2009 a Record-Breaking Year for Hachette
Lagardere Publishing, which includes Hachette Book Group, delivered an all-time record performance in 2009, parent company Lagardere SCA reported. The publishing group's total earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased 24 percent to approximately 455 million dollars.
The majority of this approximately 87-million-dollar gain came from the United States, boosted by the success of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" saga, according to a Lagardere press release. The success of several other Hachette titles—including Senator Edward Kennedy's "True Compass," Paul Young's "The Shack" and James Patterson's "I, Alex Cross"—also contributed to last year's growth.
In Lagardere CEO Arnaud Lagardere's presentation to analysts and investors this week, he prefaced his discussion of the publishing group's results with a thank you, saying to the audience, "If you want to stand up and break out the champagne, now is the time!" He also said that the acquisition of Time Warner Book Group was "one of the best acquisitions the company has ever made."
Overall, 2009 was a record-breaking year for Hachette Book Group, in terms of revenue, EBIT and best-sellers. A total of 130 Hachette titles hit the New York Times best-seller list (up from 107 in 2008), with 24 reaching No 1.
BookExpo and Above the Treeline Partner to Create Online Catalog
BookExpo America (BEA) officials announced a new cooperative venture with Above the Treeline, a provider of business intelligence tools to the publishing industry, to create an online catalog of new titles on exhibit at BEA. Called Books@BEA, participation in the online catalog will be free to all book publishers exhibiting at the New York event, which will be held at the Javits Center in New York City on May 25-27.
Books@BEA will be created using Edelweiss, a new Above the Treeline Internet-based service that supplements or replaces traditional print catalogs. Edelweiss was formally launched at BEA last year and now is comprised of approximately 350 active catalogs containing more than 30,000 active titles from nearly 600 publishers and their respective imprints.
"We're thrilled to debut Books@BEA because it's yet another added value to both attendees and exhibitors, and demonstrates BEA's commitment to keeping pace with the evolution of the industry," notes Steve Rosato, event director, BEA, Reed Exhibitions. "Our partnership with Above the Treeline will make it easier for booksellers and the media to find exciting new titles and authors, and for publishers to promote and sell their books."
Participation in Books@BEA will be limited to new titles. Access by catalog readers—booksellers, librarians, the press and anyone who wants to know more about new titles—is also free and open to all, but will require registration. For titles from publishers that are not current Edelweiss customers, Books@BEA will be open to catalog readers for a limited period preceding and following the event. For further information on how you can participate in Books@BEA, email booksatbea@abovethetreeline.com.
Bloomberg and Wiley Announce Exclusive Book Publishing Partnership
Bloomberg LP and John Wiley & Sons Inc. announced that Wiley will be the exclusive global publisher of Bloomberg- and Bloomberg Businesweek-branded books under its Bloomberg Press imprint, which was established in 1996. Wiley intends to publish the content using all media platforms including print, e-books and digital.
According to a press release issued by the two companies, Wiley and Bloomberg will work closely to extend the Bloomberg and Businessweek brands to long-form content in books and other formats. "With Wiley as the new global publisher and distributor of Bloomberg titles, Bloomberg and Wiley will leverage the core strengths of the Bloomberg Press imprint and bring an unparalleled selection of titles for business leaders, finance and market professionals and academia," the press release stated.
“We are proud of the great books we have published and hope to continue to grow the Bloomberg Press imprint further,” says Bloomberg News Editor-In-Chief Matthew Winkler. “As one of the foremost book publishers for professionals, Wiley is the ideal custodian of the Bloomberg and Bloomberg Businessweek brands, and we are delighted with this new relationship.”
" … The relationship takes advantage of our strength in sales, publicity and marketing, and combines with the power of the Bloomberg brand in a way that will maximize exposure for the authors and content globally,” says Stephen Kippur, executive vice president and president—professional and trade publishing, Wiley.
Making Textbooks Less Expensive and More Relevant
By Heather FletcherRight around the time major news outlets were reporting on student protests regarding tuition hikes, a new kind of textbook publisher was letting scholars know that they'd heard their cries for lower textbook costs. Less expensive, customized, relevant books now are available, announced DynamicBooks, a subsidiary of Macmillan Publishing.
The Feb. 22 announcement of DynamicBooks' formation indicated that not only could students buy cheaper textbooks in whichever channel they preferred, but that the content could be updated almost in real time. For instance, the chemical element Copernicium, which was named in February, already is included in DynamicBooks' textbooks. Previously, the process of including chemical element 112 in textbooks may have taken years.
Clancy Marshall, general manager of DynamicBooks, spoke with Book Business Extra about the launch.
Book Business Extra: What goals do you have for DynamicBooks?
Clancy Marshall: Our goal for DynamicBooks is to create a platform that can bring together students, instructors and authors, and do a better job of meeting the needs of all three groups. For instructors, we're bringing them greater flexibility in rearranging content for their courses. And we're offering the instructors complete customization ability, so they can actually go in and edit and rewrite any section of the text to make it completely current and relevant for their students.
