NEWS
Briefs
Riverside owner retires
The owner of London Docklands
based independent The Riverside
Bookshop has retired after
21 years in the trade. Sylvia
Ridgewell said she was planning
to spend her retirement carrying
out charity work. She opened the
bookshop in Counter Street with
her late husband Paul in 1987.
The shop has been taken over by
the Independent Retail Group.
Its existing staff of five will be
retained.
Elton buys “gripping” debut
Arrow publishing director
Kate Elton has bought UK and
Commonwealth rights in Tainted,
a “gripping” début novel from
Brooke Morgan. Tainted is set
on the coast of Massachusetts,
where a young woman’s life
is rocked by the arrival of an
Englishman, who has dark secrets
to hide. Rights were acquired in
a two-book deal from Charlie
Viney at The Viney Agency. Tainted
will be a paperback original in
summer 2009, with the second
novel coming a year later.
Beaumont for Transworld
Transworld’s Giles Elliott has
bought a book by British cyclist
Mark Beaumont, who earlier this
year became the fastest person
ever to cycle around the world.
Beaumont, currently starring in a
TV advertisement for Orange, will
also see his epic journey to break
the record chronicled in a fourpart
BBC One series next week.
“The Man Who Cycled the World”
will be broadcast from Monday
18th to Thursday 21st August,
with each programme charting a
different leg of his gruelling tour.
Elliott acquired world rights in
Beaumont’s book, The Hard Way
Round, from Mark Stanton at
Jenny Brown Associates. The book
is scheduled for publication by
Bantam Press in June 2009.
Allen set for key role
Katie Allen below has been
appointed as media reporter/
online at The Bookseller,
succeeding Anna Richardson. She
was previously sub-editor at The
Bookseller.
She has
been
with the
magazine
since
September
2007.
Her email
is katie.
allen@
bookseller.
co.uk.
RH grows sales and profits
Benedicte Page
The Random House Group
UK is believed to have
increased turnover by 3%
in 2007, up from £271m in
2006 to a total of £279m.
Operating profit is also
understood to have risen
3%, from £45.3m in 2006 to
£46.7m last year. The figures
are thought to include
subsidiaries in Australia,
New Zealand, India and
South Africa.
The numbers suggest
the rate of growth fell compared
with 2006, when
RHG’s turnover jumped 8%
year-on-year, with operating
profits rising by 5%.
RHG c.e.o. and chair Gail
Rebuck declined to comment
on the figures but
said the group had delivered
“steady growth” over
2007, during which it also
Amazon tips kids’ bestseller
Amazon.co.uk has tipped the latest novel in the children’s
series The Inheritance Cycle as a potential Christmas
bestseller after it has spent three months near the top
of its pre-order chart. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
(Doubleday) is published on 20th September and is in
the retailer’s top 20 bestsellers on pre-orders alone. It is
number three in its pre-order chart, behind Harry Potter
tie-in The Tales of Beedle the Bard and The Complete Star
Wars Encyclopedia. Amy Worth, lead books manager at
Amazon.co.uk, said it was rare for a title to stay near the
top of the pre-order chart for so long.
Profile looks for sustainable growth
Profile Books is upbeat about its
prospects, despite recording a
64% decline in operating profit
in its latest financial year, during
which it lacked a number-one
bestseller.
Profile’s operating profit
dropped to £770,000 in its fiscal
year to the end March 2008,
compared with £2.1m a year earlier.
Sales fell from £9.1m to £7.6m
over the same period.
Profile managing director
Andrew Franklin highlighted the
firm’s 2007/8 profit level of 10%
as “heartening”, despite its drop
from last year’s 23% figure, which
he dismissed as “unsustainable”.
He said: “The key point is that
we have achieved a better return
Rebuck
6 The Bookseller | 15 August 2008 www.thebookseller.com
began “an extensive programme
of investment in
future organic growth”.
Developments included
the splitting of CHA and
CCV into separate companies,
the acquisition
of Virgin Books and children’s
publisher Tamarind,
the relaunch of Vintage
Classics, the launch of
Transworld Sport, and
heavy investment in digital
development, where RHG
is part-way through a threeyear,
£5m programme.
Also initiated in 2007,
though not coming to fruition
until this year, were
the launch of new imprints
Preface, Transworld Ireland
and Square Peg. CCV
also relaunched The Bodley
Head in April this year as an
adult non-fiction imprint.
Rebuck said all RHG’s
publishing companies per-
on sales than most of the large
groups. These are good results by
any standard, although they may
not be exceptional.”
He added: “It is always nice to
see more [growth], but we are
not under the same pressures as
a publicly traded company to do
better every quarter. We can take
a longer-term view.”
Last year’s results were driven
by Profile’s New Scientist tie-ins,
particularly the second title, Why
Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?, as
well as the acquisition of indie
Serpent’s Tail.
But the third title in the New
Scientist series, How to Fossilize
Your Hamster, took on a new format
and failed to repeat the suc-
formed “extremely well” in
2007, but picked out CCV’s
performance as “spectacular”,
with its successes
including Ian McEwan’s
Atonement (film tie-in) and
RHG’s single biggest title,
Nigella Express, which sold
more than a million copies.
CCV’s Anne Enright also
won the 2007 Man Booker
Prize with The Gathering.
CHA acquired books by
James Patterson and Tony
Blair in 2007 and had successes
with Katie Price and
Alastair Campbell.
Transworld showed
strong underlying growth,
although lacking the boost
of a new Dan Brown title.
RHG also achieved 32
number one titles in the
Sunday Times bestseller
lists in 2007.
thebookseller.com/random-house
Whale of a time: Fulham Road indie Crockatt & Powell
held a launch party for Chatto & Windus title Inside
the Whale. Pictured are Matthew Crockatt, author
Jennie Rooney centre and editor Clara Farmer.
cess of the previous two editions.
“There is a large element of
luck in what takes off and sells,”
said Franklin.
“We didn’t have [a bestseller]
this year—but we had books that
sold quarter of a million.”
He said he was “optimistic
about the future”, with a strong
autumn list including its fourth
New Scientist tie-in title, Do Polar
Bears Get Lonely?, which is due
out on 9th October.
Franklin also highlighted an
“eccentric” September release
entitled Perfume: The Guide,
which he said “could be a very big
bestseller”.
thebookseller.com/financial
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