Sarah J. Maas sales swell Bloomsbury profits as publisher boosts guidance
- Bloomsbury reported its first-half turnover jumped by around a third to £179.8m
- Sarah J. Maas is the author of the Throne of Glass and Crescent City novel series
Bloomsbury Publishing has upgraded its annual outlook after sales of Sarah J. Maas’ fantasy novels doubled in the first half.
The FTSE 250 company’s board had previously expected the group to make £319.3million in revenue and £37.5million in profits before tax and highlighted items in the year to February 2025.
For the six months ending August, the London-listed firm reported turnover jumped by around a third to £179.8million, its best first-half result on record.
Improved outlook: Bloomsbury Publishing has upgraded its annual forecasts after sales of Sarah J. Maas’ fantasy novels doubled
Purchases of books by Maas, who wrote the Throne of Glass series, soared by 102 per cent following the publication of her new Crescent City novel, House of Flame and Shadow.
JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books also continued to sell well, and Bloomsbury predicts an upcoming streaming series based on the anthology will further uplift sales.
A television adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, a science fiction novel series written by Ciu Liuxin, boosted the company’s trade after being released on Netflix in March.
Other strong-selling Bloomsbury books during the recent period included Greekish by Georgina Hayden, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, and How to Eat 30 Plants a Week by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
A bumper result by its consumer division offset more subdued trade in the academic and professional sector, which the group attributed to ‘budgetary pressures’ across the UK and US.
Many educational institutions in the former market have been hit financially by the introduction of new rules barring most overseas students from bringing dependents to the UK.
In the latter, declining male enrollment, partly due to rising wages and living costs, has put pressure on numbers at small and mid-sized establishments.
However, the acquisition of academic publisher Rowman & Littlefield helped revenue at Bloomsbury’s non-consumer arm expand by 3 per cent to £48.5million.
The FTSE 250 business recorded its fifth successive double-digit percentage sales growth in the first half, while pre-tax profits climbed by 58 per cent to £22.1million.
Iain Daly, executive director at broker H2Radnor, said: ‘The portfolio effect within the group has seen momentum within consumer maintained and more than offsetting a challenging budgetary environment within the academic market.’
Following this, Bloomsbury Publishing shares rose 9.1 per cent to £7.44 by midday, making them one of the FTSE All-Share Index’s top performers on Wednesday.
Since the trading period ended, Bloomsbury has released more bestsellers, such as Henry V by Dan Jones, Want by actress Gillian Anderson, and Seriously British: A Frenchman’s love letter to Britain by Fred Sirieix.
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