“I look at something like John Green’s Fault in Our Stars, which is clearly aimed at teenagers, and we sold a million copies last year and it was the biggest book across the industry. Weldon name-checks John Green, whose novel Fault in Our Stars became an international bestseller after the film adaptation was released in June. He no longer thinks of his competition only as book publishers: “We are competing against global digital platforms and broader media and entertainment brands.” While Penguin Random House’s children’s sales have grown, Weldon admits that the competition to “capture the attention of a kid on the smartphone has never been more intense”. He adds: “What I’m more worried about is publishers tend to be lemmings – and everybody throws themselves into a market that is successful and then destroys it.” “I hadn’t seen other industries work with YouTube stars better than book publishers – I think we’ve done it probably quicker than music, film or even traditional television.” “I don’t think we were that slow,” says Weldon. The upturn is, at least in part, owed to the success of books by internet stars, such as Sugg, who see their relationship with their online fans as sacrosanct.Īfter the runaway success of Deyes’s Pointless Book, Penguin Random House rushed to publish YouTubers, but some critics have accused the book world of turning up late to the virtual party.
I'm more worried everybody throws themselves into a market that is successful and then destroys it Tom Weldon, Penguin Random House UKĪs the media world struggles to hold the attention of – let alone sell to – millennials and despite several surveys indicating the number of children reading for pleasure is falling, Penguin Random House’s children’s and young adult sales rose last year by 8%. Weldon steered the UK divisions of Penguin and Random House, two of the biggest players of the trade publishing world, through their merger in July 2013. If you go on Amazon there are over 500 five star reviews. There was a backlash from a lot of traditional journalists in traditional media. Weldon, speaking in March ahead of his appearance at the Changing Media Summit, suggests the furore was concocted by the old media guard: “There wasn’t a backlash from her fans. “Zoe was clear from the beginning and still is that it was going to be a creative collaboration.” “I think the creative process behind lots of books is quite complex and this book was like that,” says Penguin Random House UK’s chief exec Tom Weldon, commenting publicly on the situation for the first time.
But that did little to assuage the wrath of online commenters, which drove her to briefly depart from the web. Sugg reminded her fans and critics that when the book was first announced, she had said she wouldn’t be working alone. YouTube star Zoe Sugg, aka Zoella, at the launch party for her book Girl Online.
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