In 2024, Penguin Random House sales worldwide rose 8.5%, to €4.9 billion (about $5.3 billion), according to parent company Bertelsmann, which reported last year's results this week. At the same time, Bertelsmann's group revenue fell 5.9%, to €19 billion ($20.5 billion) and group profit slipped 21.9%, to €1 billion ($1.1 billion). The company said revenues dropped because of the "sale of shares in the customer experience company Majorel," but that "organic growth" amounted to 3.3%.

PRH globally had "a record-breaking year in 2024, acquiring, publishing and selling more books than ever before." The sales gain was attributed to "higher sales prices, a broad range of titles across all genres and growth in audiobook sales." Sales also grew because of acquisitions, with PRH buying Quadrille, BOOM! Studios, Amber-Allen Publishing, and Hay House, and increasing its stake in Sourcebooks to 75%.

PRH US outperformed the industry, Bertelsmann continued, increasing its market share to 23.8% from 22.9% in 2023. During the year, PRH US expanded its distribution center in Crawfordsville, Ind., and established its own distribution center in Grantham, England, to serve continental European customers better. The year's biggest sellers were Funny Story by Emily Henry and First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston, and continuing bestsellers Atomic Habits by James Clear and Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography by Wendy Loggia. PRH US accounted for 59.2% of PRH's revenue by region.

In a letter to employees, PRH CEO Nihar Malaviya said in part, "Part of our success [last year] was driven by the inclusion of newly acquired companies' results in our numbers for the first time. And rather than a few mega-selling books driving our overall results, it was the continued strength of a wide range of titles across both our frontlist and the backlist that contributed most significantly. Our strong financial performance allows us to further invest in authors and their works, as well as in the talent and resources needed to bring still more books to readers. This remarkable achievement is a testament to you, your hard work and talent, and the strength and diversity of the publishing programs you've created and supported....

"In today's increasingly polarized world, the books that we publish matter more than ever. Books have the power to foster empathy, bring people together, and help readers see themselves reflected in their pages. Our mission to create books for everyone--by creators of all backgrounds and identities--has never been more important. We remain committed to freedom of speech, free expression, and the right to read, while also working to enhance literacy around the world with many efforts like our groundbreaking partnership with Save the Children."

Sheila Burns and Karen Chapman have sold Bloomsbury Books in Ashland, Ore., to Megan Isser and Dave Isser, Jefferson Public Radio reported.

Burns and Chapman have been co-owners of Bloomsbury Books, which focuses on contemporary fiction and children's books, since its founding in 1980. Denise Harnly and Nancy Peterson were also co-owners when the store first opened; Harnly moved away five years after the store opened and Peterson died in 1997.

Prior to buying Bloomsbury Books, Megan and Dave Isser worked in the documentary film and television industry in Los Angeles, Calif., for 20 years; Megan was a producer and creative director and Dave was an editor and director. In 2020 they moved to Ashland, where Dave Isser grew up, to raise their kids.

At the time, Burns and Chapman had been looking for buyers for several years but hadn't found the right candidates. Dave Isser's mother has worked at Bloomsbury Books for some 40 years, and he got his first job there in middle school. Given the family connection to the store, their love of storytelling, and their fondness for working together, the Issers began thinking about taking over the store.

In 2024, Megan Isser started working there part-time, and after she "fell in love with the bookselling world," she and her husband decided to approach Chapman and Burns about buying the store. The pair was "over the moon" and relieved that the store would stay in trusted hands.

"Dave's mom, Anita, will continue working with us," Isser told Shelf Awareness, "and we have an incredible staff of booksellers who will stay on as well."

Isser said she's been most surprised by all the "intimate micro-connections" that booksellers make with their customers every day, and "helping someone find a book to read is one of the most fulfilling interactions I have had."

Looking ahead, she and her husband hope to preserve the legacy of Bloomsbury Books while also inspiring a younger generation of readers to support independent bookstores. "Bookstore are sacred, timeless, and magical, and I am honored to be part of this wonderful community," said Isser.

