing director of Simon & Schuster Children’s to relocate to Australia. She will leave the company in spring 2019. Chief executive and publisher
Ian Chapman said: “It is with great sadness that I announce that Alex Maramenides will be leaving Simon & Schuster UK. But it is for a wonderful reason that Alex is forsaking 222 Gray’s Inn Road. She isn’t crossing town to join another publisher, but is flying back to Australia, to Melbourne, to follow her heart. Alex is to be married next year to her long-term partner—so of course it has proved impossible to persuade her to stay with us. “We have some time to plan
ALEXANDRA MARAMENIDES IS DEPARTING S&S TO EMIGRATE
for Alex’s departure, which will be early next spring. I am deeply appreciative for the valuable part
Byng snaps up tale of ex-publisher’s drugs battle
that Alex has played at Simon & Schuster UK. We warmly congrat- ulate her on her engagement and wish her and her partner every happiness together and success in the future.” Before joining S&S in 2016,
Maramenides worked for the Bonnier Group in Australia as m.d. across two companies. She said: “I would like to thank
Simon & Schuster, in particular Ian Chapman and Carolyn Reidy, for an amazing three years. I am thoroughly enjoying building the success of our dynamic business and working with our bestselling authors and illustrators. “While I am excited to be
returning to Australia next spring, until then I look forward to continuing to drive our publishing momentum [by encouraging] our teams to deliver results.”
09
Roblox Annual 2019 Egmont, £7.99, 9781405291156 It’s the most wonderful time of the year—yes, already—when the Children’s Non-fiction charts become almost solely devoted to annuals, week-in, week-out, for at least three months. While The Beano Annual 2019 is the current format front- runner, having sold nearly 25,000 copies to date, this year’s plucky upstart is the Roblox Annual 2019, which débuted in the Top 50 last week. The online gaming platform, which has 70 million active users a month, could prove to be this year’s equivalent of 2018’s Pokemon Annual—which sold nearly 100,000 units in 2016—or even hit the heady heights of Minecraft. The 2014 tie-in annual to that game sold more than 300,000 units.
Data The bestseller charts 16
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LATEST NEWS Bookshops campaign for same business rate relief as pubs
Bookshops are asking to be given the same business-rate relief as pubs, arguing they help to drive social cohesion in a similar way to drinking establishments.
Igloo overhaul puts business back on track
Igloo Books, the mass-market children’s books business owned by Bonnier Publishing, has undergone an overhaul thanks to its new chief executive officer, who has affirmed the division’s future profitability.
PLR to cover e-books and audiobooks
The Public Lending Right (PLR) will be extended to cover e-book audiobooks borrowed from libraries from 1st J
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