Bloomsbury U.S. Makes Money

by Jim Milliot, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 4/6/2006

The acquisition of Walker Books helped Bloomsbury's U.S. operation turn a profit in 2005. The U.S. division posted operating profits of about $800,000 last year compared to a loss of approximately $900,000 in 2004. Sales rose 23%, to 11.03 million pounds ($19 million), driven by sales of $6.7 million from Walker, which helped to offset a decline in the Bloomsbury unit where revenue in 2004 was led by hardcover sales of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Total revenue for Bloomsbury, driven by sales in the U.K. of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, rose 29%, to 109 million pounds ($187 million) and pretax profits increased 23%, to 20.1 million pounds.

Among the initiatives planned for 2006 in the U.S. is the launch of a small mass market paperback operation. In partnership with Holtzbrinck's Tor division, Bloomsbury will release the mass market edition of Jonathan Strange this fall, while Faerie Wars, published by Bloombury's children's division, will come out as a mass market aimed at adults. Bloomsbury publisher Karen Rinaldi said the company will do additional mass market editions in 2007 when the right book comes along.

To help deepen its backlist, Bloomsbury has stopped selling trade paperback rights to Walker titles and will publish a new Walker trade paper line later this year. "We're very interested in building our backlist," Rinaldi said. And in another project with Holtzbrinck, Bloomsbury's distributor, the company will begin exporting its U.S. titles to international markets.