The new owners officially took over on April 1.

Niko Pfund has been named director of Yale University Press, effective July 1. He succeeds John Donatich, who has led the press since 2003 and announced plans to retire last year.

Niko Pfund

Pfund has held a variety of roles at Oxford University Press during the last two decades, and currently is global academic publisher and president of the U.S. division. He previously was director and editor-in-chief of New York University Press. In addition, Pfund has served as a mentor in publishing programs, including those affiliated with Oxford, Columbia, and Pace universities, Amherst College, and the Association of University Presses. He has also been an active member of many boards, including the governing board of Stanford University Press, the advisory board of the George Washington University Graduate Program in Publishing, and the board of directors of the Digital Public Library of America.

Yale President Maurie McInnis said, "We have found in Niko a leader who prizes the time-honored tenets of rigorous scholarship and bold, future-oriented thinking in equal measure. He brings with him an immersive understanding of scholarly publishing and serious non-fiction as well as a proven track record, with experience in broadening the mandate of an academic press while abiding closely by its vital mission of contributing to a global understanding of human affairs....

"Niko joins us at a time when our ambitions for Yale University Press are growing, as we seek to build on the strong groundwork [laid by] John Donatich. With his thoughtfulness and precision, Niko is well-equipped to help us realize these aims."

Pfund commented, "Under John Donatich's leadership these past 22 years, Yale University Press has consolidated its standing as one of our most influential university presses. It is a great privilege to join this impressive institution, and I look forward to meeting my new colleagues and with members of the Yale community, and to all that lies ahead."

Ingram Content Group has launched MediaScout, a research tool and database designed to connect film and television industry professionals with books available for screen adaptation. MediaScout offers search capabilities across 2.5 million titles and authors, including comprehensive rights information, according to Ingram.

Margaret Hepp Harrison, v-p of digital services at Ingram, said, "MediaScout provides a powerful IP information service that benefits authors, publishers, and film and production companies alike. The MediaScout launch aligns with Ingram's ongoing commitment of implementing technology and innovation to get more books into the hands of readers and now extending to connect film and TV studios with screen-ready books."

For publishers, MediaScout's search capabilities "ensure titles are easily discovered by studios and production companies, broadening their reach to film and TV professionals," Ingram noted, adding that it also serves as a centralized resource for managing and updating rights information.

For studios and production companies, MediaScout provides discovery and access to a wide range of titles, along with comprehensive rights information. This is designed to streamline the process of finding and acquiring book rights for adaptations for film agents and studios, Ingram said.

Irish author Ken Bruen, who published more than 50 books, including the Jack Taylor crime novel series, died March 29, the Irish Times reported. He was 74. His honors include winning the Shamus Award for Best Crime Novel of the year, Macavity Award, and Barry Award, as well as being a two-time Edgar Award finalist. The Taylor books were adapted for a TV series shot around Galway, his native city. His novel London Boulevard was made into a film starring Keira Knightley and Colin Farrell in 2010. 

Ken Bruen

Bruen spent 25 years traveling the world before he began writing in the mid-1990s, the Connacht Tribune reported, adding that as an English teacher, he worked in South Africa, Japan, and South America, where he once spent four months in a Brazilian jail. Ultimately, however, Bruen "lived and worked in Galway--and so much of his work was set in the streets, alleyways and pubs of Galway."

Noting that Bruen's work "was tailormade for the big screen on many fronts," the Tribune wrote that in addition to the Jack Taylor novels, he also wrote a series featuring London police detective Inspector Brant. His Brant and Roberts novel Blitz was adapted into a 2011 film starring Jason Statham, Paddy Considine, and Aidan Gillen. Bruen's 2014 novel Merrick was adapted for TV as the series 100 Code, starring Dominic Monaghan and Michael Nyqvist. 

