S&S UK saw sales and profit rise in 2017

Simon & Schuster UK saw a rise in sales and profit in 2017, driven by a "significant" increase in print and downloadable audio book sales, the firm has revealed. However, e-book sales were down against the previous year, chief executive and publisher Ian Chapman said. 

While the publisher declined to give specific figures for sales and profit, it confirmed to The Bookseller that both had risen. The news follows the release of Simon & Schuster's financial results for its global operations last week, which did not break out the UK specifically. Altogether revenue was up $63 million year-on-year to $830 million, with operating income up $13 million to $132 million.

For the UK, Chapman said the publisher's high performers in fiction included Philippa Gregory, Milly Johnson, Chris Carter and Santa Montefiore.

The non-fiction big-hitters meanwhile were dominated by Hillary Clinton’s What Happened which has shipped 133,000 copies to date in the UK and Rupi Kaur with The Sun and her Flowers, which went straight into the paperback non-fiction number one on her first part-week of sales, according to Chapman. He also cited social media star Maddie Ziegler’s The Maddie Diaries as selling 32,000 copies.

YA author Cassandra Clare helped boost the children’s division, with the author’s titles up by a third (33%) in the Total Consumer Market on the previous year, while Rachel Renee Russell’s Dork Diaries sold 338,000 copies. Sales of picturebook series Supertato by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet rose 32% in 2017, according to Chapman.

Meanwhile rights sales in the children’s division have soared by 100% over the last two years and co-editions have grown by 22% in the same period, Chapman said. 

The publisher’s efforts to grow its distribution paid off with Tim Marshall’s Prisoners Of Geography (Elliott & Thompson), of which 295,000 units were shipped, and Rupi Kaur’s first book of poetry, Milk and Honey, selling 100,000 through the Total Consumer Market last year, according to Chapman.

An S&S UK spokesperson told The Bookseller that e-book sales were down in 2017 but declined to give figures.

The Australia division, celebrating its 30th year, saw “solid” performances from its local and international publishing, Chapman said, while India launched its local publishing list in 2017 with Leila by Prayaag Akbar, a first novel, “and continued its excellent all round financial and publishing performances with strong sales right across the board,” he added.

The announcement follows last week’s news of higher sales and print books and digital audio at S&S US in the fourth quarter with global sales up 12% to $235 million. Parent company CBS Corporation revealed its annual financial results on 15th February revealing the publisher’s strong final quarter, also showing operating income had risen by 22% year-on-year to $44 million.

Chapman told The Bookseller in October that he had returned to the company with a sense of “rebirth” after a life-threatening neurological condition Guillain-Barré syndrome forced him to take eight months off work in 2016. He returned to work in January 2017 with a feeling of “less patience and time”.