Hachette Livre reported approximately $539M in revenues during Q1 2014, down 5.3 percent from the first quarter in 2013. The publishing company attributed the drop to excessive sales from the Fifty Shades trilogy in France during the first quarter of 2013, and revealed that sales were in Q1 2014 were stable with Q1 2012.
Despite coming in slightly under budget, Hachette Book Group reported that it “had a solid first quarter, with revenues slightly below budget but gross profit ahead of budget.” During the quarter the publisher had 70 titles on The New York Times bestseller list in print and 28 titles on The New York Times eBook list.
Ebook sales during Q1 2014 represented 13.4 percent of sales for Hachette Livre, up from 12.4 percent in Q1 2013. In the US, eBooks represent 34 percent of Hachette’s net trade sales, the same as last year. In the UK, eBook sales made up 40 percent of net Adult trade sales for the publisher, up from 31 percent in Q1 2013.