Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Latest Trade News from The Bookseller

E-book prices have remained stable five days after a new law came into effect charging an extra 20% VAT on e-books from 1st January.
A survey of e-books by The Bookseller shows e-booksellers and publishers appear to have cushioned the impact of the VAT price rise on e-books at least for now, five days into the new rule.
Parragon Books has posted an operating profit of £19.4m in 2014 compared to a loss of £6m the year before, thanks to a company restructure earlier in the year.
For the year ending the 31st March 2014, turnover fell 14% to £48m from £56m but “the overall improvement in profitability was due to a reorganisation of the group trading”, the company's accounts, filed on Company's House, said.
Shadow culture minister Chris Bryant faces off against former home secretary Alan Johnson in the shortlist for political book of the year at the Paddy Power Political Book Awards 2015.
HarperCollins is to pulp copies of an English-language atlas which omitted Israel.
The Collins Middle East Atlas, created for the Middle East market, showed Jordan and Syria extending to the Mediterranean. It marked the position of the West Bank, but did not show Israel.
In a statement on its Facebook page, HarperCollins apologised for excluding Israel from the atlas.
E-book subscription service Scribd has raised $22m in new funding, according to reports.
The print book market for 2014 is down just 1.3% by value year on year, the full year's statistics from Nielsen BookScan reveal. 
Just under £1.4bn was spent on print books for the 52 weeks ending 27th December, generated from 180.6 million book sales. Year on year the value of the print book consumer market shrank by £17.9m in 2014 in sharp contrast to 2013 when the consumer market for print books declined by £98m (-6.5%) on a Fifty Shades of Grey (Arrow) fuelled 2012.  By volume, 2014 was down 1.8% (-3.3 million units) on 2013, at 180.6m units.

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