Otto Penzler, founder of Mysterious Press and owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, posted on social media: "I'm broken-hearted to learn that Ken Bruen, my dear friend for more than 30 years, has died. In addition to being one of the most talented and original writers I've ever read, he was also one of the best people I've been privileged to know. Unfailingly kind and generous, he had a heart as big as the universe. Fifteen years ago, when the bookshop was struggling mightily, I had the idea to publish bibliomysteries in the store to help as fundraisers. The first person I asked to write one was Ken because I knew he would say yes. After he delivered the manuscript to his most recent novel, Galway's Edge, to the Mysterious Press, he said that it was his final Jack Taylor. I've been pressing him to keep on, that he couldn't let his superb, memorable, tough but poignant character die. It seems that Ken may have known more than he let on."

Charlie Byrne's Bookshop in Galway City posted on Instagram: "We were shocked and saddened today at Charlie Byrne's to hear the news that our great friend and pioneering Irish crime writer, Ken Bruen, died last evening. Ken, the author of the series featuring iconic Galway Detective, Jack Taylor, has been a great friend of the shop since we first opened our doors in 1989. He was a great crime writer, (over 45 novels over a prolific career) and a great and generous encourager of younger talent. He will be sadly missed. RIP Ken."

Warwick's, La Jolla, Calif., hosted the launch event for Cindy Jenson-Elliott's (front row, second from l.) The Doomsday Detectives, illustrated byTheo Nicole Lorenz (Tu Books/Lee & Low). The store sold out of the 50 copies they had ordered, and the room was packed.

Indie booksellers were flexing their collective sense of humor on April Fool's Day. Here are some highlights:

Content Bookstore, Northfield, Minn., shared its very clever April Fool's Day "prank," a bookstore-themed spoof on an airline safety video: "Welcome aboard, and thank you for choosing Content. The health and safety of our customers and crew is our number one priority and a shared responsibility of everyone in the shop. So, before we depart, please pay attention to this important safety video.

"Please take a moment to review the bookseller recommendation card in your seat pocket. As we finish our safety check and get ready for takeoff, please settle into your literary destination. And from all of our crew, thank you for choosing Content."

Ellie Ray, the bookstore's literary marketing & events manager, noted: "So far we've gotten a great response from our customers, and we hope the rest of the bookseller community enjoys it too!" 

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The April 1 edition of the e-newsletter from Country Bookshelf, Bozeman, Mont., opened with this gem: "Hi Former Readers, After many weeks of deliberation, strife, and anguish, Country Bookshelf has made the decision to stop carrying books. We will change our name to 'Country Store,' a name some of our customers already call us by, to reflect this change. Instead of books, we will stock our shelves with props and costumes for tourists to dress up in cowboy drag during their visit to Bozeman. Think Westworld but in real life. On that note, we will also be replacing our staff with robots powered by AI. You'll never have to interact with a human bookseller again. If you have any additional suggestions, please let us know! We want to remain a community institution through this transition and welcome your feedback. April Fools! Wishing you a holiday full of harmless little jokes and pranks that make you smile."

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Lovebound Library, Salt Lake City, Utah: "SURPRISE! We've been working on this concept for a LONG time (15 minutes) and we wanted to introduce to you all our brand new logo! We really wanted you to feel transported into your reading world. Like a step through our doors is a step up this creepily realistic book staircase. By combining two of the most beloved (hated) fonts, we've made a stunning visual that we feel truly represents what Lovebound Library stands for. Merch coming soon! #aprilfools"

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The Book & Cover, Chattanooga, Tenn.: "We were so thrilled when our recent hiring cycle unexpectedly brought to us two new team members: Rupert Giles, who has decided to watchedly pursue bookselling after a stint as secondary school librarian, and Buffy Summers, who looks forward to connecting readers to their next favorite read after most recently standing against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. Y'all welcome them to The Book & Cover team!"

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City of Asylum Bookstore, Pittsburgh, Pa.: "We've heard your feedback, and we're making a change. From now on, our bookstore will only stock bestsellers! No more small press titles, no more new translations, no more local poetry. Just the same five books on display at every airport! (Just kidding, we'd rather close the doors than stop carrying our unique and wonderful books!)"

