Canongate's sales read well

CANONGATE Books, the Edinburgh-based book publisher, said it was enjoying a good year so far with a number of its titles selling well.

The firm said it had invested in staff and new titles in 2007, which had helped its performance in the year to date.

The comments came within a new report posted at Companies House detailing its financial performance in the year to December 31, 2007. It said the year was "lacklustre", with pre-tax profits falling to £271,000, from £683,000 in 2006.

But the current year has been helped by its first book to feature in the Richard and Judy selection, Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which has already sold more than 250,000 copies.

It also has the UK rights to two Barack Obama books.