During their fiscal third quarter (ending in March 2022), HarperCollins reported that book sales increased by 5 percent but profits fell 16 percent. Higher manufacturing and freight costs are to blame for the reduced profits; lower sales of ebooks, which have higher profit margins than print books, also contributed. Still, HarperCollins remains bullish and said that book consumption remains higher than prior to the pandemic. (CEO Brian Murray said last year that the “book pie” has grown by 15 percent. We’re certainly following HarperCollins results more closely as a result of that statement.)
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
