Children's/YA Sales Rose 13% in 2012

Total sales in the children's/young adult segment rose 13.0% in 2012, to $3.70 billion, according to figures released by BookStats.

Trade Sales Rose 6.9% in 2012

Trade book sales rose 6.9%, to $15.05 billion, in 2012, according to figures released by BookStats, the Association of American Publishers/Book Industry Study Group statistics program.

HBG Sales Up 14.9% in First Quarter

Revenue at Lagardère Publishing rose 6.6% in the first quarter ended March 31 compared to the first period of 2012, with sales up to 419 million euros.

HMH Cuts Loss, Trade Sales Up

Total sales inched up at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the first quarter ended March 31, 2013, rising 0.8%, to $166.6 million, and its net loss was cut to $137.4 million from $225.3 million in the comparable period in 2012.

Berean Chain Pleased with Sales

Berean Christian Stores likes its comp sales figures as it completes a systems overhaul.

Harlequin First Quarter Revenues Drop

Blaming the “unfavourable effect” of a transition to higher digital royalty rates for authors as well as the tough overall global economy, Harlequin reported revenues of $102.5 million for the first quarter of 2013, down $4.1 million from the same period in 2012.

Industry Stocks: April Performers

Sales Down, Profits Up at Simon & Schuster

Profits at Simon & Schuster rose 20% in the first quarter ended March 31 compared to a year ago, despite a 3% decline in sales.

Penguin Has 'Good Start,' Quarto Sales Dip

In “trading updates” issued last Friday in the U.K., Pearson reported that Penguin had a “good start” to the year, while Quarto Group reported that first quarter sales fell 6%, to $32 million and operating profit fell to $544,000 from $666,000.

North America Media Sales Rose 14% at Amazon

Amazon’s sales rose 22% in the first quarter, to $16.07 billion, but net income fell 37%, to $87 million. As Amazon expands, books and even Kindles are becoming a smaller part of its overall business.

Trade Up, Industry Down in 2012, StatShot Shows

Sales were up for both the adult trade and children’s/YA trade segments in 2012, but revenue for the entire industry fell 2.2%, to $14.90 billion at the 1,193 companies that report to AAP’s StatShot program.

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Profits Jumped 75% at Random House

Random House parent company Bertelsmann announced that worldwide revenue at RH rose 22.5%, to 2.14 billion euros in 2012, while operating EBIT skyrocketed 75.6% to 325 million euros.

AAP Monthly StatShot, November

Scholastic Suffers from Hunger Pains

With sales of the Hunger Games trilogy falling even more than expected in the quarter ended February 28 compared to a year ago, Scholastic reported that revenue for the company fell 18.5%, to $380.5 million, while the net loss deepened to $20.1 million from $10.3 million.

Big November for Mass Market Paperback

Overall sales for the adult trade segment rose 2.3% in the month as the much-troubled mass market paperback segment had 75.5% leap in sales, to $38.2 million.

Quarto Embarks on Transitional Year

With sales and earnings down slightly in 2012, new Quarto Group chief executive Marcus Leaver said his focus in 2013 will be to reduce debt and build a foundation to allow him to create a "new Quarto" in 2014.

Nelson Lifts HarperCollins Again

HarperCollins EBITDA in the second quarter ended December 31, 2012 rose 24%, to $51 million, while sales at HC increased 18%, to $377 million, from $319 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2012.

Profits Up at Lagardere Publishing, But Slip at HBG

Earnings before interest and taxes rose slightly in 2012 at Lagardere Publishing, from 221 million euros to 223 million euros. Profits in Lagardere’s U.S. subsidiary, Hachette Book Group, fell in the year.

Wiley Looks to Cut $80 Million in Costs

In reporting third quarter results for the period ended January 31, John Wiley & Sons announced further plans to change its operations and cut costs by $80 million to accommodate the transition from print to digital.