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Berrett-Koehler Shareholder’s Meeting Annual Event To Take Place in San Francisco in June 2013
The annual Berrett-Koehler Shareholders Meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 18th, 2013, from noon (beginning with lunch) to 4:30 pm in San Francisco. All BK shareholders are invited to attend. This meeting is famous for being one of the most informative events of the year, not just about BK but also about the book publishing industry in general.
BK’s major strategic planning event will be the following two days, June 19th and 20th, in San Francisco. Like previous strategic planning events in 2000 and 2008, this will be a highly participative, whole-systems event that involves all of BK’s stakeholder groups, including shareholders, authors, customers, service providers, and others. In a few weeks, we will extend a limited number of invitations to participate in this event.
2012 was another tremendous year for Berrett-Koehler. Total revenues increased by 9 percent, setting a new BK high point. Profits were also strong, and 2012 was our tenth profitable year in a row. Financial statements will be distributed to shareholders after our independent audit is completed.
Just as was the case in 2011, Berrett-Koehler substantially outperformed the publishing industry as a whole in 2012. According to BookScan (which tracks more than 75% of print book sales in the U.S.), adult nonfiction U.S. print book sales fell by 13% in 2012 (Publishers Weekly, January 4, 2013). Once again, BK defied this industry trend of declining print sales by holding our print sales even with the prior year. Also,BK’s digital revenues increased by 64% in 2012, far above the 36% increase reported in the most recent industry figures for digital book sales (the Association of American Publishers’ report for the first nine months of 2012, as cited in Publishers Weekly, January 25, 2013). Finally, BK’s subsidiary rights income (for translation rights sales, audio rights sales, and other rights) increased by 9% in 2012 and again accounted for more than 10% of our total revenues. The only comparable industry rights data I have seen was a PubWest report (October 26, 2011) showing that the publishers surveyed received only 4.5% of their revenues from subsidiary rights. Berrett-Koehler’s performance in this area continues to be extraordinary – and evidence that BK’s translation rights team is, as I tell everyone, world class and a powerhouse.
Prospects look good for 2013. This is partly because in 2013 we are publishing new books or new editions by over 20 top-notch BK authors, almost all of whom have published previous bestselling books with Berrett-Koehler. These authors include: Marilee Adams, Chip Bell, Peter Block, Juana Bordas, Kim Cameron, Fritjof Capra, Thomas Chermack, Jennifer Kahnweiler, Judith Katz, Richard Leider, Fred Miller, Mark Miller, Henry Mintzberg, Paul Polak, Otto Scharmer, Edgar Schein, Jamie Showkeir, Maren Showkeir, Michael Song, Richard Swanson, and Mal Warwick. We are also publishing in 2013 a similar number of books by authors who are new to Berrett-Koehler, and many of these books have strong sales potential as well.
One of the secrets of BK’s success has been the fact that so many top authors keep returning to Berrett-Koehler again and again to publish their books. In fact, with our 2013 publications, over 100 authors will have published multiple books with Berrett-Koehler. We consider this to be a strong vote of confidence in Berrett-Koehler and an indication of the partnering, author-friendly ways in which we work with authors.
Thank you for your support of Berrett-Koehler.
