One of the featured panels at this year's London Book Fair paired David Shelley and James Daunt, two executives that each run powerful companies on both sides of the Atlantic, with Shelley serving as CEO of Hachette Book Group in the U.S. and Hachette UK, and Daunt as CEO of Barnes & Noble and managing director of Waterstones.
Asked to identify bright spots in the book world by event chair Alex Peake-Tomkinson, Daunt said that he was "reasonably optimistic" and that "the core business is very strong." This was partly driven, he said, by a wave of BookTok-inspired youngsters: "The kids are in the stores—we are full of young adults, and that's bringing energy to our stores. And given everything else that is going on, we have real sales momentum."
Shelley too was "pretty cheerful." Again, this was partly due to the benign influence of TikTok, where "books are one of the main areas of discussion, and it's physical books that they are talking about," he said. "There has been a surge of interest from 14-25 [year olds] and books are propelled by that." Shelley added: "When I need to cheer myself up, even as a 48 year old, I find it genuinely exciting to see the enthusiasm for books on TikTok."
Another reason that Shelley was optimistic is the success of what he called "the quasi-academic nonfiction market," and he summarized the overall book market as "very stable on both sides of the Atlantic."
Daunt, who is not on TikTok, said one difference between the U.K. and U.S. markets was that Americans bought more hardcovers, and at higher prices. When Peake-Tomkinson asked why that is, Daunt deadpanned, "Because they are richer," to laughter from the audience. His business was "steady as she goes" in the U.K., but in the U.S., B&N "was opening far more stores, building more energy."
Asked to name one thing that stood out in the last year and that they were proud of, Shelley pointed to Hachette's network of regional offices in the U.K., which now employs more than 200 people. "The kind of books, of people, that we are getting through that is really adding to our business," he said. "Not being so exclusively London-based has been a real benefit. New York and London are a bit of an echo chamber, and getting out is one of the best things you can do."
Asked to pick out a hot trend in the market, Shelley opted for the self-help/personal development area ("what we used to call MBS [mind body spirit]") that is all about "helping people cope with modern life." With digital-powered change happening at a rapid pace across society, "there is a lot coming at people," he said, and readers are reacting to that. "Books do well because they serve a purpose that no other media can: a book can take you deeper in than a podcast or an article on the internet."
As for trends in fiction, Shelley picked out escapism—perhaps not unrelated to the aforementioned pressures of modern life—particularly emphasizing the popularity of romance. Daunt backed this up, adding that he was bringing in a new "book of the month" to cover the category.
Both men have transatlantic jobs—what are the highlights? For Daunt, it has been about empowering local stores in the U.S. to get on with bookselling, keeping head office interference down to a minimum, following the model he successfully pioneered in the U.K. For Shelley, the joy is in matchmaking, uncovering pockets of excellence on one side of the pond—in marketing, rights, or editorial, for example—and putting them in touch with the right people on the other side.
Asked what he has read recently, Shelley said Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy. During a playoff game, the book was seen on TV being read by Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown on the bench, and sales of the self-published book took off. "This is a bit of plug," confessed Shelley. "We have just bought the rights." Daunt observed that that instant surge in sales of the book was entirely driven by Amazon and print-on-demand, and that "we're mainly buying when the book has taken off."
Inevitably, AI was on the agenda. Daunt said that booksellers were "innately hostile" to AI, even to the extent of complaining about AI-generated covers. Shelley was of the view that it was all about the legislation governing AI, which would determine whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. Defense of copyright was key, he said: "without copyright we wouldn't have a business.... In my career there has never been a time when public affairs weren't more important. At the moment, it is a Wild West. If there are good laws, it will be an opportunity, but if there is bad legislation, there will be challenges and dangers." He also observed that AI could be beneficial "if it gets more books into more readers' hands," such as through gains in business efficiency.
Overall, Daunt said that to be involved in bookselling when it was on one of its periodic upswings was "hugely energizing," and that one of the most fulfilling things was to take "good books from unknown authors and turn them into bestsellers—something chains can do," although the U.S. side was still less good at this.
Two things Shelley was excited about were Hachette's Raising Readers initiative—to support children's reading ("there is nothing more satisfying that converting someone to reading")—and a proof he was reading, of a campus novel called Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian, to be published by Little, Brown on August 12.
