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Simon & Schuster has reported a 10% increase in sales in the quarter ended September 30th 2022, with revenues coming in at $353m compared to $321m for the same period last year.
Referred to only as a “discontinued operation” by parent company Paramount in its latest financial report, operating costs were “flat” at $93m, “due to higher costs across the entire supply chain such as paper, production, freight and distribution”, according to c.e.o Jonathan Karp.
In a letter to staff, he drew attention to significant sales growth in the organisation’s Adult, Audio, International divisions and distribution business. “Across the board, all of our divisions are either matching or exceeding our excellent 2021 results,” he said. “I expect we will have more to celebrate as we head towards the year’s end.”
Karp attributed much of S&S’ success to “the Colleen Hoover phenomenon”, which he said “has lifted the Colleen Hoover backlist and enabled us to publish four of the bestselling novels of 2022: It Ends With Us, It Starts with Us, Ugly Love and Number 9.”
He continued that in 2023 it would also be adding her novel Heart Bones to the backlist, and has plans to expand Hoover’s readership even further.
The c.e.o also referenced Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died and books by Stephen King, Aaron Reynolds and Chloe Gong, among others, as drivers of success, adding: “Simon & Schuster UK is having another record year and just published two instant bestsellers: A Pocketful of Happiness by Richard E Grant and The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer.”
According to S&S UK, its market share has grown by 41% thanks to a strong performance across Children’s, Fiction and Non-Fiction. Ian Chapman, c.e.o and publisher of S&S UK, cited chart success for The First to Die at the End and They Both Die at The End by Adam Silvera, Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet’s Supertato Night of the Living Veg and strong sales for Ben Miller’s latest release, The Night We Got Stuck in a Story.
Adult Fiction highlights included Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us, along with chart success for The American Roommate Experiment, a number one in hardback for Chris Carter’s Genesis, another Sunday Times chart position for Santa Montefiore’s An Italian Girl in Brooklyn, and the publication of Milly Johnson’s twentieth book.
“S&S UK continues to go from strength to strength. This was a record-breaking quarter for us in the UK, and with our stellar autumn schedule and staff dedicated to publishing excellence, we anticipate breaking even more records,” Chapman said.