Finance

The trade publishing segment continues to perform well in 2021, with August sales up 15.1% in the adult category and ahead 21.8% in the children’s/young adult segment at publishers that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program.

A $50 million contribution from its purchase of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade division and higher backlist sales were two of the key drivers in increasing sales at HarperCollins by 19%, and profits by 20%, in the quarter ended August 31.

Despite working in something of a state of limbo caused by its pending purchase by Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster had a solid first half of 2021, and the good results carried into the third quarter, with sales rising 15% and profits jumping 66%.

With most categories posting increases, sales at the 1,158 publishers that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program rose 6.9% in July over July 2020.

Amazon has seen huge gains in sales and profits since the pandemic began, but growth in the third quarter was a modest 15%. The company is spending billions to cope with supply chain issues and labor shortages.

Third quarter sales fell 9% at Hachette Book Group for the period ended August 31, 2021, contributing to a 1.2% drop in total sales for Lagardère's publishing group. Despite the quarterly decline, sales for the first nine months of 2021 were up 9% over a year ago for the entire publishing division.

Sales rose 29% in the six-month period ended August 31, 2021, and profits soared 225% at Bloomsbury Publishing. The company said that early ordering by accounts to head off problems in the supply chain gave sales a lift.

Book sales should finish 2021 on a good note, but a number of factors could mean softer sales in early 2022, NPD BookScan noted during a webinar on third-quarter sales.

Led by new books by Bob Woodward and Amanda Gorman, unit sales of print books rose 3.2% last week over the week ended September 26, 2020 at outlets that report to BookScan.

Scholastic reported higher sales and a smaller loss in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2021, and while it said business is improving, it did point to some “headwinds” which all publishers are facing: rising costs and disruptions in the supply chain.