Lagardère Publishing’s net sales reached about $563 million in the third quarter, up 6.6 percent from last year. The Hachette Book Group’s US sales specifically were up 11 percent year-over-year.The publisher had 191 print and 73 eBooks on the New York Times bestseller list so far this year, with 45 No. 1 bestsellers to date, up 45 percent over the same period last year. According to the company, sales have been driven by major third quarter releases including: The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling; The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks; Mistress by James Patterson and David Ellis; David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell; as well as Break Out! by Joel Osteen.
eBook sales were up during the quarter as well. Here is more from the press release:
In the US, ebooks represented 27% of HBG’s adult trade sales, up from 20% in the third quarter of 2012. At Hachette UK, digital sales rose to 30% of the company’s adult trade sales from 20% in the third quarter of 2012. For Lagardère Publishing, digital represented 9.4% of total net sales, compared to 6.4% in the third quarter of 2012.