Recap the 2024 U.S. Book Show with Smith Publicity

Publishing vs. the Rest of the Industry

It was great to see so many differences between the publishing world and other areas of expertise. For example, publishing and the world in general moved forward with technology post Covid, but at the show I saw a return to simpler forms of communication. I know we use QR codes for our LinkedIn, meanwhile some people were still asking for business cards. Every session someone mentioned, “Just call me. I’d rather you call me than email me. I’ll give you my number.” It’s interesting how even as we’re progressing with technology, there is this return to a simpler form of communication, which really speaks to the energy of the event.

Panel Highlights

We got to see some amazing industry friends in the panels. I love to see the many people who are present: the amplify team, the forefront team, and our ghostwriting friends. We even met some new people… shoutout to my new bookish friend Mia from Penguin Random House. We ended up getting lunch and having a really good chat about the difference between indie and traditional publishing.

My favorite session of the whole day was the Young Publishing Forum, which was structured as a Q&A. There were incredible people from the Young Publishers Association, Triangle House, Locus Magazine, Planeta US, and Simon & Schuster. The first question was, what is it like as a “young” publisher? They immediately corrected this and said, “emerging” publisher, or anyone new to the industry. It’s not about age, rather, experience. Five “publishing years” is about equal to one year in other jobs because of how long it takes to get a book from beginning to end. We also talked a lot about mentorship, building communities, and recognizing emerging publishing professionals and making sure that they feel like they belong.

Learning about Changing Book Trends

During the CEO roundtable, we addressed what they called the elephant in the room, AI in our publishing world. Aman Kochar, CEO of Baker and Taylor, loved the idea of looking at AI, flipping the letters, and calling it “intelligent assistant” instead. I loved this approach. One mentioned was that AI can’t look forward, it only looks back. It can get incredibly smart as it pulls information from the past and makes predictions for the future. However, this will never come with the human characteristics of looking forward WITH creativity, empathy, intuition, and amazing traits that humans have. This was a larger conversation because AI has been frequently brought up within the publishing industry. We’re cautious and setting healthy boundaries around AI, but we aren’t afraid of it. 

Another trending discussion was how previously, bookstores lived for what the publishers were going to send to them; meanwhile now, it’s the other way around. Years ago, you would send your catalog to Barnes and Noble, then they would look at it and buy a good bit of everything. Now we’re thinking “this book is going to get a Barnes and Noble buy, this one we’re going to try to push Target, and this one we’re going to push Bookshop.org.” There’s a different kind of strategy for each title and author. I believe it’s going to continue niching down, and it’s interesting to hear that from that sales distribution perspective, too.

Looking at another hot topic…there was a lot of discussion about digital book buying. Many of the top digital book buyers in the US are K-12 schools. However, our libraries and librarians aren’t going anywhere. Libraries are using a lot of new technology and algorithms to help students with research, and they’re also using social media, book talks, and virtual book clubs. Personally, I use Libby, which is ebooks/audiobooks through libraries. So essentially I have a digital library card where I download audiobooks from my local library… we’re really living in the future. 

Takeaways from the Event

I think there was an overall feeling of support and love. Not only for books and the industry, but also for the authors. I kept hearing how protective each person throughout the process is of the author. We all want the best for them… for example the agents want the best deal and the editor wants the best for their content and ideas. People like us at Smith want them to get publicity. Everyone is always making sure our authors find the right space and are represented respectfully to their target audience. Overall, it wasn’t just books, it was the people who are creating them. The whole day was a bit of an “oh, faith in humanity is restored” moment for me.

About the 2024 U.S. Book Show: Publishers Weekly and the Association of American Literary Agents presented an in-person educational conference for agents, editors, marketers and book publishing professionals for continuing education, discussion of emerging trends, and networking to foster relationships within the publishing community. This year’s conference addressed emerging technologies and the AI landscape, diversity, publisher consolidation and growth opportunities as well as diving into bread-and-butter issues that can affect daily effectiveness and careers. Learn more about the hosts at publishersweekly.com and aalitagents.org.

Discover more about Smith Publicity at www.smithpublicity.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, & LinkedIn.