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Name changes:

Deadtime Stories Books & Gifts, Lansing, Michigan.: "IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! With all the doom and gloom in the world today, we've decided to pivot our business model. Instead of the dark and disturbing, we'll be filling the shop with all things love and light. Who's excited for Bedtime Stories Books & Gifts?"

Betty's Books, Webster Groves, Mo.: We've got a HUGE announcement we've been dying to drop!! The shop has been going through lots of changes lately, and we think you're ready for one more.... We are now officially.... ALEX'S BOOKS!!! If you're scared of change, don't worry! We'll still have all our amazing reads available, just with a different name above the door!! As for what happened to B*tty.... don't ask. We'd prefer not to discuss it."

Simon & Schuster will distribute the Independent Institute's book publishing program, effective June 1. Titles publishing after June 1 can be ordered from S&S now. Independent Institute's previous distributor, IPG, will continue to process orders for current titles through May 30 and accept returns through November 30.

The Independent Institute is a non-profit, public policy, research and educational organization that promotes "the power of independent thinking to boldly advance peaceful, prosperous, and free societies grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity." Among its authors are political theorist Robert Higgs, economist Judy Shelton, tech entrepreneurs Peter Thiel and David Sacks, historians David Beito and Stephen Halbrook, and the late environmental scientist Fred Singer.

Matthew Maschino, Independent Institute's director of sales, said, "With our growing publishing program, we needed rapid fulfillment and strong relationships in the retail and library markets. Simon & Schuster's capabilities are unmatched, and we look forward to working closely with their team to reach readers worldwide."

COO Robert (Bob) Marsh has been promoted to president of the Globe Pequot Publishing Group. He succeeds Jed Lyons, who remains chairman and CEO. Judith Schnell continues in her role as publisher of Globe Pequot.

Marsh's 25-year book publishing career includes senior positions at Morehouse Publishing, Continuum, Bloomsbury, and, for the last 12 years, as the COO of Rowman & Littlefield. (Rowman & Littlefield was sold last year to Bloomsbury, and the company is now focused on trade publishing at Globe Pequot.)

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Jacqueline Sells is joining Ingram Content Group as v-p of sales and business development, international, and will be commercial leader for Lightning Source UK and Lightning Source outside North America. Sells has served as sales director of DK UK and earlier held leadership positions at Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press, and Scholastic. Sells takes over her new role at Ingram in August from David Taylor who has held the position since 2003 and is retiring in June.

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Claire Gamble has joined Simon & Schuster as a national account manager selling to Amazon. She was previously part of the digital & online sales team at Hachette Book Group.

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Isabela Alvarez has joined Candlewick Press, Holiday House, and Peachtree as sales assistant, Amazon. Alvarez previously worked as a freelance editor and beta reader.

Foghorn: The Nearly True Story of a Small Publishing Empire by Vicki DeArmon (Sibylline Press).

Today:
CBS Mornings: Caroline Darian, author of I'll Never Call Him Dad Again: Turning Our Family Trauma of Sexual Assault and Chemical Submission into a Collective Fight (Sourcebooks, $16.99, 9781464257957).

Also on CBS Mornings: Kate Swenson, Adrian Wood, and Carrie Cariello, authors of Autism Out Loud: Life with a Child on the Spectrum, from Diagnosis to Young Adulthood (Park Row, $32.99, 9780778368366).

Good Morning America: Becky Kennedy, author of That's My Truck!: A Good Inside Story About Hitting (Feiwel & Friends, $19.99, 9781250326959).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Danielle Steel, author of Far From Home: A Novel (Delacorte Press, $29, 9780593498675).

Today: Jennifer Weiner, author of The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits (Morrow, $30, 9780063445819).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Tess Sanchez, author of We've Decided to Go in a Different Direction: Essays (Gallery, $28.99, 9781668060858).

Chilean writer-director Felipe Gálvez (The Settlers) has set his second feature film as Impunity, based on the upcoming book 38 Londres Street by Philippe Sands. Deadline reported that the spy thriller, set in the late 1990s around the arrest of dictator Augusto Pinochet, "follows an ex-spy hired to prevent the escape of the Chilean dictator after his capture in London unleashes geopolitical unrest."

