Joy Bivins and Randy Winston Photo by JD Urban

The fifth annual U.S. Book Show, sponsored by Publishers Weekly, was held on June 3 at the New York Academy of Medicine. The daylong publishing industry conference drew nearly 800 in-person registrants and sponsors and covered a range of bases.

The day opened with a conversation between Joy Bivins, director of New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Randy Winston, creative director of fiction at The Black List. The Schomburg Center is currently marking its centennial—a fitting tie-in to the U.S. Book Show’s focus on how ideas and information are spread, as the Schomburg has served as a world-renowned research library and an archive for the study of African American, African Diasporic, and African history over the past hundred years. The centennial exhibition features a wealth of highlights from the Schomburg’s 11 million–piece collection, centering the Harlem community and the notion of access, noted Bivins: “You don’t need to be a professor to access James Baldwin’s archive—you just need a library card. We try to hammer that home.”

While the Schomburg is looking simultaneously back and toward the center’s future, the rest of the U.S. Book Show was all about contending with pressing current realities in the publishing world—and some conjecture about what may lie ahead. Recurring themes included gathering and working with data, supporting young industry professionals, creative approaches to marketing and social media, the importance of new voices in translation, and, of course, the growing presence and influence of artificial intelligence (AI).

Current events were front and center when Jonathan Karp, CEO of Simon & Schuster, and David Shelley, CEO of Hachette Book Group, got the conversation rolling with PW Editorial Director Jonathan Segura. AI was a touchstone—“It would be lazy and incurious not to be interested in what’s happening” with it, said Karp—as well as the current presidential administration, the recent Fifth Circuit Court decision denying First Amendment protection for libraries, publishing’s continuing commitment to DEI, and the general health of the industry.

CRITICAL CONNECTIONS

CEOs Jonathan Karp and David Shelley in conversation with moderator Jonathan Segura  Photo by JD Urban

The future of publishing isn’t only about tech and politics. Much of the wisdom offered in the “Passing the Torch” panel, which brought together seasoned and new publishing professionals to offer their thoughts to a new generation of employees, put a premium on human connection.

Several panelists encouraged young professionals to find a peer group outside of your company, not just in-house mentors. Other advice: Conflict is OK, and sometimes hearing “no” can be the start of a good conversation. Don’t work too hard to fit yourself into a role or version of yourself that you think you should fill. Think outside tried-and-true publishing formulas. Remember why you got into the business in the first place. And a thought for pretty much everyone: it will get better. Panelists also modeled good support, prioritizing retention; encouraging new hires to offer input into any project; taking the time to learn about what makes employees tick and where their interests lie; and letting them show what they know, including intel on new platforms, up-and-coming voices, and social media.

New voices are crucial to the business both internally and externally, and publishing work in translation is particularly important at a time when cross-cultural understanding is both needed and undervalued—recently, for example, the loss of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Work in translation is deeply important for a diverse ecosystem of publishers and readers alike; it also presents a challenge to today’s vulnerable attention economy. And even when the work in question is not overtly political, agreed the panelists in the “Publishing in Turbulent Times: Why Translated Voices Matter More Than Ever” session, publishing international literature—and getting readers interested in it—is a political act.

Here was one discussion where AI was notably not a subject of receptive curiosity. Used for translation, AI is “not elegant—it’s a blunt tool,” said Tynan Kogane, senior editor at New Directions Publishing. Translation is a process that can’t be shortcut, added Seven Stories Press founder and publisher Dan Simon. “We have the opportunity to be the opposite of all that.”

READING THE NUMBERS

Carly Gorga, Leigh Marchant, and moderator Kristin Fassler discuss The Direct-to-Reader Revolution Photo by JD Urban

In addition to shining a light on the call for sympathy and good will in the field, several discussions centered on the importance of data, and imagining new ways to parse it.

Steve Potash, founder and CEO of OverDrive, dug into ways that Science of Reading data—“Readtelligence”—can mine information on who, when, where, and how long readers are reading to help point growth efforts in the right direction.

Panelists in “The Direct-to-Reader Revolution” echoed Potash’s assertion that data is a critical part of sorting through an increasingly fragmented marketing landscape. Moderator Kristin Fassler, SVP, Director of Marketing Strategy and Engagement at Penguin Random House, posited the shards of glass phenomenon—that media consumers digest content in (at least) a dozen different ways, none of them overlapping, and that marketing efforts need to be accordingly agile. This includes listening to authors, and—yes—social media influencers, who provide a strong, authentic community connection. And while that human factor is primary, AI can be a useful tool for brainstorming, though putting together a functional prompt is admittedly labor-intensive.

There’s data to be found in digital review copy requests and feedback as well, though Jenn Northington, director of marketing and communications for Edelweiss by Above the Treeline, noted that those numbers are not always the whole story. But digital review copies (DRCs) help keep everyone in the conversation— publishers, buyers, and reviewers—and helps build momentum for debuts and events alike.

These may be challenging times for publishing, but “You won’t be bored in this business,” Hachette’s Shelley told the young professionals in the audience. “It keeps on evolving. It’s a privilege that you get to be on this front edge of culture.” As the U.S. Book Show demonstrated over the course of another engaging event, it’s a sentiment that should hold true for everyone in the room.