Overall, PRH sales increased by more than 6 percent—the happy result of a favorable exchange rate for corporate parent Bertelsmann. But profits were down at PRH by 1.8 percent due to cost challenges related to supply chain and inflation.
This year PRH is enjoying strong backlist sales from Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and Atomic Habits by James Clear, as well as the ever-popular Dr. Seuss. Audiobooks also performed well. CEO Markus Dohle commented to employees, “The long-term shift to online sales has resulted in strong backlist growth and a technology- and data-driven transformation of our sales, marketing, and publicity instruments and tools.” Bertelsmann’s half-year report is here.
In November, PRH will publish Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry with a 2.75 million initial print run in North America alone, as well as U2 singer Bono’s memoir, Surrender.
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.
