Yesterday Simon & Schuster reported that revenue had fallen nearly 20 percent for the quarter ending March 31st, 2009, mirroring the near 20 percent dip in revenue that HarperCollins reported earlier this week.
At the same time, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy told Publishers Weekly that a number of new writers were selling briskly, building a new stable of bestsellers for the company. She mentioned “City of Glass” by Cassandra Clare, “Still Alice” by Lisa Genova, and “Liberty and Tyranny” by Mark Levin.
Here’s more from the article: “Reidy said results were ‘somewhat worse than our original expectations.’ She blamed slower frontlist sales compared to a year ago when ‘The Secret’ and Stephen King’s ‘Duma Key’ were selling well, lower backlist sales and little sales carryover from titles released during the 2008 holiday season for the down quarter.”