There are other e-book platforms that enable instructors to highlight or annotate the textbooks. The difference with DynamicBooks is that the instructors can actually go in and rewrite sections or create questions. They can write questions into the textbook, and they can bring their Dynamic Book into class with them. They can access it on a mobile device or on their laptop. As they're talking about an issue in class, they can explain the material to students. And then they can actually correct the explanation in the textbook to make it exactly match up with what they've told students in class. ... It's not instant, but it is within 24 hours. So if an instructor is making changes in the classroom, by the time the student goes home to study … they will be able to access those changes. ... I think that it makes the textbook a vehicle for instructors and students to communicate, which is not how textbooks have been used in the past.
For students, the relevance is also a huge benefit, in that—when we've conducted focus groups and talked with students about their concerns about existing textbooks and e-books—one of their biggest complaints is they feel like the textbook isn't relevant to what the instructor is teaching in the course. And so they don't see the purpose in spending money on something that's not directly related to what their instructor is saying. This enables them to have a text that is directly related to what they're learning in class. In addition to that, we're offering them something that's lower priced, and we're giving them more accessibility. DynamicBooks can be accessed online, or they can be downloaded, or they can even be accessed via iPhone.
… For authors, we're enabling them to actually be in touch with the community of instructors, who are working with their text, to build a better book. ...
Extra: How will this approach address the high price points for textbooks?
Marshall: We're working with a number of different publishers … [who] are providing the content for the DynamicBooks platform … to keep the price point low. DynamicBooks also enables them to avoid unnecessary revisions. So publishers can spend less money to provide the books because instructors are constantly revising and updating [them].
... We're also giving students flexibility in deciding what they want to pay for. They could buy just the digital DynamicBook, which would give them access online, and they could download it. They could also print it page by page, and they can access it on their iPhone. Or, they have the option of purchasing a printed, bound, black-and-white version if they don't want to spend the money for a full-color, printed, bound text. We're trying to make sure that we're giving students a lot of options. ... Let's say they're using a psychology book, and the instructor says, "OK, I'm going to customize ... this psychology book ... .' Then that instructor gets a unique URL to give to their students, and their students can go right online and buy the digital version. The instructor also gets a unique ISBN so the student ... can purchase that book from the bookstore, or they could purchase that book from any online retailer. They would just plug in the ISBN, and they can purchase it from anywhere. ...
Extra: How does this model combat digital piracy?
Marshall: ... Piracy arises when the customer feels like what they're paying for is too high priced. I think that students, as a result of feeling like textbooks are priced too high, may have tried to find pirated versions that they can purchase for less. I think that the great thing about DynamicBooks is that it addresses the two issues that I think are problematic with textbooks today. One is that they're priced too high for the students. DynamicBooks, on average, are going to be about 40 percent to 50 percent of the price of a traditional book. It also addresses this idea that textbooks aren't worth paying for. It's not like you can just go online and find a pirated version that would include your instructor's individual edits and notes. ...
Publishers Want to Charge More for E-books ... But Will Consumers Pay It?
By Janet SpavlikI just returned from an incredible vacation to Colorado. It was the first time I traveled with my Nook, which, of course, is one of the great benefits of an e-reader—it’s portability. I tend to be a, shall we say, slightly heavy packer (OK, I’ll admit it, my suitcase was just shy of 50 lbs., but I still contend that every one of those pairs of shoes was essential), so it was a relief not to have to lug one or two cumbersome print books along, too. And from my admittedly limited, unscientific perspective (that is, seat 18D on the plane ride out to Denver), it appears e-reader use is indeed increasingly—in addition to my Nook, I spotted two Kindles in my direct vicinity.
Even if e-readers are becoming more commonplace, I still notice that anytime an e-reader is spotted out in the wild, so to speak, it always attracts a lot of attention. People are curious: "What is it? What does it do? Do you like it? How much does it cost? How much do the books cost?"
This last question sparked a lengthy conversation amongst me and a few of my fellow airplane mates, including a debate over just how much e-books should cost. As with similar conversations I’ve had in the past, I found that many consumers believe that if you strip away the physical book, you strip away most of the cost. One person I was speaking with even said that she thought publishers were taking advantage of consumers by charging $9.99 for essentially a Word file. Those of us with greater knowledge of the book business, and the actual costs involved in producing e-books, certainly can educate such individuals, but we can’t change the general perceptions of consumers-at-large. The majority don’t know the intricacies of the business. Nor do they want to.
In a discussion about real estate, a friend once said to me, "A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it." And I believe that’s true, to some extent, in regard to e-books. I don’t advocate that publishers lose money on e-books, nor do I support decreasing the value of the hard work we all do to produce a book, no matter what the format, but the old "the customer is always right" adage is the foundation of any good business. And right now, many customers believe that digital equates to minimal cost. I’m afraid we may have missed the window to change the now "Amazon standard" of $9.99 or less e-book pricing.