Charlie Redmayne

HarperCollins worldwide saw its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rise by 33% to $68m (£42m) in its second quarter.

The publisher attributed the increase to a "higher contribution to profits" from e-book sales and "ongoing operational efficiencies coupled with higher revenues" in its second quarter to 31st December 2012. Revenue, by comparison, increased 4% to $391m. E-book sales continued to rise for the publisher in the last quarter before Christmas, increasing by 39% and accounting for 17% of total sales.

HarperCollins UK has seen a 66% drop in profits for the year ending 30th June 2013, according to results filed with Companies House. Pre-tax profits at the publisher dropped from £8.3m in 2012 to £2.8m in 2013, a decline of 66%. Profit after tax stood at £1.07m, falling  80% from £5.3m. HarperCollins has attributed the decline in profits to costs incurred by a change in its distribution system.

Last week’s The Bookseller’s FutureBook conference sparked some interesting publishing comments from HarperCollins UK CEO Charlie Redmayne. The comments show some publishers still don’t get it. The story begins with an interview in The Guardian, previewing Redmayne’s remarks and it started strong. In essence, Redmayne looked to empower publishes to do more rather than rest [...]

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Foyles is working with publisher HarperCollins to give punters a digital copy of a book when they buy the real one. Foyles and HarperCollins are offering eight books that come shrinkwrapped. They apparently are shrinkwrapped to stop people from shaking books in the store and letting the digital copy voucher fall out.