March 18, 2009

What Recession?! - Part II

Three weeks ago, I published this article: What Recession?! Plenty of Freelance Jobs for Writers!

In the article, I talked about how the media keeps telling us the sky is falling...but that every restaurant and store in our town (and other towns we traveled through, down to Virginia and back last month) seems to have a full parking lot. I received lots of emails from readers who reported the same thing in their towns.

You can read a couple of the emails I received about the article HERE.

This week, I'm going to share some links to more good publishing financial news with you:

Book Sales in Europe Are Gaining in Tough Times
"As the recession leaves other media industries in tatters, the oldest mass medium of all is holding up surprisingly well."

Graphic-Novel Sales Boom Nationwide
"Bound collections of comic books garner growing fan base."

Thomas & Friends Bucks the Trend with Book Sales Up
"U.K. book sales up 10 percent in 2008."

Profits Up 7% at Hachette
"The group said its operating margin improved to 11.4%."

Against All Odds, Small Presses Prosper

Consumer Reports: Subscription model holds up in recessionary times
Newsstand sales of Consumer Reports "have risen 7%, to 170,000 copies, in the last year, and in the fall, it will start publishing 10 times a year, up from six."

Massive profits for Elsevier, LexisNexis
Elsevier - up 11% over previous year; LexisNexis - up 18% over previous year.

Book Sales in Canada Up This Year
"Book sales in Canada actually increased at the start of this year, and some publishers are flourishing. Penguin reported record sales last year, and Torstar Corp.'s Harlequin division, which publishes the famous serial romance novels, is outshining the company's struggling newspapers."

And, finally, one that's a bit ironic -

Bumper Year for Crisis-Related Books at Paris Fair

While many of the-sky-is-falling media are focusing on bad news, we'd like to commend Publishers Weekly. They are also publishing good news in the industry.

Freelance Writers and Book Authors!

If your freelance writing or book writing/selling career is thriving right now, we'd love to hear about it! Contact: angela - at - writersweekly.com.