Twilight Sales Decline, Finally, Causing Expected Drop in Revenue For Hachette

By David 

image.php.jpeg
Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling Twilight novels have been buoying the revenue of Lagardere (the parent company of Hachette Book Group) for years now. But as sales start to decline, the French conglomerate is beginning to see the other side of the hill.

Sarah Weinman, in an article on DailyFinance today, notes that sales this quarter dropped 6.5 percent since last year, per the company’s first quarter report. According to the report, sales of the Twilight novels this quarter “were only one-quarter of the 2009 first-quarter level.”

Of course, Meyer is not the only bestseller in Hachette’s stable. Weinman points out the silver lining: “These ‘bouyant” figures will no doubt increase in the second quarter, and the company is already celebrating that four of the top eight bestsellers on the iPad are published by Hachette divisions: David Baldacci, Scott Turow, James Patterson and Malcolm Gladwell.” Hachette will be fine. But if we ever have to write this post about Gladwell, we’ll know there’s trouble.