bookpublishing

Although I said News & Rumors would be biweekly in the “every two weeks” sense, it may turn into twice a week! All because I suddenly have time to read my PW Daily emails. But first half sales are out and it’s always interesting to see who else in the industry is floundering (sorry guys).

Borders reported its sales yesterday. They were surprisingly not dismal. Publisher’s Weekly reported yesterday:

While Borders’s operating loss rose slightly from $21.0 million to $23.1 million, its loss from continuing operations was cut to $11.3 million from $18.1 million. The loss was less than expected by Wall Street analysts, giving a bump to Borders’s stock price. During the quarter, the company sold its Australia/New Zealand/Singapore business and applied the proceeds to help cut its debt, which was reduced to $465.7 million compared to $738.4 million a year ago. Total sales, however, fell 6.9%, to $749.2 million.

Wow, that’s a lot of numbers. The skinny is that they didn’t lose as much as expected, hence stock going up. As my company’s publisher announced delightedly, “Borders might last the week!”

Random House also reports that their sales fell 8% in the first half of 2008. “We have much catching up to do from September through December to reach our ambitious targets,” CEO Markus Dohle wrote. High selling titles this year include The Appeal and Audition as well as two Barack Obama titles, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. Interesting to note after my e-book post yesterday, Dohle notes that “sales for e-books are already more than double the total for all of 2007,” although e-books are a very small source of income for the company.

Whether you’re a bookseller or publisher who’s affected, sales are always down the year after a Harry Potter book comes out, and they’re all mourning the loss of that series.

As a follow up to recent news that Virgin Comics closed, CEO Sharad Devarajan confirmed and said that the company is “restructuring” and will relocate to new and as yet unspecified offices in Los Angeles. “The decision to scale down the New York operations and concentrate on core activities is due to the current macro-economic downturn.”

So that’s all fairly depressing. Let’s talk about how many great things were on television yesterday. Red Sox killed the Yankees, 11-3 (they’re playing the third game of the series, 2-2 now). Bill Clinton had a fantastic speech at the DNC, Joe Biden had a very important and heartfelt speech to follow (including a tearjerking introduction from his son, Beau), and then Obama showed up to be cute and spontaneous. I can’t wait to see the speech tonight!

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