Revenues at the Hachette Book Group (HBG) were down 7.8 percent during the first half of 2015, as compared to the same period in 2014, Lagardère, HBG’s parent company revealed late yesterday.
“Hachette Book Group’s results for the first half reflect tough comparisons to a strong 2014 first half, when The Goldfinch, Grain Brain, and I am Malala were steady bestsellers,” stated Michael Pietsch, CEO of HBG. “Results were also negatively affected by a slowdown in ebook sales, in part due to e-retailers no longer discounting many ebooks at a loss.”
Overall, Hachette Livre reported net sales of $1.07 billion through the end of June, up 7.1 percent over first half of 2014. Here is more from the press release:
In first half 2015, digital accounted for 10.7% of total sales for the publishing division, down from 11.3% in the same period last year. In the US, ebooks represent 24% of net trade sales, down from 29% at the end of June 2014 due to a lighter schedule of titles and “the implementation of the agreement with Amazon,” according to Lagardère’s press release. In the UK, ebook sales make up 33% of Hachette UK’s Adult Trade sales, down from 36% in first half 2014.