Writers unblocked
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-11 11:36 With offices in 15 countries, Penguin publishes about 4,000 titles each year.
Its sales rose 1 per cent to US$1.4 billion last year, with operating profit
rising 4 per cent year-on-year to US$102 million.
The publisher continues its new imprint strategy and received strong
contribution from new imprints and first-time authors last year. It published
more than 150 new authors in the United States and about 250 worldwide last
year, which is its largest ever investment in new talent.
"Any publishing company must have a balance between the back list and the
front list," Makinson says.
The back list mainly includes low risk ones such as the Penguin Classics and
the front list refers to new authors.
"You always try to get that balance right between having authors like George
Orwell that you know can sell every year and being able to take some risks on
new writers," Makinson says.
"One of the advantages of large companies like ourselves is that we can
afford to take a bet on a new talent because we can distribute that risk across
such a large business base," he adds.
(China Daily 09/11/2006 page12)
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
|
