Businesses

Activity during the past year

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France

In literature, 2007 was marked by the expected slowdown of the Dan Brown phenomenon at publishing house JC Lattès, which was offset by Stock’s success with Une Vie by Simone Veil and Le Rapport de Brodeck by Philippe Claudel (which won the Goncourt des Lycéens, a literary prize awarded by a panel of 15- to 18-year-olds).

The publisher also won the Novel prize awarded by the Académie Française for Ap J.C. by Vassilis Alexakis, while Grasset won this year’s Médicis Essay prize for Joan Didion’s L’Année de la Pensée Magique (The Year of Magical Thinking). There were also notable successes at Fayard, while Le Livre de Poche registered a second year of growth thanks to the success of several new releases, particularly Un Secret by Philippe Grimbert.

In education, Hachette Education and the Hatier Group recorded very positive results in a growing textbook market, particularly in the primary- and secondary-school segments.
Hachette International delivered 3.8 million copies of a French textbook for use by second- and third-year primary-school pupils in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hachette Illustré had a very good year in the fast-growing practical-book segment thanks to notable successes at Marabout and Hachette Pratique. It was also a fine year for the youth segment thanks to the performance of standard-format fiction and revenues from licences, particularly Charlotte aux Fraises (Strawberry Shortcake) and Disney Jeunesse’s success with Ratatouille. The tourism segment experienced renewed growth with the rising popularity of short-trip collections.
The reference book & dictionary segment experienced very significant improvement in sales this year despite an anticipated drop in its activity levels. The 2008 edition of the Petit Larousse Illustré enjoyed a resounding success. Also noteworthy was the successful distribution of the entire print run of the Grand Larousse Gastronomique, re-issued for the first time in 15 years in an updated, modernized format.

 
 In the academic and professional market, Armand Colin had a good year in the general-public and competitive-examination segments, while Dunod stabilized its sales due to the fact that the declining market for academic works was offset by growth in the professional segments. In distribution, 2007 stood out for the successful integration on 1 January of the academic publishers (i.e. Dunod and Armand Colin, formerly Editis), which resulted in the assimilation of 10,000 additional titles and the transfer of an inventory of six million copies at Hachette Livre. Furthermore, a mail-order sales operation was set up for books on behalf of such publishers as Masson and Dalloz.

Great Britain

In literature, Hachette Livre UK strengthened its leading position thanks to numerous non-fiction bestsellers, including My Booky Wook by Russell Brand (Hodder Headline), On the Edge by Richard Hammond (Orion) and Long Way Down by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman (Little, Brown). In the fiction category, Hodder Headline had a very good year for novels thanks to The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld, which sold a million copies after its selection by Channel Four’s Richard and Judy book review show. Martina Cole experienced her usual success with Faces, and thanks to Exit Music by Ian Rankin (Orion) and Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell (Little, Brown), Hachette Livre UK earned 19 spots on the Sunday Times bestseller list of 2 December.

In the education segment, 2007 saw a decline in the textbook market in the absence of reforms and just prior to A levels and KS3 programme changes beginning in 2008.
In the illustrated book market, Octopus’s operating results improved in spite of a decrease in sales against 2006, thanks in particular to export sales of co-editions in foreign languages and for the US market.
Business in Australia was strong again in 2007 with the successful integration of Little, Brown and Orion into marketing and distribution channels.

Spain and Latin America

In education, Anaya put in a fine performance, particularly at the nursery-school and secondary-school levels due to the reform of levels 1 and 3, while primary-school sales declined after the implementation of a free textbook policy in Andalusia in 2006. Bruño’s sales increased at secondary-school level.
In general publishing, Anaya and Bruño both had good years, particularly in the computing segment for Anaya and thanks to the publication of Asterix and His Friends for Bruño.
In Mexico Larousse had mixed results for the year, with healthy growth in trade books but a decline in schoolbooks.

The United States

Hachette Book Group USA had a record year in both the adult and youth segments. The former benefited from five new titles by James Patterson (Little, Brown) and the success of I Am America by Stephen Colbert (Grand Central), while the latter was bolstered by the launch of the third volume of Stephenie Meyer’s Eclipse saga. As a result of these successes and those of books by David Baldacci, Anita Shreeve, Nicholas Sparks and a number of lesser-known authors, Hachette Book Group USA had no fewer than 82 titles on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list in 2007. Hachette Book Group USA also signed contracts with Ted Kennedy for his memoirs as well as with Tom Wolfe for his next novel (slated for release in 2009).

The serial-book market

2007 saw renewed growth despite the decline in backlist sales in mature countries, offset by the strong development of new titles in Italy and the United Kingdom as well as the growth of the German, Japanese and Latin America markets, where the strategy of duplicating the biggest European successes continued to bear fruit and acted as a significant catalyst for growth.

Leading positions

• Number 1 in France, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
• Number 2 in Spain.
• Number 5 in the United States.
• Number 1 in France in the practical-book segment with Hachette Pratique and Marabout number 1in the travel-guide segment with Hachette Tourisme and Le Routard.