S&S revenues soar 19% in first quarter as Karp confirms sale has restarted

Simon & Schuster reported a 19% increase in global revenue in its first quarter results, with sales coming in at $258m (£204m), while operating income went up to $58m (£46m). 

In a letter to staff president and c.e.o. Jonathan Karp also confirmed Paramount “has resumed the process of selling Simon & Schuster” adding: “It should come as no surprise that there are many interested parties, a reflection of the fact that we are an even more successful and more profitable company than when the sale process first began."

The publisher highlighted “another outstanding quarter” for the audio division, with revenues up 36%, bolstered by frontlist titles including 8 Rules of Love by Jay Shetty (published by S&S in the US and HarperCollins in the UK) and Straight Shooter by Stephen A Smith. The language learning programme Pimsleur grew revenue by 40% over the previous year, and had 43% growth in subscribers in the quarter.   

UK c.e.o. Ian Chapman said Simon & Schuster UK’s numbers “mirror the overall strength of the global picture” but UK figures were not broken out. Children’s highlights included Night Animals by Sarah Ann Juckes illustrated by Sharon King-Chai, a Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month for January, Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A F Steadman, a Waterstones Book of the Month for February and W H Smith Travel Book of the Month for March, and Katie & Kevin Tsang’s, A Dragon Realm Adventure, which was the biggest children’s fiction World Book Day book.

Highlights across the adult divisions included Colleen Hoover’s Heartbones and new author Hannah Grace whose debut Icebreaker was an instant Sunday Times top 10 bestseller. There has also been continued success with Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died and Bob Mortimer’s The Satsuma Complex and the paperback edition of And Away…