The U.S. Book Show, presented by Publishers Weekly—this year in collaboration with the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA)—held its fourth annual event on May 22. The conference, which launched as a virtual symposium in 2021 to replace the defunct BookExpo America, offered a day of industry-centered conversation for publishing professionals, agents, editors, marketers, and authors.

While previous U.S. Book Shows have featured library-specific tracks, this year’s conference focused largely on trade publishing and its adjacencies. But there was plenty to take away for those who work with any aspect of print, ebooks, and e-audio, and some illuminating glimpses into the less visible sides of the industry.

The show opened with a roundtable of publishing CEOs: Jonathan Karp of Simon & Schuster, Aman Kochar of Baker & Taylor, Mary McAveney of Abrams, and Peter Warwick of Scholastic, moderated by Lucia Rahilly, global editorial director of McKinsey & Co. All agreed that the industry is in a period of rapid change, but is also seeing a range of innovation, from literacy initiatives in children’s publishing to an increasing emphasis on diverse titles to an uptick in independent publishers and authors finding their way to consumers, which is “heartening for the whole industry,” McAveney said.

Nevertheless, they noted, serious concerns abound. These include rediscovering what audiences want in the aftermath of the height of the pandemic, ensuring cybersecurity, and making books as affordable as possible. Despite Warwick’s affirmation that “If books weren’t powerful and influential, they wouldn’t be banned—we’ve got to take heart from that,” they concurred that power doesn’t mitigate the very real threat to the field. Kochar made it a point to stress the importance of libraries and the people who staff them, particularly in this time of challenges to the right to read. “Librarians, for all their work, must be protected at all costs,” he said, adding that they are creative content promoters as well as First Amendment defenders. (In a later informational session, OverDrive CEO Steve Potash positioned libraries as “Trusted Influencers,” offering impressive numbers of library visits and checkouts nationwide with no cost to publishers or agents and noting, “Librarians are unbelievable networkers.”)

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) was, as Warwick noted, “the elephant in the room”—although Karp offered that it was more of a cicada, with “lots of buzzing and lots of screwing,” adding, “I thought we got into publishing to put great works of writing out there, but now I’m realizing we’ve also put out great data.”

Later in the day Keith Riegert, CEO of independent publishing companies Ulysses Press and VeloPress Books, noted that this is a critical time for those in the business to get started with—or deepen their understanding of—AI, using proprietary platforms. His examples included letting ChatGPT write a company AI policy, analyze contracts, or create a book press release from an Amazon link; transform stock images with Photoshop; write code; or analyze point of sale data. Addressing the discomfort of many in the room, he noted, “It’s not AI that is going to take your job—it’s somebody using AI that is going to take your job.”

INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE

Whether or not they’ve been created using AI, contracts are a keystone of the business. Jaime Wolf, AALA general counsel and attorney at Pelosi Wolf Spates LLP and Janet Saines-Cardozo, VP, head of contracts at Hachette, took a dive into Current Issues in Contracts and Copyright, discussing issues that included security, the ethical aspects of permissions and deepfakes, morals clauses, and the constant vexations of contract delays.

In “The X Factor,” 37 Ink Publisher Dawn Davis, Little Brown Publisher Sally Kim, Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah, and Aevitas Creative Co-CEO Todd Shuster spoke with moderator Sonali Goel, senior director of talent and development at Macmillan, about the skills they have relied on to stay viable in the business (Reagan Arthur, who had been let go by Knopf two days before, bowed out). Panelists identified their super skills—rather than soft skills—that included active listening and initiative (Shuster), observing the best in others and intuition (Davis), authenticity (Kim), and agility and transparency (Raccah). When it comes to their teams, they looked for people who set high standards for themselves, different perspectives, an interest in learning, and kindness. And for those looking for work or going through a company reorg, they advised thinking cross-functionally—selling your entire skill set, and whatever it is that makes you distinctive. One boss she had, said Kim, liked to hire people who had waited tables.

Other panels covered strategies to make publishing more accessible and the barriers that they need to push back against, the behind-the-scenes dance of the editor-agent relationship, the role of sales directors in launching new titles, how auctions work, and the intricacies of book-to-screen adaptation. And in the closing keynote, in a nod to the earlier-career audience members, Vivian Tu, author of Rich AF, talked about financial solvency strategies with Adrian Zackheim, founder and publisher of Penguin Books imprints Portfolio and Sentinel.

Taken all together, the conference offerings painted a portrait of a profession that is simultaneously in flux and optimistic about what its future holds. Like libraries, publishing is contending with the encroachment of wild cards such as AI, censorship battles, supply chain snags, and consumers who are rapidly redefining their reading habits. And, like libraries, Kochar pointed out in the day’s first panel, the business’s goal is not only its own solvency and sustainability but the creation of lifelong learners: “Like running is good for cardio health,” he said, “reading and literacy are good for mental health.”