The Red in the Black

I've just received a press release from Janey Tannenbaum, the director of marketing, saying that sales in 2006 were up 59% over the previous year, with profits at $394k.

According to a memo from Giles O'Bryen, the press's managing director:

Sales and margin have come from every area of the operation, with the Radical Thinkers series helping to revitalise our backlist, and the frontlist performing strongly across the board. We have made a good start to 2007 -- with Sara Paretsky's memoir Writing in an Age of Silence and Mike Davis Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb selling particularly well -- and have plenty to look forward to in the coming season, including a spectacular book of Radiohead artwork, Dead Children Playing, and a graphic biography of Che Guevara, which is already earning handsome sums in foreign rights sales. 2007 is primarily a year of consolidation and preparation for our fortieth anniversary in 2008, which will give us a great opportunity to take sales up above the $6 million mark.

As a friend who has published with Verso puts it, this is a "man bites dog" story.