Mergers are leaving their mark on the top houses

The nation's largest children's book publishers had a much better 1997 than 1996, according to PW's annual ranking of the top 15 children's publishers. Despite a 1997 market in which sales fell 6%, according to the Association of American Publishers, only one publisher, where year-to-year comparisons could be made, reported a drop in sales in 1997. Most houses reported modest to good gains (sales figures listed cover the most recent fiscal or calendar year).

The top performer last year was Little, Brown. The company, whose children's sales had been hovering around the $20 million mark for the last three years, reported a 77% jump in sales to $34.5 million. The company attributed the strong year to the huge sales of Marc Brown's Arthur books as well as their bestseller, Inside the Titanic. LB moved from 16th place in PW's ranking, to number 12.

The largest children's publisher in 1997 remained Golden Books, where sales held even at approximately $162 million. Increases in sales of its backlist titles were offset by a decline of electronic storybooks.

As predicted in last year's ranking story, the merger of Penguin and Putnam pushed the company into the second spot among children's book publishers, with sales of about $148 million. Integration issues kept the company from topping the $164 million figure that the two companies combined listed in 1996 (both Penguin and Putnam had sales of $82 million in 1996).

With Penguin Putnam occupying the second spot on PW's list, Random House fell to third place, with estimated sales of $128 million. But the merger with Bantam Doubleday Dell, which had sales of about $58 million last year, should make Random House the country's largest children's publisher for 1998.

Sales gains at HarperCollins last year were driven by Shel Silverstein's Falling Up, originally released in 1996, as well as 16 tie-ins with the movie Anastasia.

Media tie-ins also helped boost sales at Simon &Schuster's children's division, where revenues rose to $95 million. Another contributor to S&S's improved year was the Aladdin paperback line, fueled by paperback editions of books whose rights reverted back to S&S. The S&S sales figure also includes revenues from Pocket's children's and YA lines.

As Golden struggles to hold market share, its major competitor in the low-end book field, Landoll's, had another good year. Although its acquisition by Tribune Co. resulted in a switch in fiscal years and some transition issues, the company finished 1997 with sales of about $90 million.

Scholastic fell from third place in PW's ranking to seventh place as trade sales dropped 15.5%. The decline was largely due to the slowing sales of Goosebumps.

Disney's juvenile publishing program moved up a notch on the strength of steady sales from its backlist as well as from sales of tie-ins to Hercules. Hearst's Morrow and Avon children's imprints managed a modest sales gain in 1997, with most of its imprints reporting some improvement over 1996. DK Publishing's children's trade sales rose about 12% in the year, due to gains in both sales to the book trade and through DK Family Learning, which had sales of $24.7 million last year.

Houghton Mifflin's nearly 14% sales increase was the result of strong frontlist sales, growth in its paperback program and higher sales from its aggressive backlist promotion. Number 14 Harcourt Brace's children's revenues moved up 1.5% in the year.

Candlewick, which had a sales gain of 59% in 1996, saw sales inch ahead last year to $21.5 million. The company is expecting a satisfactory year in 1998, but anticipates a much better 1999.