Finance

Digital book sales were up 3 percent during Q3 2012 at the Hachette Book Group as compared to Q3 2011, according to financial results released today from HBG’s parent company The Lagardère Group.

According to the financial report, Lagardère’s net sales were approximately $795 million, up 4.2 percent on a reported basis during Q3.

William Lynch, chief executive officer at Barnes & Noble Inc., talks about the company's performance, outlook for the industry and the Nook tablet. Lynch speaks with Nicole Lapin on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop."

Click through for the video.

As we mentioned yesterday, the marketplace of ideas around what the Random House/Penguin merger all means is heating up. The Financial Times' Robert Cookson looks at bigness vs. smallness and might vs. agility as competing strategies for success in an increasingly digital world. In smallness' corner is indie house Salt Publishing's Christopher Hamilton-Emery:

“I don’t think big necessarily means better." The rise of digital publishing, he argues, is likely to lead to an “explosion” of smaller, more focused publishers that can harness technology to establish relationships directly with consumers. —Brian Howard

There's a great piece by the Scholarly Kitchen's Joseph Esposito this week that asks, in response to the latest corporate megamerger between Penguin and Random house, "Why did publishers get so big?" His breakdown of the larger forces that led to larger publishers is exquisite. —Brian Howard

Quoth Esposito:

"For many people the rationale for bigness is all-too-evident: greed. But while greed can be a strong motivator, it is not a strategy. To put this another way, why does greed always reach for bigness? What is it about bigness that makes it economically irresistible?"

Big news out of Hoboken and D.C. today as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Wiley announce that HMH has acquired several assets from Wiley, namely it's culinary program, Webster's New World Reference and CliffsNotes:

Quoth the press release: “This strategic acquisition reflects HMH’s continued commitment to consumer publishing, and represents an exciting growth opportunity within the culinary market. Even as digital sales increase, the print cookbook segment shows particular strength, both at HMH and within the market in general,” said Gary Gentel, President of HMH’s Trade & Reference division. “The combination of Wiley’s culinary, reference, and CliffsNotes lines with our existing business will significantly strengthen HMH’s market position in both the culinary and reference categories.”

Also heading HMH-ward is Wiley VP and publisher Natalie Chapman, who will head up HMH's culinary program (reporting to General Interest Group Senior Vice President and Publisher Bruce Nichols) as well as a number of Wiley editorial, marketing, publicity, and production staff.

In another development related to the move, HMH Senior Executive Editor Rux Martin will launch Rux Martin Books.

Through bestselling books like I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, many of you will be familiar with the self-proclaimed a**hole Tucker Max. Less well known is Max’s commitment to blowing up the traditional publishing industry and replacing it with a business model in which authors get a significantly bigger piece of the pie.

Amazon is poised for a European e-book pricing victory over Apple. European Union regulators are expected to accept a settlement proposed by Apple and several e-book publishers in response to an alleged price-fixing scheme, even as Apple continues to fight US regulators. Apple and publishers proposed the settlement to the EU in August, which would allow e-book retailers to charge whatever discounts they please for two years. This would allow Amazon to continue selling books at a discount via the old "wholesale model."

Bertelsmann, the corporate parent of Random House, has purchased a 100 percent stake Random House Mondadori. Random House created the publishing house for Spain and Latin America in 2001, splitting the shares 50/50 with the Spanish publisher.

Spanish antitrust authorities still need to approve the acquisition, and the name will be changed “in the near future.”

Amazon prides itself on unraveling the established order. This fall, signs of Amazon-inspired disruption are everywhere.There is the slow-motion crackup of electronics showroom Best Buy. There is Amazon’s rumored entry into the wine business, which is already agitating competitors. And there is the merger of Random House and Penguin, an effort to create a mega-publisher sufficiently hefty to negotiate with the retailer on equal terms. Amazon inspires anxiety just about everywhere, but its publishing arm is getting pushback from all sorts of booksellers.

The news that Penguin and Random House will merge into one large frankenpublisher sent shockwaves through the book industry as the frankenstorm lashed the northeast. The move is motivated by bad news—declining sales and troubled chains—and has inspired fears that there will be more bad news to come for the publishing industry.

But could there be a glimmer of hope in all of this pessimism? Gavin James Bower, editorial director at UK independent publisher Quartet Books, offered a positive spin on , speculating that the merger might offer opportunities for indie publishers.