Publishing in the Black

I was encouraged by this Publisher's Weekly article showing some of the major houses reporting good results for 2010. The most amazing part of this is how a single author can have a dramatic effect on an entire multi-million dollar publisher - as in the case of Stephanie Meyer and Hachette. The best piece of information in the article was:

While the improvement in the economy helped all publishers in 2010, companies where profits improved all pointed to two main contributing factors—cost controls and skyrocketing e-book sales.

Ebook sales for major houses:

• Random up 250% - 10% of sales in the U.S.


• Penguin up 182% - 6% of Penguin's worldwide


• Simon & Schuster's up 122% - 8% of revenue,


• Hachette Book Group - 10% of HBG's sales last year.