Every single staff member at the United States division of Penguin Random House has received a small bonus of $750 this year.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the executives decided to issue this money “because their publishing house had such a good year in 2014.” Some of the titles which contributed to this rise in profits include Grey Mountain by John Grisham, Make It Ahead by Ina Garten, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Last year, Green’s hit young adult novel claimed the No. 1 spot on the Google Play ‘Books of the Year’ list.
Here’s more from the article: “Revenue at Penguin Random House increased 25.2% to 3.3 billion euros, while operating earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization grew 24.5% to 452 million euros…Titles related to Walt Disney Co.’s movie Frozen sold in excess of 17 million copies in all formats. On the digital front, Penguin Random House said it sold more than 100 million e-books worldwide in 2014 but didn’t provide a comparison with 2013.”