HMH Acquires Award-Winning Software Company Writable

Unit sales of print books rose 3% in the week ended December 17, 2017, over the comparable period in 2016, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Last week was the first week that print unit sales were up over the comparable week in 2016 since the holiday selling season began during Thanksgiving week. The retail and club channel, which includes all bookstores plus Amazon, had a 5% increase in sales over the week ended December 18, 201, and with two weeks left to go in 2017, sales through that channel were up 3%. The mass merchandiser channel, however, continued to trend downward compared to last year. Last week, unit sales to mass merchandisers were down 9% compared to the similar week in 2016, and for the year to date, sales fell 8%. Click Read More below for additional information.

It has been a little over a year since Amazon began allowing third-party sellers to “win” the buy buttons on its book pages. Previously, orders placed using the main buy button on a book page were sourced directly from Amazon’s stock, thereby guaranteeing that publishers and authors would be paid for the purchases. But with the change, Amazon allowed orders placed using some buy buttons to be sourced from third parties, cutting authors and publishers out of those transactions. (Among the factors Amazon uses to determine who wins the buy button are price, availability, and delivery time.)

As supply chain issues continue to plague the retail sector, booksellers have become some of the most vocal voices online to warn of coming shortages this holiday season. This past weekend, some authors took to Twitter to urge readers that, if they want copies of their books in time for the holiday season, they needed to place their orders now. Independent bookstores, too have told customers to plan ahead. “If you think you might need a book in this last chunk of the year, please consider ordering soon,” Washington, D.C.-based East City Bookshop posted on Twitter, citing tightening in the supply chain. It isn’t just books: a complex combination of worker shortages, increased overseas shipping costs and raw material shortages have impacted companies ranging from Peloton to Ravensburger, a popular maker of jigsaw puzzles, said this week that it would halt all orders of its games for the foreseeable future. But book publishers are especially vulnerable because they order new book printings based on consumer demand, and to keep a popular title in stock, they depend on getting those new printings out to customers quickly. As the timelines for new printings are stretched further and further, publishers face the real possibility of running out of some books ahead of the holidays.