Random House enjoyed record half-year revenues and operating results, according to parent company Bertelsmann. Revenues grew to €947m ($1.19bn, or £752m), up from €787m during the same period in 2011, and the company’s press release announcing the news (PDF) makes specific mention of Fifty Shades of Grey, which sold more than 30m copies between March and June.
In the US, Random House got 155 titles onto the New York Times bestseller lists, including books by established literary superstars John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and, er, Dr. Seuss. But it’s Fifty Shades of Grey that really pushed profits up, and Random House notes that sales of the E.L. James trilogy were more or less evenly divided between print and ebook editions.
We’re constantly reminded of how traditional publishers are struggling to survive in the digital era, but Random House seems to be doing okay. They swooped in, picked up a popular self-published title, and rode the publicity wave all the way to the bank. It’s tempting to say that contrary to popular opinion, things have never been better for the big publishers: instead of having to guess which books by new authors will sell, they can wait for the market to show them the answer. But imagine how much bigger the company’s profits would have been without all those book pirates…
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