S&S global sales hit 'record year' in 2020 at $901m

Sales at Simon & Schuster came in at an all-time high in 2020 at $901m, ViacomCBS has reported.

The total marks an increase of nearly 11% on 2019's revenues of $814m. Sales in the last quarter (to 31st December) were $252m, up from $215m in the previous year.

President and c.e.o. Jonathan Karp told Publisher's Lunch that the adult, audio and international divisions all rose in the fourth quarter, while children’s sales were flat. Digital formats accounted for 28.5% of sales.

Ian Chapman, publisher and c.e.o. of S&S UK, said performance in the UK arm was good across all divisions, including the front and backlists, "reaffirming that the business is firing on all cylinders". He commented: "As reported by ViacomCBS, S&S saw a strong end to the year across international territories - both revenues and profit beating prior year in the final quarter and full year and a record year in profit for us — a remarkable achievement in the face of significant challenges and change throughout 2020, for S&S and the industry as a whole."

Bestselling titles included Philippa Gregory’s Dark Tides, Rupi Kaur’s poetry collection home body and Ben Miller’s The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale which sold over 50,000 copies, according to the publisher. A strong performance in fiction also bolstered sales, with works by Louise Candlish, Kathy Reichs and Russ Thomas’ Firewatching particular standouts. In the children's department Katie and Kevin Tsang’s Dragon Mountain, picture book debut The Littlest Yak and brand Supertato continue to sell well.

S&S was presented as a discontinued operation in ViacomCBS' consolidated financial statements for all periods, following Bertelsmann's agreement to buy the company for $2.2bn . As such ViacomCBS did not comment on its overall financial performance.