"It was a privilege to come across Philippe Sands' book when we started developing this film," said Gálvez. "38 Londres Street reveals a part of Chile's history that had remained hidden until now. This story offers a disturbing mirror on our present times, and a warning."

The shortlist has been released for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction. The winner, who will be named June 12, receives £30,000 (about $38,705) and a limited edition bronze statuette known as the "Bessie," created and donated by artist Grizel Niven. This year's shortlisted titles are:

Good Girl by Aria Aber
All Fours by Miranda July
The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

Chair of judges Kit de Waal said: "Over the past six months, my fellow judges and I have been knee-deep in reading our submissions, consumed by the fully-realized worlds created by an incredible range of voices. Now that we arrive at the announcement of our shortlist, what seems absolutely apparent to me is how perfectly each of these six novels exemplify the original tenets of the prize: originality, accessibility and sheer brilliance. Our selection celebrates rich, multi-layered narratives that will surprise, move and delight the reader, all drawing on, in different ways, the importance of human connection. What is surprising and refreshing is to see so much humor, nuance and lightness employed by these novelists to shed light on challenging concepts. I'm in no doubt that these six novels will become the classics of the future."

photo: Julia Gravette

Katy Hays is the bestselling author of The Cloisters. In addition to writing, Hays works as an adjunct art history professor, teaching rural students from Truckee to Tecopa. She holds an M.A. in Art History from Williams College and pursued her Ph.D. in Art History at UC Berkeley. Her academic writing has been published by Ashgate, an imprint of Routledge. Her new novel, Saltwater (Ballantine Books), is an electrifying thriller about an opulent family and their mysterious assistant whose annual retreat to Italy is shattered by the resurfacing of a decades-old murder.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

The perfect novel to cure your White Lotus hangover; in Saltwater, three women will stop at nothing to escape a family that has everything.

On your nightstand now:

Dominick Dunne's People Like Us. I have a rule that when I'm drafting or actively revising, I'm not allowed to read books published after 2005 because if I do, and the book is really good, I despair that my work in progress will never be as good. So, to circumvent the comparison game (it's bad for everyone involved!), I only read older fiction. Someone, somewhere, mentioned Dunne and I squirreled away the recommendation and have become obsessed. It also scratches my itch for literary gossip: *whispers* he was Joan Didion's brother-in-law!

Favorite book when you were a child:

A tie between The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper. Both books were published in the late 1960s and I read them in the late 1980s or early '90s, but they were absolutely formative and the first books that taught me what a story could really be, what it was capable of doing. Also, talk about atmosphere!

Your top five authors:

My three north stars are Patricia Highsmith, Daphne du Maurier, and Shirley Jackson, but I'm also a huge fan of contemporary writers Christopher Bollen and Calla Henkel. If I were only allowed to read novels by these five writers for the rest of my life, I think I'd be just fine.

Book you've faked reading:

A Visit from the Goon Squad. I'm a huge, huge fan of The Keep by Jennifer Egan, but it's her only book I've ever read. Every time someone mentions A Visit from the Goon Squad, I nod along like I know what they're talking about, but the truth is, I've never so much as read the first page. Criminal, I know. Especially because I adore The Keep.

Book you're an evangelist for:

I really don't think enough people are reading Christopher Bollen. I'm a broken record--talk to me for three minutes about books, and it's likely I'll try to push a Bollen novel on you before you walk away--but in my opinion, he's the most compelling literary suspense writer working today. My favorite novel of his is The Destroyers, but I also think A Beautiful Crime and Havoc are wonderful. He's the kind of writer to whom I will happily give an extra 100 pages run time just because I want to exist longer in his worlds, and really, isn't that the best endorsement?  

Book you've bought for the cover:

I've never bought a book for its cover! But for a long time I avoided Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic because I didn't like the cover. Then I picked it up several years after it came out, loved it, and instantly acquired all her backlist and am now a diehard fan.

