Revenue

The Polish literary trade is currently having a tough time, battling a combination of old and new challenges. Although thirty-eight million people is a sizable demographic for which to cater, it is an unpredictable market. Many international top performers, particularly high literary authors, are not greeted with the same warm reception by this generally commercially-minded audience. The bestseller lists are currently topped by EL James (whose trilogy has sold 1.7 million copies including ebook and audio), and guerrilla artist, author and illustrator Keri Smith.

At the London Book Fair yesterday HarperCollins announced a significant expansion of its foreign language publishing program. The company rebranded a number of Harlequin's international publishing assets as HaperCollins Holland, HarperCollins Japan, HarperCollins Nordic, and HarperCollins Polska.

I'm an author. Late this year, I'll publish my tenth novel. Publish, that is, in the traditional way: with a Big 5 publisher and all that goes along with that. That sounds like a strong track record and, in a way, it is. Yet my strong advances haven't always been matched by stellar sales outcomes and, last year, I separated from Random House in the US, when we couldn't find a way to continue our relationship together.

Publishers need to communicate better with authors, pay them more and utilise writers' skills to market books, but most writers would still choose to be published traditionally, a survey has found.

The Do You Love Your Publisher? survey, co-produced by authors Harry Bingham (in the UK) and Jane Friedman (in the US), questioned 812 writers with experience of being traditionally published on areas including publisher satisfaction, agenting and self-publishing; 310 of those questioned were authors based in the UK and Ireland.

London-based publisher Faber & Faber and the Perseus Books Group have entered into a partnership that will see Faber using Perseus' digital technology to publish its books globally, in both print and digital.

Under the arrangement, Perseus' client service business, Publishers Group West, will represent Faber's titles in the U.S.

In February, Faber cut ties with Farrar, Straus and Giroux after 17 years (FSG published titles in the U.S. through Faber and Faber Inc).

Today Penguin Random House announced a new partnership with Amtrak that will provide a selection of free ebook excerpts to passengers riding the Boston to Washington, D.C. Acela Express. The excerpts will be available to passengers through Amtrak's redesigned WiFi service, AmtrakConnect, and each excerpt will include buy buttons that allow readers to purchase the title from a number of retailers.

HarperCollins Publishers has undertaken a publishing automation program to accelerate book production. Come hear what they learned.

On the last day of March, Book Business held its first Executive Summit on Digital Publishing. The objective of the event was to provide publishing leaders proven tactics on restructuring their company for the digital era, harnessing the power of data analytics, and utilizing new bookselling and marketing channels. The inaugural event was well received by attendees.

The sports-bro solidarity has been achieved: Jeter Publishing, Derek Jeter's publishing partnership with Simon and Schuster, announced that it will publish a book by Rob Gronkowski. It's Good to be The Gronk, which is apparently really what they're calling it, will "take the reader from the locker room to the VIP room," according to a press release.

Via Simon and Schuster:

From his near career-ending injury to his incredible comeback in Superbowl XLIX, Gronk will give readers an intimate look beyond his highly-publicized life. With over 1.8 million followers on social media, Gronk is

If you're not on commission or the bonus track at Bertelsmann's toddling Penguin Random House megapublisher, there'll be a nice tip for you come April 17: An extra $750 in your paycheck, compliments of CEO Markus Dohle. "We are all proud of the positive impact inherent in what we do at Penguin Random House by publishing the best books and connecting them to readers," Dohle wrote in a memo to staff released Tuesday morning along with Bertelsmann's 2014 earnings. "This is our moment."