Book you hid from your parents:

Anything Baby-Sitters Club! My mom thought those books were trash! What she didn't realize was that a well-rounded reading diet necessarily includes some junk food, too! Justice for the Baby-Sitters!

Book that changed your life:

Victoria Holt's On the Night of the Seventh Moon. I still don't know how I first came across Holt. I think it's possible there was a copy of one of her novels in the free bin at our local thrift when I was younger, but in any case, she found me, and my life was never the same. The queen of gothic romance, Holt's novels were the first "sexy" books I ever read (pretty tame by contemporary romance standards!) and I've been a lifelong reader of romance ever since. (Like I said above: everyone needs a well-rounded literary diet!)

Favorite line from a book:

Not from a book. My favorite line is from a response Shirley Jackson wrote to an angry letter about "The Lottery." "Dear Mrs. White. If you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree."

Five books you'll never part with:

Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby
Daphne du Maurier's The Scapegoat
Jilly Cooper's Riders
Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger
Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani. I found this novel so shocking, so compulsive that it left me literally breathless. I've since re-read it (it's still shocking!) and find it the perfect psychological thriller. I wish more writers were willing to take extraordinarily dark swings like Slimani does in Chanson Douce (the original French title translates as "lullaby"). What an achievement. If only I could recapture the original horror I felt on the first read!

Argentinian author María Teresa Andruetto, who won the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2012, exquisitely transforms personal history into an inspiring tribute to living courageously in Clara and the Man with Books in His Window. Fellow Argentinian artist/muralist Martina Trach's glorious double-page spreads enhance Andruetto's text and create a strong sense of place and time. Originally published in 2018, Clara is Andruetto and Trach's English-language debut, eloquently translated by Guatemalan Canadian Elisa Amado.

"This is the story of my mother and her friend, Juan," Andruetto prefaces her narrative, "about how she discovered books and he, the light of day." Young Clara is her laundress mother's delivery service. "DON'T GET DISTRACTED... DON'T LET THE LAUNDRY GET DIRTY," her mother reminds Clara as she sets off carrying a laden basket. At the man's home, she leaves the laundry and collects the payment left under the doormat: "He never goes out. He always stays inside," Clara explains. But one day, pushing the curtain aside, the man engages Clara in brief conversation through the window. He won't explain why he's shut in--yet--but asks if she can read. "My grandmother taught me how," she responds. On her next delivery day, a book appears under the doormat. And then another. And then she's invited inside, where he gifts her with his own story, about when he became "afraid of the light." He instills in Clara his meaning of courage: "being brave enough to live the way you want to, the way you believe." Clare immediately declares: "I'm going to have courage!" Encouraged by her exuberance, the man exits his fortress to hand Clara the book she almost left behind.

Trach sets Andruetto's spare narrative in a rural landscape populated with simple homes (colorful albeit a bit faded), suggesting this is not a land of plenty. The man's impressive house is the area's only multi-story building, so large that Clara's silhouette is minuscule in comparison. The plethora of books throughout the interior suggests the man is likely one of the community's most privileged--and learned. Yet young Clara, in constant motion, with her brown bob, green dress, and red shoes, engenders the man to invite, talk, and share. Trach cleverly underscores the infinite power of books through saturated primary colors--red, blue, and yellow stand out against the dim, neutral colors of their setting. Together, author and artist provide a galvanizing reminder that books are conveyers of immense knowledge, exhilarating enjoyment, and audacious empathy. --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Hans Christian Andersen Award-winning author María Teresa Andruetto turns her mother's memories into a gorgeously inspiring story about books and connection.

The bestselling self-published books last week as compiled by IndieReader.com:

1. Story of My Life by Lucy Score
2. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
3. Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube
4. Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent
5. Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
6. On Being Jewish Now by Zibby Owens
7. Beneath the Hood by Emily McIntire
8. Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon
9. The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
10. Little Stranger by Leigh Rivers

[Many thanks to IndieReader.com!]